Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics, American comic book publisher founded in 1986 by comics retailer Mike Richardson. In an industry dominated by the so-called “Big Two” (Marvel Comics and DC Comics), Dark Horse ranks as one of the largest independent comic companies. Its headquarters are in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Richardson—the owner of a successful chain of comics shops in the Portland, Oregon, area—was dissatisfied with the calibre of material being produced in the mid-1980s and invested in a highly risky venture: publishing his own comic book line. Dedicated to producing quality projects with diversified subjects, his tenaciously named Dark Horse Comics launched in July 1986 with the black-and-white anthology series Dark Horse Presents. Paul Chadwick’s Concrete and Chris Warner’s Black Cross, two strips featuring nontraditional heroes, anchored the title’s debut issue. True to Richardson’s vision, those stories rivaled the quality of the best comic books then being published by Marvel and DC. Dark Horse’s first company-created superhero—the Mask—debuted in Dark Horse Presents no. 10 (September 1987). Mild-mannered Stanley Ipkiss buys a bizarre ancient mask and gains Looney Tunes-inspired superpowers, which are then used to violently comedic effect.

Richardson, aided by editorial second in command Randy Stradley, expanded the Dark Horse line in the late 1980s with licensed titles that continued the sagas of Twentieth Century-Fox’s Alien and Predator franchises in best-selling comic books. Before long, prominent creators who were eager to break free of the corporate and editorial restraints of Marvel and DC were taking their personal wares to Dark Horse. In 1992 John Byrne, a fan favourite from his work on The Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Superman, approached Dark Horse with his original superhero concept The Next Men. That same year Dark Horse acquired Grendel, Matt Wagner’s bleak but compelling study of aggression that originated in the late 1980s at the defunct publisher Comico.

Cartoonist Bob Burden transplanted his offbeat superhero comic books The Flaming Carrot and Mysterymen Stories to Dark Horse in the mid-1990s. Other established independent superhero series that relocated to Dark Horse were Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus, a critically lauded science-fiction title, and Mike Allred’s snappy Madman Comics. Creator Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, the story of a demonic paranormal investigator, debuted at Dark Horse in 1994 and went on to become one of the publisher’s flagship titles. Mignola’s stylish shadowy rendering and his flair for having fun with dark subjects struck a chord with readers. Numerous Hellboy miniseries and specials subsequently appeared, and the spinoff series B.P.R.D. chronicled the adventures of Hellboy’s coworkers in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

Dark Horse had made a name for itself publishing other people’s characters, both in creator-owned series and in licensed titles. The latter roster expanded to include Godzilla, Terminator, Tarzan, and Star Wars. When the Dark Horse editorial staff decided to create a comic universe of its own, the result was the boastfully named Comics’ Greatest World (CGW), which situated new heroes in four distinctive environments: Arcadia, an Art Deco-inspired city ruled by organized crime; Steel Harbor, a bombed-out urban landscape overrun by superpowered criminals; Golden City, a picture-perfect megalopolis governed by superheroes; and Cinnabar Flats, the sparsely populated desert location of an interdimensional vortex and a top-secret military installation. Sixteen titles—four in each environment, bargain-priced at $1 each—were released to introduce the cities and their stars. This introductory gimmick was succeeded by a quartet of ongoing monthly series, each deeper in content than the standard superfare. Standout titles in the CGW line included Ghost, a supernatural superhero who was investigating her own apparent death, and Barb Wire, which starred a hard-hitting, motorcycling lady brawler.

Despite Dark Horse’s efforts, the comics industry became glutted in the mid-1990s and imploded. Save Ghost, the CGW titles were canceled, and Dark Horse continued as a smaller, more tightly run publisher. Successes of the ’90s included books based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise, American-distributed Japanese manga series such as Ghost in the Shell and Lone Wolf and Cub, and original works by writer Frank Miller, including Sin City and the graphic novel 300.

In the 21st century Dark Horse continued with its established model of creator-owned books and licensed properties. Gerard Way, cofounder and lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance, penned the award-winning superhero comics series The Umbrella Academy, which he created with artist Gabriel Ba. Chris Onstad’s acclaimed Web comic Achewood was collected in print format in a series of hardcovers, and writer and artist Adam Warren unveiled the bawdy superhero title Empowered. The universe of Bioware’s Mass Effect video game served as the setting for a series of successful titles, and Brian Wood launched the ecological disaster thriller The Massive.

Dark Horse Entertainment, the company’s film and television production division, was established in 1992. Primarily focused on adapting comics properties, the studio shepherded numerous creator-owned projects to the big screen. The Mask (1994), starring Jim Carrey, was a massive box-office hit, and it inspired an animated series that ran for three seasons (1995–97). Guillermo del Toro’s live-action features Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) starred Ron Perlman as the red-skinned title character. The studio also produced offbeat projects such as the fourth-wall-shattering My Name Is Bruce (2007), starring Bruce Campbell, and the Emmy Award-winning Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007).