Founded in 1986 in Milwaukie, Oregon by a comic shop owner named Mike Richardson, Dark Horse is one of the most versatile comics companies out there.
Dark Horse publishes a little bit of everything; Indie art comics, a number of "creator-owned" series such as Hellboy and Sin City, and even licensed comics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 (which was their idea). In addition, they were one of the major early publishers of English-translated manga in the West before the Tokyo Pop boom, bringing over titles like AKIRA, Ah! My Goddess, Gunsmith Cats, Hellsing and Ghost in the Shell. They also publish paper collections of a number of well-known Webcomics.
They even had an original superhero universe for a short time in the Comics' Greatest World imprint, though it was eventually dropped due to poor sales and lack of interest. They also recently gained a subset (Dark Horse Books) dedicated to non-comics and the word-based sort of book. They've also printed all sorts of other things (including a collection of Playboy interviews and even health books). It doesn't matter what it is, Dark Horse will publish itnote .
This open policy has been the key to Dark Horse's success, allowing them to survive The Great Comics Crash of 1996.
One of the big five comic companies of the Modern Age, alongside DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, and Archie Comics.
Things they publish include:
Original series:
- 300
- Achewood
- Afterlift
- Alena
- The Amazing Screw-On Head
- Angel Catbird
- Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts
- Apocalypse Nerd
- As Incríveis Aventuras de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy!
- Athena Voltaire
- Age of Reptiles
- American Splendor (1993-2002)
- Axe Cop
- The Badger
- Bandette
- Beasts of Burden
- The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (The original comic)
- B.P.R.D.
- Black Hammer
- Blacksad
- Boris The Bear
- Brody's Ghost
- Concrete
- Comics' Greatest World series (brief 1990s imprint and an intent to get their own superhero pantheon)
- Creepy Magazinenote
- Dark Horse Monsters
- Dark Horse Presents
- Deep Gravity
- Empowered
- The End League
- Fear Agentnote
- Finder
- Flaming Carrot
- Fun With Milk & Cheese
- Give Me Liberty
- The Goonnote
- Grandville
- Grendelnote
- Groo the Wanderer
- Hard Boiled
- Harrow County
- Hellboy
- Henchgirl
- Heart Breakers
- House of Gold & Bones
- Kings In Disguise
- Lady Killer
- The Last Temptation
- Leaving Megalopolis
- Luther Arkwright
- Madman
- The Marquisnote
- The Mask (also briefly part of the Dark Horse Heroes imprint towards the end)
- Mesmo Delivery
- MIND MGMT
- Minor Threats
- Next Men
- Nexus
- The Perhapanauts
- Resident Alien
- Rex Mundi
- Savage Hearts
- Scarletnote
- Scarlet Traces
- Shi: Ju-Nen
- Sin City
- SpyBoy
- Starstruck
- Sullivan's Sluggers
- The Tale of One Bad Rat
- Tales of the Beanworld (After the revival)
- Timecop
- The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
- The Umbrella Academy
- Usagi Yojimbo note
- Zodiac Starforce
Former Gold Key Comics characters most famous for being used by Valiant Comics:
Licensed comics:
- Angel & Faith (after the license for Angel comics moved from IDW Publishing to Dark Horse in 2011)
- Alien comics (ended when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox and sent the license to Marvel)
- Aliens vs. Predator
- Army of Darkness
- Avatar comics
- Avatar: The Last Airbender comics
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise
- Avatar The Last: Airbender - Rebound
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - Shells
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - Sisters
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - Smoke and Shadow
- Avatar: The Last Airbender – North and South
- Avatar: The Last Airbender – Imbalance
- The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars
- The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire
- Comics for franchises created by BioWare:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics (the spin-offs released while the show was being broadcast, and the post-show "Season 8-12" comics. Boom! Studios picked up the license after Season 12.)
- Conan the Barbarian
- Critical Role comics
- Cuphead graphic novels
- The Escapist (the comic series from Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay)
- The Escapists (six-issue mini-series set after the events of the book)
- The Evil Dead. Just an adaptation to the original movie. The rest of the comics were done by Dynamite Comics.
