Superman of the Übermensch; they never acknowledged as much. Since 1938, Superman stories have been regularly published in periodical comic books published by DC Comics. The first and oldest of these is "Action Comics", which began in April 1938. "Action Comics" was initially an anthology magazine, but it eventually became dedicated to Superman stories. The second oldest periodical is "Superman", which began in June 1939. "Action Comics" and "Superman" have been published without interruption (ignoring changes to the title and numbering scheme). A number of other shorter-lived Superman periodicals have been published over the years. Superman is part of the DC
Superman beyond the comic books. Superman, Inc. merged with DC Comics in October 1946. After DC Comics merged with Warner Communications in 1967, licensing for Superman was handled by the Licensing Corporation of America. The Licensing Letter (an American market research firm) estimated that Superman licensed merchandise made $722 million in sales globally in 2017. 44.7% of this revenue came from the North American market. For comparison, in the same year, Spider-Man merchandise made $1.4 billion and Star Wars merchandise made $2.4 billion globally. The earliest paraphernalia appeared in 1939: a button proclaiming membership in the Supermen of America club. The