Red Circle Comics
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| Parent company | Archie Comics Publications, Inc. |
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| Founded | 2015 (current incarnation) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Pelham, New York |
| Key people | Alex Segura (Senior Vice President of Publicity and Marketing) |
| Publication types | Comics |
| Fiction genres | Superhero fiction |
| Official website | darkcirclecomics |
Dark Circle Comics is an imprint of Archie Comics Publications, Inc.. Under its previous name, Red Circle Comics, it published non-Archie characters, particularly superheroes in the 1970s and 1980s and was a digital imprint from 2012 to 2014. In 2015, it was converted back to a print imprint and was completely revamped as Dark Circle Comics, aimed at an adult readership featuring darker and more mature content than previous incarnations of Archie's superhero line.
The term "Red Circle characters" is also used to refer to Archie Comics' superheroes. These characters were previously published when Archie Comics was MLJ Magazines then published under various Archie imprints: Archie Adventure Series, Mighty Comics Group, Red Circle Comics and Red Circle Comics digital imprint (2012). After a first attempt with the Red Circle characters in the 1990s under Impact Comics, DC Comics also called their Archie/MLJ superheroes line Red Circle, in their attempt to integrate them into the DC Universe from 2007 to 2011. When this failed, the characters reverted to Archie Comics who launched the imprint digitally. They retired this in late 2014 and was relaunched as Dark Circle Comics imprint in 2015.
MLJ's first comic book published in November 1939 was Blue Ribbon Comics with the first half full color and the last half in red and white tints. In January 1940, Pep Comics debuted with the Shield, the first USA patriotic comic book hero, created by writer and managing editor Harry Shorten and artist Irv Novick. Top Notch Comics was launched in December 1941. The cover feature of Pep was the Shield until March 1944, when Archie took over the cover. The Shield was a forerunner of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Captain America, debuting 14 months earlier. MLJ's Golden Age heroes also included the Black Hood, who also appeared in pulp magazines and a radio show; and The Wizard, who shared a title with the Shield.
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