X

Inside the halls of DC Comics (photos)

On a recent trip to New York, CNET Senior Editor Seth Rosenblatt got a rare tour of the real home of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman: 1700 Broadway in midtown Manhattan. Here's some of what he saw.

Seth Rosenblatt
Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt covered Google and security for CNET News, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Formerly a CNET Reviews senior editor for software, he has written about nearly every category of software and app available.
Seth Rosenblatt
2012-DC-Comics-entry-mural.jpg
1 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Metropolis mural

When you step off the elevator on the seventh floor of 1700 Broadway, you know instantly you're not in just any old midtown Manhattan office building. At DC Comics' headquarters, you're greeted with a wall-size mural of the Metropolis skyline, the fictional reflection of New York City in the Superman comics.

Getting a camera inside DC Comics is no mean feat, since photos can potentially reveal sensitive storyline information, but Crave managed to get a good look around during a recent visit.
2012-DC-Comics-Kent-statue.jpg
2 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Clark Kent awaits

As in many offices, people wait in the reception area of DC Comics. One of them happens to be a life-size Clark Kent, complete with press pass and notebook.
2012-DC-Comics-Batman-statue.jpg
3 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Dark Knight

The other is the Dark Knight himself, obviously in town to pick up his monthly royalty check. Notably missing is Wonder Woman, the third character that DC promotes as part of its "holy trinity." Maybe she's present in her invisible plane, though.
2012-DC-Comics-Superman-poster.jpg
4 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Stages of art

On each of the three floors taken up by DC Comics, the elevators open onto a different mural. This one shows the stages involved in the making of a comic-art page. It starts with the script from a recent issue of Action Comics. Then come the unvarnished pencils, then the inked pencils, then the colored version of the art. Finally, the word balloons and captions are added.
2012-DC-Comics-character-mural.jpg
5 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Who drew what?

On DC's third floor, the elevators open onto a massive mural that's only partially pictured here. It shows all the major and many of the minor characters in DC's pantheon, each drawn by a different artist, with the artist's signature floating above.

The signatures are not located directly above the character a given artist drew, so the mural becomes an interactive game that lets you test your knowledge of comic art. A guide to the right of the mural reveals who drew which character.
2012-DC-Comics-Superman-Ali.jpg
6 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Muhammed Ali vs. Superman

Once past reception, the walls of the office are plastered with memorabilia from the company's history, including this poster reprinting the cover of 1978's Muhammed Ali versus Superman comic.
2012-DC-Comics-Superman-pinball.jpg
7 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Superman pinball

Other memorabilia includes classic items like this Superman pinball machine. As part of the strict rules about what could and couldn't be photographed, collectibles that carried the likenesses of actors playing the characters -- such as a Batman movie pinball machine depicting Michael Keaton -- were verboten.
2012-DC-Comics-Mad-6.jpg
8 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Mad memorabilia

Pictured is part of a glass case of Mad Magazine memorabilia, near the Mad editors' offices. Mad Magazine was bought in the 1960s by the conglomerate that eventually became Time Warner, and it was folded into the DC Comics editorial structure in 1992 after co-founder and publisher Bill Gaines died.

Sam Viviano, Mad's art director for the past decade, had fewer concerns about photos being snapped than others at DC. That might have something to do with the fact that Mad is often in hot water for its satire, so how much more damage could one more roaming reporter with a camera do?

You're looking at the much-vaunted "What, me worry?" Alfred E. Neuman attitude in action.
2012-DC-Comics-Mad-1.jpg
9 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Al Jaffee painting

Here, Mad Art Director Sam Viviano shows off an original painting by Al Jaffee for one of the magazine's back-page Fold-Ins.
2012-DC-Comics-Mad-3.jpg
10 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Art from 1955

This page of original art was drawn in 1955 by Jack Davis for Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman, who rejected it for unknown reasons, Viviano said. It was meant to accompany "A Guide to Better Understanding the Fine Old Art of Boxing," a rare story written by Fold-In creator and artist Al Jaffee. Instead of patching over the change and redrawing the correction, Davis redrew the entire piece. It appeared in Mad's issue 26 in November 1955, only the third issue of Mad in magazine form.

Somehow, it missed the many Mad art auctions that were held over the years, and remained in the DC/Mad flat-file archives to show nosy visitors.
2012-DC-Comics-Mad-2.jpg
11 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Vintage posterboard

Viviano explained that 1950s-era artists had their tricks. One was using posterboard that had been treated with special chemicals by the paper manufacturer. When another chemical, also sold by the same company, was applied to it, that created a cross-hatch pattern. The artist could use this to create instant shading, the kind that's often achieved on computers these days.
2012-DC-Comics-Mad-5.jpg
12 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

This month's Fold-In

Here, Viviano shows off this month's Fold-In from Jaffee, which asks the question, "What's the only unavailable on the Internet?"
2012-DC-Comics-Mad-4.jpg
13 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Spy silhouettes

In the Mad Magazine section of the DC offices, the archives are hidden behind silhouettes of the classic Spy vs. Spy characters.
2012-DC-Comics-bizarro.jpg
14 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Groening cover

Ancient comics aren't the only things gracing the walls at DC. This framed cover from "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening depicts his take on Superman's backward-speaking nemesis, Bizarro.
2012-DC-Comics-new-comics.jpg
15 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Rack of comics

In the office of DC's now-former public-relations director David Hyde, a rack shows all the comics the company published that week. (Hyde quit after 10 years on the job between when this gallery was shot and when it was published.)
2012-DC-Comics-Swamp-Thing-book.jpg
16 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Shelf of fun

On another shelf in Hyde's office are graphic-novel collections of some of DC's best-known comics, like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, and action figures depicting characters like The Creeper, Black Lightning, and a vampire Batman.
2012-DC-Comics-Death-Aquaman-toys.jpg
17 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

More action figures

Action figures of Death, The Sandman, and Aquaman. This is likely the only time you'll find them in the same shot, thanks to Hyde's sense of mise-en-scene.
2012-DC-Comics-conference-room.jpg
18 of 18 Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Superman in the conference room

While many conference rooms at tech companies are cleverly named and decorated, the main DC conference room is quite austere. Except for the giant Superman logo etched in the glass, of course.

More Galleries

My Favorite Shots From the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Camera
A houseplant

My Favorite Shots From the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Camera

20 Photos
Honor's Magic V2 Foldable Is Lighter Than Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra
magic-v2-2024-foldable-1383

Honor's Magic V2 Foldable Is Lighter Than Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra

10 Photos
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus Looks Sweet in Aluminum
Samsung Galaxy S24

The Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus Looks Sweet in Aluminum

23 Photos
Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra Now Has a Titanium Design
The Galaxy S24 Ultra in multiple colors

Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra Now Has a Titanium Design

23 Photos
I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites
img-0368.jpg

I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

34 Photos
17 Hidden iOS 17 Features You Should Definitely Know About
Invitation for the Apple September iPhone 15 event

17 Hidden iOS 17 Features You Should Definitely Know About

18 Photos
AI or Not AI: Can You Spot the Real Photos?
img-1599-2.jpg

AI or Not AI: Can You Spot the Real Photos?

17 Photos