George Gene Gustines profiled Dark Horse Comics in a major article on the front page of the 'Business' section of Sunday's New York Times. Chief among the revelations of the story about the privately held publishing company was a statement from Mike Richardson, Dark Horse's founder and president, indicating that Dark Horse had $30 million in sales in 2005 (when Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novels made a major contribution to the company's sales numbers).
While little else in the article was news to followers of the direct market, Gustines did a good job of tracing Dark Horse's twenty years in the comics market including the publishing company's longstanding commitment to creator's rights, its expertise with licensed comics, its pioneering in manga publishing and moviemaking, its expansion into book publishing and the creation of 3-D collectibles. In addition to
What comic book retailers may eventually find most useful about the article is the way in which Gustines outlines for Times readers, who may not be aware of what's happening in the direct market, some of Dark Horse's major upcoming initiatives including a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer written by Joss Whedon, a Star Wars series (Star Wars: Legacy) that chronicles 'the distant future of the Jedi,' and 300: The Art of the Film, which details the making of the new film adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 graphic adaptation.
