A Day at Dark Horse Comics

When Mike Richardson was a kid, he used to walk into the same store in Milwaukee, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, and buy comics off the rack. It was a weekly event, one that many can relate with, and one that began a life-long love of the industry. As an adult, Richardson returned to that exact location and fulfilled a dream when he bought the land to open what would become the headquarters of Dark Horse Comics. It wasn’t quite that simple, there were a few thousand steps along the way- and a few decades in between — but Richardson eventually managed to realize his dream of creating an independent comic book publisher, where artists could be free to create without the fear of losing their properties to a corporate entity.

Birth of a Dark Horse

The result is Dark Horse Comics, a company that has managed to carve out an impressive niche in a world that is dominated by the long tenured heavyweights with deep pockets and big corporate owners: Marvel and DC Comics. And while the Dark Horse name may be at least passingly familiar to people that aren’t into comics, odds are the story of Dark Horse is not. And that is a shame.

Dark Horse first began in 1986 as an offshoot of the Oregon-based comic retail chain, “Things From Another World.” Since then, Dark Horse has grown to become the third-largest comic book publisher in the US, and holds the distinction of being the largest independent comic and manga publisher in America. The company has over 350 properties under the Dark Horse corporate umbrella that includes, among others, Dark Horse Entertainment which is responsible for the movie hits Hellboy and Sin City, to name a few.

No Playground

When you first enter the headquarters of Dark Horse Comics, the first thing you notice is the silence. Not in the monastery sense, just in the contradiction that it illicits from your mind’s eye. Dark Horse is a business — one based in entertainment — but still a business. The offices are filled with very skilled, very talented people there to do a job. They need to be smart, and are constantly forced to find creative ways to keep up with companies like DC that have massive budgets and the benefit of a parent company like Warner Bros. to bank roll them into taking chances that smaller publishers like Dark Horse cannot afford.

This stands in stark contradiction to the images of a Willy Wonka-like playground for comic fans you might expect, with oompa loompa-type guides, walking you over rivers of comics as people swing from harnesses overhead to simulate flight, with a break room that serves as a raucous, Mos-Eisley-like den of inequity, full of comic fans arguing over what physics make Superman fly faster. Obviously that is ridiculous… sadly.

Opening the Door to Adults

But that is the first lesson you need to understand when dealing with Dark Horse, or any companies in the comic industry. There is a preconceived prejudice, inherent in many of us, that refuses to see the comic book industry past the immature goggles that our childhood experiences force upon us. Until recently– you can probably make a good case that the shift began sometime in the 80’s — reading comics was the providence of the young. The industry was slanted that way, and the fanbase accepted it as such, not counting a small niche following. It wasn’t until people like Richardson (and several other visionary writers and editors like Frank Miller, Alan Moore and Matt Wagner to name just a few of dozens) tried to expand the field to include an older, more mature demographic.

Once the door was opened to allow an older, smarter fanbase, the industry began to see massive growth potential into new fields. The acceptance of that simple fact, that comics could be for more than kids, changed everything.

Dark Horse was among the pioneers of that new movement, with titles slanted to a more mature crowd. The flash of the superheroes were replaced by the intelligence of characters like the assassin(s) Grendel, and the soul-searching Concrete. A new avenue for storytelling had begun to take shape, and Dark Horse was among the first to capitalize on it.

Webs of Influence

The comic book industry is one of the most misunderstood industries in the world. In fact, to even say “the comic book industry” is something of a misnomer, as comics are just one part of a company like Dark Horse — the largest and most vital part perhaps — but a part nonetheless. The industry has changed, grown, and even mutated beyond the wildest dreams of its forefathers.

Besides the comics, Dark Horse has expanded into films, television, and the importation and translation of foreign properties. With offices around the world, Dark Horse reaches into foreign markets and exports products like manga and manhwa, comics from Japan and Korea, respectively. To underestimate Dark Horse as a business is to undervalue a global company with far-reaching influence.

If the business of Dark Horse was a spider’s web, the strands would crisscross in dozens of complex and intricate patterns. Licenses with companies like LucasArts for example, allow Dark Horse to write and publish Star Wars and Indiana Jones comics. Another strand of the web would veer off towards video games, which allowed for a Mass Effect, and Fallout: New Vegas collaboration. But right in the center of the web, at its heart, Dark Horse is a business, with talented and well-trained professionals who operate under guidelines that have been proven successful.

From Past to Present

When Dark Horse first began, the dreams of a worldwide company were just that — dreams. In 1986, it launched with two titles, Dark Horse Presents and Boris the Bear. Appearing in the first Dark Horse Presents was Paul Chadwick’s character “Concrete”, which became Dark Horse’s first hit. Dark Horse Presents would soon become one of the most influential comics in the industry, launching several titles, including Frank Miller’s Sin City, and John Byrne’s Next Men. By the end of its first year, the publisher was releasing nine titles per month. It was recently announced that Dark Horse Presents will be returning in 2011 with Richardson as the editor, and to complete the symmetry, Chadwick will write an original Concrete story for the first issue.

