Popular Companies
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Fiction House
A pulp magazine and comic book publisher in the Golden Age of Comics.
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DC Comics
Originally known as "National Publications", DC is a publisher of comic books featuring iconic characters and teams such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans, and is considered the originator of the American superhero genre. DC, along with rival Marvel Comics, is one of the "big two" American comic book publishers. DC Entertainment is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers and its parent company Warner Media.
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Quality Comics
American publisher, started in part by Will Eisner, and famous as the home of Plastic Man, Blackhawks, The Spirit and others.
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Fox Comics (US)
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Marvel
Formerly known by names including "Atlas" and "Timely", Marvel Entertainment is the publisher of comic books featuring iconic characters and teams such as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America and Daredevil. Currently owned by the Walt Disney Company, Marvel is one of the "Big Two" comic publishers along with DC Comics.
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Ace Magazines
Ace Magazines was a Golden Age comic book publisher
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Fawcett Publications
Fawcett is best known as being the publisher that created Captain Marvel, who eclipsed Superman in sales during the Golden age. Eventually sued and forced out of business by litigious competitor DC, they ceased publishing in the early 1950s. DC and others have since revived some of Fawcett's bigger stars.
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EC
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, most notably the Tales from the Crypt series, until censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the seminal humor magazine Mad, which became a major popular culture institution. The publishing company was privately owned by Maxwell Gaines and later, during its period of notoriet
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Sergio Bonelli Editore
Italian leading comic publisher, founded in 1940 by comics author Gian Luigi Bonelli.
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Archie Comics
Archie Comics are the publishers of the Riverdale Gang's adventures as well as Sonic.
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Charlton
Charlton Comics entered the comic-book business as a way to keep busy the expensive presses they used to publish magazines. As one may imagine, this meant they weren't too critical of the quality of their output. Charlton owned several characters that were later acquired by DC Comics after the company folded.
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Western Publishing
Gold Key was known as Western Publishing. They dissolved their partnership with Dell and created their own stable of characters.
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Atlas Comics
Atlas/Seaboard Comics 1974 - 1975 Atlas Original 2012 - present
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First
Now back in business, First Comics has had a re-launch and is now coming out with new creator owned titles and is being led again by Ken F. Levin.
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AC Comics
AC Comics is a comic book publishing company that was founded by Bill Black in 1969, it publishes Femforce, one of the first all-female teams in the comic book world.
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Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is one of the largest independent comic book publishers, best known for Hellboy and various Star Wars titles.
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Fleetway
British publisher, previously known as Amalgamated Press.
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Viz
Producing manga such as Naruto and Dragon Ball, Viz is bringing manga to the western world. Many of its comics can also be found as anime television series.
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Malibu
A publisher bought out by Marvel in 1994.
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Disney
Walt Disney's legacy.
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Valiant/Acclaim
Valiant Comics began as an imprint of Voyager Communications, established in 1989 in part by former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. It was discontinued in 1996 after being bought out by Acclaim Entertainment. After Acclaim closed its doors in 2004, the publisher was revived as Valiant Entertainment and has been publishing new material since May 2012.
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Antarctic Press
Antarctic Press is a Texas-based comic book publishing company which focuses on "American Manga" stylized comic books as well producing "how-to" and "you-can" comics, instructing readers on the many areas of comic book creation and craft.
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Image
Image Comics was founded in 1992 by a group of high-profile comic book writers and artists, as a way to publish stories owned by creators rather than the company itself. They are now one of the largest comic book publishers in the United States.
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Topps Comics
Topps Comics is a division of the American trading card publisher and gum/candy distributor the Topps Company, Inc. that published comic books from 1993–1998.
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Creator-Owned
In terms of quantity, it is much more common for characters to be creator-owned (or company-licensed) than owned by their publisher. However, in comics two of the biggest publishers worldwide (DC and Marvel) traditionally own all their characters. This page is meant to help distinguish characters that are owned by the creator from those owned by the publisher in cases where it's not immediately obvious.
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Heavy Metal
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Semic/Nordisk Forlag AS
Norwegian publisher.
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London Night Studios
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Verotik
Verotik is a comics company established by punk rocker Glenn Danzig.
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Top Cow Productions
Top Cow Productions (a comic book publisher partnered with Image Comics) is best known for titles such as Cyberforce, The Darkness, and Witchblade.
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Eurotica
NBM imprint.
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WildStorm Productions
WildStorm Productions was a founding studio at Image Comics before becoming an imprint of DC Comics in 1999. It started in 1992 by a team of comic creators - Jim Lee chiefly among them. It closed in 2010.
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Avatar Press
Avatar Press is a company known for publishing creator-owned works, initially being more about "BAD GIRL" characters, they have since drifted over to becoming a home for several big name writers in the industry to share their untold stories.
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Tokuma Comics
Minor American publisher related to the much larger Tokuma Shoten.
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Amerotica
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Eros Comix
A Fantagraphics imprint established in 1990 that publishes adult comics.
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Aircel Publishing
Canadian Imprint of independent publisher Malibu
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Crossgen
Formerly an independent comic company of the early 2000's, as of 2011 it is now publishing new material as a Marvel imprint.
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Oakla Shuppan
Japanese publisher.
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IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing (Idea Design Works, LLC) is a comic book publisher known for Steve Niles’ horror title 30 Days of Night. It has grown to include both original series as well as licensed property.
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Dynamite Entertainment
Indy publisher founded in 2005 of such comics as Red Sonja, Project SuperPowers, The Boys and Army of Darkness. Many of their titles are adaptations or revivals of prevously existing properties
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Aspen MLT
Aspen MLT was founded in California by Michael Turner in 2003.
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Devil's Due
Devil's Due Publishing was formed in 1999 as a comic book imprint within Image comics before breaking away in 2003.
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Chaos! Comics
Now an imprint of DYNAMITE COMICS, Chaos! was originally a company co-owned by Brian Pulido and the late Steven Hughes. The writer and artist pair began publishing their cult-favorite Evil Ernie & Lady Death in the early 90's and ran independently until about 2003.
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