Publication history of Superman have gone down to his local newsstand and asked a kid, "Why are you reading this one?" pointing to "Action Comics". "Because it's the one that has Superman in it, mister." The revised Superman first appeared in "Action Comics" #1, June 1938. Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the company for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material. The "Saturday Evening Post" reported in 1960 that the pair was being paid $75,000 each per year, still a fraction of DC's Superman profits. In 1964, when Siegel and Shuster sued for more money, DC fired them, prompting
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