MySpace Resurrects Comic Book Staple

Dark Horse Presents will see new life on MySpace.com, as both a way to draw new fans to the art form and a podium for new artists to show off their work.

The online social-networking site MySpace, already a purveyor of videos, music, and even jobs,  announced Friday that comics will be the next site’s next offering. At the annual Comic Con in San Diego, MySpace revealed that Dark Horse Comics would revive its Dark Horse Presents anthology as an online feature for the site.

Originally, Dark Horse Presents ran as a hard copy comic book published between 1986 and 2000. In the comic world, it’s notable for bringing both Frank Miller’s Sin City and Paul Chadwick’s Concrete to popularity. The anthology mainly served as a medium for new comic authors to get their work read by larger audiences.

The new Dark Horse Presents will fill much the same niche, with some additional work from veteran artists thrown in as well. New issues will crop up at the beginning of every month, and Dark Horse editors will comb through MySpace profiles to cull talent for future editions.

Dark Horse’s founder was optimistic about the use of MySpace to distribute comics. “Just over 20 years ago, we published our first comic, Dark Horse Presents #1. Our goal was to bring new and talented creators to the forefront of comics culture, and also to give industry luminaries a chance to retain the rights to their works,” he said in a statement. “Years later, with that same goal in mind, we are reviving this title online, with the help of MySpace.com, whom we feel may be the most culturally relevant website on the net. With their broad cultural significance, and incredibly wide reach, we felt they would be the perfect partner to lead our charge into original online content.”