In 1988, Dark Horse staked its claim on the lucrative, but relatively untouched movie-tie in genre of comics. It began with the success of comics based off the Aliens franchise. A series based on Predator soon followed, but the “game changer” came in 1990 when Dark Horse landed the license to Star Wars, one of its largest comic lines today, with multiple stories expanding Lucas’ universe, and nary a Jar Jar Binks in sight. Similar licensed deals with RoboCop, Terminator, and recently the Joss Whedon universe that includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Serenity, have also proven a success.

By 1992, Dark Horse had managed to entice some of the industry’s biggest names, thanks in part to the company’s stance on allowing creator’s to keep the rights to their projects. With the increased success, came the drive to have more self-generated content. Richardson himself created two popular titles, The Mask and Time Cop, both would go on to be adapted into Hollywood hits in 1994.

In 1998, Dark Horse began a line of merchandise, including toys, models, and various collectibles. Today the merchandise includes properties that stem from movies, to TV, to pop culture. In 2004, the publisher began the M Press division, responsible for more traditional prose novels and other mainstream publications. In 2005, Dark Horse partnered with Image Entertainment to form an independent film company, Dark Horse Indie. The company released four films over the next two years, including the cult hit My Name is Bruce.

Although Dark Horse is first and foremost a comic book company, it has licensed a string of successful movies that have opened avenues into a new world of fans that may not have been exposed to Dark Horse before. The first movie adaptation of a Dark Horse property was The Mask, released in 1994. Timecop soon followed, and both were considered commercial successes. 1996’s Barb Wire starring Pamela Anderson was best forgotten, but 1999’s Mystery Men put the company back on track. Since then the stakes have increased, along with the budgets and reach of the properties. Hellboy and its sequel were both major hits, Sin City has inspired two sequels to be greenlit for a 2012 release, and 300 became a pop culture phenomena. A third Hellboy, a reboot of Conan, and an adaptation of The Umbrella Academy are all on the way, as well as a recently previewed animated version of The Goon. The future continues to look bright for Dark Horse.

Expanding Horizons

The industry is growing, and constantly looking for new avenues to enter into. The cross appeal of comics and entertainment continues to expand in new and interesting ways. A recent best-selling comic brought the lead writer of the video game Mass Effect 2 into the Dark Horse fold in order to write a story that helped set up the game. A comic based on Fallout: New Vegas is also due out later this year as part of a limited-edition bundle for the game, and the Star Wars comics and the games based on the Old Republic setting are intricately connected.

“We have a great relationship with Bioware”, Nick McWhorter, director of custom programs at Dark Horse, said of the Mass Effect developer. “We just work together well, and we hope to keep working with them in the future.”

More projects between the two companies are currently planned, including a new Mass Effect comic that will discuss the origin of the enigmatic Illusive Man from Mass Effect 2, one of the biggest secrets in the game

“We have a lot of really, really cool things in the works with a lot of companies.” McWhorter teased. Expect to hear more announcements as the year goes on and the legal ink dries on the contracts.

Content is King

Amongst the easy promotional appeal that is inherent with the higher profile licenses, the backbone of Dark Horse is, and always will be, the original comics. While projects like Buffy and Conan might top the best-selling list, innovation is the best way to differentiate comic companies. As such, Dark Horse is one of the most creator-friendly companies in the industry, something that draws in talent. While others in the comic industry force their writers into a legal quandary over the rights of their creations (see Alan Moore versus DC and…well, pretty much everybody for a well known example), Dark Horse is willing to give any writer or artist a shot at submitting their work, and if the submission is accepted, the creator keeps the ownership. Submission guidelines can be found on the Dark Horse website, but unsolicited submissions are just one small avenue for recruiting new artists and writers to Dark Horse. Many times, Dark Horse goes and looks for new artists and talent that they like and want to work with, then they begin to build a relationship.

“A lot of the time I am just online, scouring the Internet looking for new artists and talent,” Sierra Hahn, an associate editor at Dark Horse, said. “A lot of artists have really great blogs and they link up to people they are friends with and that they like, and they hook up with a lot of talented people, and that is a great resource.”

Hahn is an editor for (among other things) one of the best-selling graphic novels currently offered through Dark Horse – Janet Evanovich’s Troublemaker. Troublemaker is another example of Dark Horse’s expanding reach. Based on Evanovich’s best-selling Barnaby and Hooker novels, and co-written with her daughter Alex, the graphic novel is the first of two books that will try to bridge the gap between fans of the novels and comic fans. The graphic novel quickly became a New York Times best-seller.

No Longer a Long Shot

Although Dark Horse may not be fighting for stage time next to Marvel and DC at events like Comic-Con, the Oregon-based publisher has managed to build a company based on the ideals that it was first envisioned with: a remarkable feat for a nearly 25-year old group that has grown to become an international company. And while the future looks bright for Dark Horse, don’t expect them to rest on their collective laurels.

In less than a century, the company has grown from a small operation with two comics to a world player in the comic and entertainment industry with over 350 properties spread through its various endeavors. Dark Horse has officially become a player. Expect to be hearing about them for years to come.