For those of you who may not remember the mid-’80s (or prefer not to), you might recall this small company starting up by the name of Dark Horse Comics. Those loyal to the Marvel and DC lines took one look and thought it to be a joke that probably wouldn’t last long. (I myself recall someone saying something to the effect of “A chess piece for a logo? Screw that!”) But to those bored with Strom in a mohawk and Superman being disabled by the “newly discovered” gold kryptonite, titles like Concrete and Black Cross were a godsend. Not to mention their later influence with Star Wars, success from films like “Timecop” and “The Mask”, scoring the first online comics website when the internet really took off, and becoming a model for indie comic companies to follow for years.
Our friend Gavin Sheehan over at City Weekly got an interview with DHC founder himself, Mike Richardson. The two chat about the company and its history along with minor thoughts on the industry.
Gavin’s Underground interview with Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson
Gavin: How was it for you establishing the issues early on and getting the talent pool together?
Mike: I happened to belong to an amateur publication, APA – 5. There are many APAs out there, this one dealt with comics, and basically it went like this: Aspiring artists and writers send in their work to a “central mailer” who collates all submissions into a single book and then sends them out to the contributing members so that each contributor can be savaged, excuse me… be critiqued. When I finally decided to start a comics company, I reached out to APA – 5 contributors. Randy Stradley, Chris Warner, Paul Chadwick, and Randy Emberlin were all members and composed the creative talent for the first issue. I hired Randy to come on board as an editor and the two of us pasted up the first issue on my Beaverton comic shop counter. People thought I was nuts, first the comic shop, and now comic books.
Gavin: How did you land the publishing rights to the Star Wars franchise early on? And how has that title alone impacted the company over the years?
Mike: Marvel sat on the rights for a number of years and I was not a fan of their approach to the material. I hounded Lucy Wilson about what the Star Wars franchise could be as opposed to how it was being treated. She knew I had real passion for the films and specific ideas about how we would go about the comics. It didn’t hurt that I was a Star Wars geek. In the end, my passion for the material caused Lucas to decide to give us a chance. I think we’ve created a tremendous success with the title over the years. The passion remains. In fact, Randy Stradley and I are currently writing the third installment of our own Crimson Empire.
