<P> A 1966 Batman TV show on the ABC network sparked a temporary spike in comic book sales, and a brief fad for superheroes in Saturday morning animation (Filmation created most of DC's initial cartoons) and other media . DC significantly lightened the tone of many DC comics--particularly Batman and Detective Comics--to better complement the "camp" tone of the TV series . This tone coincided with the famous "Go - Go Checks" checkerboard cover - dress which featured a black - and - white checkerboard strip (all DC books cover dated February 1966 until August 1967) at the top of each comic, a misguided attempt by then - managing editor Irwin Donenfeld to make DC's output "stand out on the newsracks". </P> <P> In 1967, Batman artist Infantino (who had designed popular Silver Age characters Batgirl and the Phantom Stranger) rose from art director to become DC's editorial director . With the growing popularity of upstart rival Marvel Comics threatening to topple DC from its longtime number - one position in the comics industry, he attempted to infuse the company with more focus towards marketing new and existing titles and characters with more adult sensibilities towards an emerging older age group of superhero comic book fans that grew out of Marvel's efforts to market their superhero line to college - aged adults . He also recruited major talents such as ex-Marvel artist and Spider - Man co-creator Steve Ditko and promising newcomers Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil and replaced some existing DC editors with artist - editors, including Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano, to give DC's output a more artistic critical eye . </P> <P> In 1967, National Periodical Publications was purchased by Kinney National Company, which later purchased Warner Bros. - Seven Arts and later became Warner Communications in 1972 . </P> <P> In 1970, Jack Kirby moved from Marvel Comics to DC, at the end of the Silver Age of Comics, in which Kirby's contributions to Marvel played a large, integral role . Given carte blanche to write and illustrate his own stories, he created a handful of thematically linked series he called collectively The Fourth World . In the existing series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and in his own, newly launched series New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People, Kirby introduced such enduring characters and concepts as archvillain Darkseid and the otherdimensional realm Apokolips . While sales were respectable, they did not meet DC management's initially high expectations, and also suffered from a lack of comprehension and internal support from Infantino . By 1973 the "Fourth World" was all cancelled, although Kirby's conceptions would soon become integral to the broadening of the DC Universe . Kirby created other series for DC, including Kamandi, about a teenaged boy in a post-apocalyptic world of anthropomorphic talking animals . </P>

When was dc comics bought by warner brothers