Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon, comic book shops known as Pegasus Books and founded in 1980.
Dark Horse Comics is the fourth-largest comic publishing company in the United States. Dividing profits with artists and writers, as well as supporting artistic and creative rights in the comic book industry, Dark Horse Comics has become a strong proponent of publishing licensed material that often does not fit into mainstream media. Several titles include: Sin City, Hellboy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 300, Ninja Gaiden, Masters of the Universe and Star Wars.
In December 2021, Swedish gaming company Embracer Group launched its acquisition of Dark Horse Media, Dark Horse Comics' parent company, and completed the buyout in March 2022.
Dark Horse Comics created Dark Horse Direct, a dedicated division for high-end collectible figures. Crafted primarily from resin, vinyl and PVC, their premium quality statues are available through a direct-to-consumer model.
Overview Dark Horse has published many licensed comics, including comics based on Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ninja Gaiden, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Predator, and Terminator. Dark Horse Comics allows creators to retain ownership of their work. Mike Richardson founded the company to support creator rights, stating his frustration with artist treatment.
They have published several creator-owned comics such as Frank Miller's Sin City and 300, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, and Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy. Dark Horse Comics publishes several mini and limited series. This model allows the company to pull poorly performing series while also retaining the ability to reprint past works without intense scrutiny.
In 2006, The New York Times reported that "Dark Horse pays by the story or the page, and shares profit generated by comic books and related merchandise. That is different from the standard work-for-hire arrangement at DC and Marvel: creators are paid for a specific story and perhaps receive royalties from collected editions, but the bulk of the revenue, and all of the merchandising opportunities, remain with the companies".
History
Origins Mike Richardson was an active follower of the Amateur Press Association (APA), an organization focused on critiquing comics through conventions, fan projects, and newsletters. As a result of his involvement, Richardson became acquainted with Randy Stradley, an early Dark Horse Comics collaborator and editor. The two used their contacts from the APA to recruit artists and writers, many of whom were working for several top comic publishing groups.
1986–2006 Dark Horse was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson with Dark Horse Presents No. 1 and featured the first appearance of Paul Chadwick's Concrete and Chris Warner's Black Cross, selling approximately 50,000 copies, which was far better than predictions. The series has become a platform for new creators to highlight their works. The success of Dark Horse Comics can be attributed to a change in comic book marketing that occurred in the 1980s when comics began to be sold in comic specific stores.
After his success, Richardson began buying the rights to several titles including: Godzilla in 1987, Aliens, Predator in 1989, and Star Wars in 1991 (owned by Marvel prior to the Dark Horse Comics acquisition). Dark Horse evolved further and began producing toys in 1991. In 1992, Richardson formed Dark Horse Entertainment, the company's film and television division.
With the release of the first Aliens comic in 1988 and Predator in 1988, Dark Horse Comics' popular characters appeared in their own line of work as well as Dark Horse Presents and Tarzan and numerous crossovers that included Superman and Batman of DC Comics, and WildC.A.T.s.
In a 1991 issue of Dark Horse Presents, Frank Miller introduced Sin City, one of Dark Horse Comics' most successful titles. In addition to this title, Miller introduced several other limited series set in dystopian societies including Give Me Liberty which ran from 1990–1991 and Hard Boiled.
The Mask, a miniseries from Mark Badger, debuted in Dark Horse Presents 10-20 in 1991 and had a successful film adaptation, starring Jim Carrey, in 1994. However comic sales were not strengthened by the success of the film.
In 1993, Dark Horse established their own limited series superhero realm with the creation of Comics' Greatest World. However, comic publishing changed in the 1990s and all Comics' Greatest World titles were canceled except for Ghost. As a result, Dark Horse Comics returned to their smaller-scale business model.
Dark Horse Comics created the imprint Legends and as part of their focus on creators, the publisher began working with Mike Mignola. In 1994, Mignola's character Hellboy first appeared in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction the beginning of several limited and miniseries with crossovers that included Batman of DC Comics.
1994 saw the release of the monthly manga miniseries, Oh My Goddess!
The licensing to the limited series, Tarzan, was purchased by Dark Horse Comics in 1995 and ended in 1998.
Ghost, from Comics' Greatest World, began running as a solo title in 1995, but ended in 1998 and was subsequently launched once more the same year.
Eisner Award winning Usagi Yojimbo, written and drawn by third-generation Japanese-American artist, Stan Sakai debuted in Dark Horse Comics in 1996 as a monthly issue and ran until 2019.
Dark Horse Comics began translating the manga series from Hiroaki Samura, Blade of the Immortal, in 1996 and ending in 2015.
For the first Free Comic Book Day on May 4, 2002, Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars: Tales – A Jedi's Weapon and has participated in the event every year since.
2006–2021 In 2006, Dark Horse was the third largest comics publisher. Per Diamond Comic Distributors, "Marvel had 36.9 percent of the market", DC "had 32.9 percent" and Dark Horse had "5.6 percent".