- Fallout: All Roads (Collector's Edition bonus for Fallout: New Vegas)
- Fight Club 2
- Frozen: Breaking Boundaries
- Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe (during the 90s, has since been reprinted by home video distributor Arrow Films as part of the 2020 Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition of their Gamera complete series Blu-ray box set)
- Godzilla comics (during the 90s, license has since been picked up by IDW Publishing)
- Halo comics (after 343 Industries moved the license from Marvel in 2013):
- Hound in omnibus form
- How To Train Your Dragon: The Serpent's Heir
- The Incredibles. An adaptation to the original movie and some tie-in stories to Incredibles 2.
- Indiana Jones comics
- Reprinted Marvel's The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones in omnibus form.
- Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures
- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Comic
- Mysticons
- Predator comics (ended when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox and sent the license to Marvel)
- Archie vs. Predator (co-published with Archie)
- Archie vs. Predator II (co-published with Archie)
- Plants vs. Zombies
- RoboCop comics
- The Rocketeer
- Serenity comics (not Firefly comics, for trademark reasons)
- Smite
- Solomon Kane (ended when the rights returned to Marvel Comics)
- Spumco Comic Book: Distributed the first three issues, with the fourth one being published by Marvel Comics instead.
- Star Wars (returned to publishing under Disney Lucasfilm after their contract with IDW Publishing expired in 2022, now publishing Star Wars comics alongside Marvel)
- Hyperspace Stories
- The High Republic Adventures (2022) (picked up from IDW and the only part of the Star Wars Adventures line to continue after the contract ended)
- Star Wars Legends (ended when Disney purchased Lucasfilm and sent the license to Marvel as part of the reboot of the Star Wars Expanded Universe)
- Agent of the Empire
- Clone Wars Adventures
- Crimson Empire
- Dark Empire
- Dark Times
- Darth Vader
- Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (The only pre-Marvel Dark Horse comic to be part of Disney's canon due to being adapted from an unproduced Star Wars: The Clone Wars script)
- Dawn of the Jedi
- Death, Lies, and Treachery
- Enemy of the Empire
- Invasion
- Knight Errant
- Knights of the Old Republic
- Legacy
- Star Wars (2013)
- Republic
- Tag and Bink
- Tales
- Tales of the Jedi
- Union
- X-Wing Rogue Squadron
- A storyline that featured Tarzan and Predator fighting at the center of the earth.
- Terminator comics
- The Thing from Another World (actually for The Thing (1982))
- Titan AE
- Tomb Raider
- Trollhunters comics
- Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories: An omnibus of all the digital comics Valve Software has put out up to 2011, including The Sacrifice, Lab Rat, and some of the early Team Fortress 2 comics.
- Van Helsing: From Beneath the Rue Morgue
- Xena: Warrior Princess
- Zootopia. A few prequel stories with Disney themselves doing an adaptation.
Manga and OEL Manga:
- Ah! My Goddess
- AKIRA (Licence went to Kodansha)
- Angelic Layer (Manga; License obtained from Tokyopop)
- Appleseed
- Astro Boy (Manga)
- Berserk
- Berserk Official Guide Book
- Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight
- Blade of the Immortal
- Blood Blockade Battlefront
- Bubblegum Crisis (Adam Warren's "Grand Mal" miniseries)
- Cannon God Exaxxion
- Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga; License obtained from Tokyopop. Expired and currently held by Kodansha Comics USA)
- Chobits (Manga; License obtained from Tokyopop)
- Danganronpa: The Animation
- Drifters
- Dirty Pair (Adam Warren's Amerimanga miniseries and translations of the first two light novels.)
- Dominion
- Eden: It's an Endless World!
- Elfen Lied
- FLCL (Manga; License obtained from Tokyopop)
- Gantz
- Ghost in the Shell
- Ghost Talker's Daydream
- Gunsmith Cats
- Hatsune Miku
- Hellsing
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
- Kerberos Panzer Cop (First four acts only. Published under the title Hellhounds: Panzer Cops)
- The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
- The Legend of Mother Sarah
- New Lone Wolf and Cub
- Magic Knight Rayearth (License obtained from Tokyopop)
- Mob Psycho 100 (October 2018
) - MPD Psycho
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse
- Planetes (Another former Tokyopop license)
- Shinji Ikari Raising Project
- Outlanders
- Trigun
- Venus Wars
- You're Under Arrest!
