Marvel Comics has an extensive list of characters that have been popular for many years such as the X-Men story, Uncanny X-Men and the X-Force featuring the characters from the The New Mutants led by Cable. The X-men spin-off series of The New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine, Gambit and Dead Pool have long been popular with fans of the X-Men comics.

Spider-Man, is a Marvel Comics superhero who has become one of the world's most popular superheroes. Peter Parker Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Venom, WebSpinners Tales of Spider-Man and Spider-Man Universe, are but a few of the popular various related Spider-Man comics series.

DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic books. Batman, who first appeared in Detective Comics, quickly became a popular character soon after his introduction. Among the many popular Batman comics are the series of Batman Gotham Knights, Batman Legends of Dark Knight, Batman Long Halloween and Batman Shadow of the Bat. Catwoman earned her own series in 1993.

DC Comics other popular series featuring Superman were Superman: The Man of Steel, The Adventures of Superman and Superman in Action Comics to name but a few. The imprint Vertigo Comics was geared to more mature readers with many series in a darker subjects or horror.

Image Comics had established itself after publishing Witchblade, a comic book series by Top Cow Productions. Top Cow was moving into a darker side of fantasy, with new properties like Witchblade and The Darkness. Top Cow is also known for Tales of the Witchblade, Tomb Raider's Lara Croft and Fathom.

Another popular Image Comics character was Spawn by writer/artist Todd McFarlane that first appeared in 1992. Other Spawn comics included series such as Curse of the Spawn, Spawn Dark Ages and Spawn the Impaler. Image Comics published comics that were creator-owned so independent creators would not have to give up the copyrights of their charactors.

Independents or indies have often started with a single comic book character that was self published by the author such as Budd Roots Cavewoman.

These independent publishing houses can often have a series of huge popularity such as Lady Death and Evil Ernie by Chaos Comics. Brainstorm Comics are highly sought after by collectors.

The small publishers usually have small print runs which makes these back issues more rare. Vampirella the vampire of Harris Comics has a solid following.

Knights of the Dinner Table KODT is another perfect example of a comic books series that had very humble beginnings and is very popular with gamers and comic book collectors alike.