Dark Horse Profile

Name:

Dark Horse Comics

Owner:

Mike Richardson

Started by:

Mike Richardson

Characters:

Concrete
Sin City
Aliens
Predator
The Escapist
Hellboy
Akira
Groo

Famous For:

Dark Horse is famous for contribution to the creator owned content market by publishing ground breaking content. They are also the most successful publisher of licensed comics such as Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Public Company (Can you own a piece of it?):

No

Percentage Of Market Share (According to Diamond):

As of 2005 - 5.59% (3rd Place)

Creator Owned Projects:

Sin City
Concrete
300
Groo
Usagi Yojimbo Hellboy
The Escapist

Location:

Dark Horse Comics
10956 SE Main Street
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Website:

www.darkhorse.com

Submissions:

Dark Horse does accept submissions from writers, artist, inkers, colorists, and letterers. They will not send work back to you and don’t even bother sending in work based on their licensed characters. (Star Wars, Aliens, Buffy, etc.) Any work sent in based on these properties will be destroyed. Before any work can be looked at, it should be accompanied with a Submissions Agreement

Dark Horse also has a lot of resources for their aspiring creators. Check out the submissions section on their website for information about how you can get a sample script to showcase your artwork, , a guideline to show you how to format your script, and they will even send you work to show off your inking skills.

Other Media:

Dark Horse has recently jumped into the world of comic book movies. Their first movie, “The Mask,” did exceptionally well and recent work such as “Hellboy” and the success of “Sin City” has helped to cement Dark Horse works as prime content for the silver screen. They also have toys, apparel, games, and other collectibles based on their comics.

Get A Job With Dark Horse:

Dark Horse comics posts their open positions on their website. You can also work for Things From Another World, their retail comic book store chain.

History:

The term “Dark Horse” first got its use in politics where a candidate will arise from nowhere and claim a nomination or election while the other larger parties are bickering, at a stand still, and cannot come to an agreement. This expression is a great way to look at the comic book publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Portland, Oregon business owner Mike Richardson. Richardson saw the comic book industry as, "...in danger of crumbling." Due to the poor quality of comics being produced. Richardson used the money he had earned from his comic retail business to launch the company and the first comic that was published was the anthology series, “Dark Horse Presents,” a collection of comic book stories.

The first issue of Dark Horse Presents featured, “Concrete,” which eventually became its own series and earned creator Paul Chadwick an enormous 26 awards in its first two years alone. Another comic to come from the anthology series was Frank Miller’s, “Sin City.”

Dark Horse became known as a place that was generous to their creators and also a place that took risks when it came to the kinds of stories they were telling. This attitude lured many creators to Dark Horse including the before mentioned Paul Chadwick, Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Mike Mignola, Stan Sakai, and Sergio Aragones.

Dark Horse has also become the largest producer of licensed comic books in the world with properties such as Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Predator, and The Terminator. They even launched their own film studio, Dark Horse Entertainment which produced the film, “The Mask,” with Jim Carrey and went on to amass over $343 million dollars, all on an $18 million dollar budget. “The Mask,” was based on a comic book from Dark Horse.

Many other properties from Dark Horse have been and are being made into feature films. “Hellboy,” and “Sin City” are two of the most notable and “Mystery Men” and “Barb Wire” are some of the most notorious. Rumours still abound that “Concrete,” is in production and will some day come to the screen.

Dark Horse has become the third largest publisher of comic books behind DC and Marvel. Dark Horse, under the helm of Mike Richardson continues to prove itself as a contender, innovator, and risk taker in the world of comic books.