Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics, Inc., and later as National Comics and as National Periodical Publications, before taking on its current name of DC Comics. Its original incarnation ran from 1938 to 2011 and stands as one of the longest-running comic books with consecutively numbered issues. A second volume of Action Comics with issue #1 ran from 2011 to 2016. A third volume of Action Comics was launched in June 2016, with the series returning to its original numbering beginning with issue #957.