In 2007, Dark Horse began donating copies of all of its published works to the Portland State University Library. As of July 15, 2016, the library has cataloged over 10,000 titles as "the official repository of Dark Horse publications".
In 2011, Dark Horse Presents relaunched including the return of Paul Chadwick's Concrete and Steve Niles' Criminal Macabre, as well as new talent including Sanford Greene, Carla Speed McNeil, Nate Crosby and others. Starting in 2013, Dark Horse began to reprint EC Archives, picking up the project of reprinting classic EC Comics from the 1950s where Gladstone left off, using the same size and format as Gladstone, with all stories reprinted in order and in full color. In 2015, Dave Marshall was promoted to Editor-in-Chief and Scott Allie became Executive Senior Editor.
In early 2017, Dark Horse Comic entered partnership with Crypton Future Media to publish official English-language Hatsune Miku-related manga. In late summer of 2018, a set of comic books for Mysticons were released. In 2018, Vanguard Visionary Associates, a Chinese media production company, became a partner of Dark Horse's subsidiary Dark Horse Entertainment along with a "major investment stake" in the subsidiary. Both Forbes and Publishers Weekly reported that "the investment stake is rumored to be about $20 million and will give Vanguard a majority interest in Dark House".
In 2020, Dark Horse announced it was severing ties with writer and editor Scott Allie "after a former Dark Horse employee accused him of sexual harassment and sexual assault across a period lasting more than a decade." It was reported that in 2015, "after reports of multiple instances of sexual misconduct" by Allie:Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson released a statement to The Beat, which in part read, "In this particular case, action was taken immediately, though we did not, and cannot, perform a public flogging, as some might wish." Although Richardson said action had been taken, Allie continued as an editor for Dark Horse, transitioning from editor-in-chief to the role of executive senior editor in 2015, before departing Dark Horse as a full-time employee in 2017, continuing to work with them [until 2020] in a freelance capacity.
In June 2021, Dark Horse opened a video game and digital division, called Dark Horse Games. The division will be focused on development of AAA video games based on the company's IP. In September 2021, Freddye Miller became the Managing Editor.
In mid-November 2021, Dark Horse founder and CEO Mike Richardson announced that the company would be publishing a new line of all-ages Star Wars comics and graphic novels in collaboration with Lucasfilm and Disney Publishing Worldwide. Dark Horse had previously held the licensing rights for producing Star Wars comics between 1991 and 2015.
Acquisition by Embracer Group (2021–present) In December 2021, Bloomberg reported that Dark Horse was for sale to a Hollywood studio. Companies rumored as potential buyers included Netflix, and The Walt Disney Company but a representative could not comment. Later in the month, Embracer Group, a video game holding company, announced that it launched its acquisition of Dark Horse Media, including Dark Horse Comics and Dark Horse Entertainment, and that the company would be the tenth operative division in the company.
The deal granted both companies access to each other's intellectual properties. Embracer finalized the acquisition of Dark Horse on March 14, 2022.
On March 4, 2026, Mike Richardson was dismissed from Dark Horse and replaced by Jay Komas as interim CEO. In May 2026, Dark Horse employees announced the formation of Dark Horse Workers United, "a union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America" (CWA). In June 2026, Komas announced that the company would give the union voluntary recognition which allows them move to collective bargaining. ICv2 reported that Dark Horse is "the third comics publisher with a union affiliated with the CWA".
In July 2026, Dark Horse announced a new leadership structure with three heads for the company: Tim Wiesch, head of publishing and business development; Vanessa Todd-Holmes, head of publishing operations; and Melissa Teeman, head of finance and administration. , Kormas "is still listed as interim CEO".
Distribution In June 2022, Dark Horse announced a business partnership with Penguin Random House Publishing as the company's new primary comic book distributor which was previously held by Diamond Comics Distributors for thirty years. In September 2022, Dark Horse Comics announced the expansion of their business relationship with Penguin Random House. This multi-year distribution deal began in June 2023.
Imprints and studios
Comics' Greatest World/Dark Horse Heroes (1993–1996)
From 1993 to 1996, Dark Horse published a line of superhero comics under the Comics' Greatest World imprint, which was later renamed Dark Horse Heroes. After 1996, publication of this line came to a near halt, ceasing production of any books concerning the characters with the publication of the last crossover books involving Ghost, in the early 2000s.
Legend (1994–1998) Legend was a comic book imprint at Dark Horse Comics created in 1994 by Frank Miller and John Byrne as an avenue for creator-owned projects. Its logo was a moai drawn by Mike Mignola. Later on, other creators were asked to join them. The imprint ended in 1998.
Members Art Adams Frank Miller John Byrne Mike Mignola Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons, and Geof Darrow were also on the initial Dark Horse Legend launch tour. Mike Allred Walter Simonson
Dark Horse Manga