Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is an American company that creates comic books and manga. It is one of the largest "independent" comic book publishers. The company was founded by Mike Richardson.

Dark Horse Comics headquarters

Richardson is the owner of several comic book shops in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. In 1986, he began to publish an anthology series called Dark Horse Presents using money from his stores. The company is based in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Overview

Dark Horse creates many comics based on other peoples characters and settings. These include comics based on Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, and Who Wants to be a Superhero? Dark Horse also publishes comics by artists who own their own settings. These include Frank Miller's Sin City and 300, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Michael Chabon's The Escapist. From 1993-1996, Dark Horse published a line of superhero comics under the name Comics Greatest World. This was later renamed Dark Horse Heroes. After 1996, publication in this line slowed greatly. They stopped making any books about the characters in the early 2000's. Today, the company does very well even though they do not have their own universe of superpowered characters.

Dark Horse's movie company, Dark Horse Entertainment, creates movies based on Dark Horse Comics. These including The Mask and Hellboy.

The company also produces novels based on some of their more popular comic book titles, including Aliens and Predator.

Dark Horse Comics: The First Twenty Years (by Mike Richardson, Frank Miller and others, 384 pages, Dark Horse, March 2008, ISBN 1593076088)

Dark Horse Comics - Official Site
Things From Another World - Online retailer of comics and collectibles, sister company of Dark Horse Comics