During Emerald City Comic held earlier this month at Seattle, Dark Horse held a panel in celebration of the publisher’s 40th anniversary. The panel moderated by Dark Horse Ally Raney consisted of members of the publisher’s editorial team including Patrick Thorpe, Spencer Cushing, and Jenny Bingham-Blenk as well as Casey Gilly, a writer of various Dark Horse titles most notably Tomb Raider.
Considering that just a few days earlier the publisher’s founder Mike Richardson was removed from his position, it was an unusual time to say to say the least to hold a Dark Horse 40th anniversary panel. Nevertheless, it was business as usual for the panel with a brief primer of Dark Horse’s humble beginnings and its monumental innovations to the comics industry and putting creators first. It was also mentioned when the publisher entered the manga market it was seen as a big risk, but obviously paid off.
Besides acclaimed original creator properties, Dark Horse has also developed a reputation for its acclaimed licensed comic projects with Raney citing some of the publisher’s early licenses such as Aliens, Predator, and Buffy as establishing high standard. Current Dark Horse comic licenses include but are not limited to Masters of the Universe, Magic the Gathering, Stranger Things, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Editor Spencer Cushing, who has been with Dark Horse for 18 years, discussed how Richardson’s goal was always to elebate licensed books, remembering how he always viewed them as substandard cash grabs since childhood. Richardson was convinced that comics could be just as good or any movie or TV show citing the 1990 Alien: Earth War comic miniseries from major industry titans including writer Mark Verheiden and artist Aliens: Earth War from Mark Verheiden and artist Sam Kieth. Of course, as fans are likely aware, after the release of Alien 3 film Dark Horse ended up changing the names and identities of certain characters in order to align with the franchise’s continuity. much of the Alien 3 before movie came out and had to change it.
On the subject of licenses, the panel then turned it over to writer Casey Gilly to discuss her work on the Tomb Raider license such as the the Tomb Raider: Sacred Artifacts 4 issue miniseries. Though she’s written creator-owned books, Gilly relishes writing licensed comics. In fact, she started her comics writing career writing licensed books like My Little Pony and Buffy and can’t imagine ever abandoning licensed projects. Writing licensed comics isn’t as rigid as people might think according to Gilly. Moroever, she appreciates the fact that licensed comics because come in with guardrails baked in and actually enjoys a hands-on approach.
Surprisingly, Gilly didn’t set out to become a comic writer. With her interest initially in journalism and advocacy she began as a writer for CBR and eventually joined CBLDF. Even with years of writing X-Files fan fiction, she was still hesitant to branch into writing despite encouragement from friends and colleagues. It was only after Chip Zdarsky encouraged did Gilly finally take the leap into writing comics with the Femme Magnifique edited by Shelly Bond.
In approaching for licensed comics, Gilly’s goal is to give readers an authentic experience and honor the legacy of the property. Of course, she understands that she can’t incorporate everything in lore because you risk alienating new readers unfamiliar with the property. For Gilly, capturing the core essence of the character is more important than trying to encapsulate the entire backstory. The core of character is more important than the entire history.
Incidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of Tomb Raider. celebrating 30th anniversary. And while fans are likely excited for the new game later this year, Gilly finds that the comics medium offers more possibility and an immersive experience to showcase Lara Croft compared to other mediums. Editor Patrick has worked on Tomb Raider comics at Dark Horse for over a decade and noted how much the property has shifted over the years. Likewise, he also praised what what Crystal Dynamics is doing now teased fans to expect some major announcements.
As announced during ComicsPRO, Paul Chadwick’s acclaimed Concrete will be returning in a new miniseries entitled Stars and Sands. The panel unveiled an art piece by Dave Rubin showcasing various creator-owned characters of Dark Horse.
It’s been 20 years since the last installment of Concrete and editor Jenny Bingham-Blenk conveyed how wonderful it is to see Chadwick still at the top of his game. Apparently Chadwick has been been working on this series for years. It’s a continuation of the story but still accessible to new readers. Bingham-Blenk wasn’t ashamed to admit didn’t read Concrete until she was an intern at Dark Horse over a decade ago but quickly became a fan. The first volume of Concrete will be republished.
Besides the various licensed books he oversees, Spencer Cushing also edits various creator-owned title lines such as comic creator Zack Kaplan’s line of books. As recently announced, Kaplan signed a multi-title deal with Dark Horse with upcoming books that include Only the Savage Are Left, The Smart Division, and Kill All Immortals III. The challenge for Cushing is encuring each book has its own voice a chance to sign.
Patrick Thorpe meanwhile shepherds the tomes and art books for Nintendo books as well as other titles including Nocturnals, Ghost, and Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash imprint of books. Thorpe has found that every comic, whether creator or licenesed, is a different editorial experience with some requiring little to no editorial input. He mentioned Groo as a book that he had little editorial involvement from him joking that he deserved no credit.
As the editor on various Avatar: The Last Airbender titles, Jenny Bingham-Blenk said how ecstatic she was to see such growth both for the books and the franchise in general. Despite suffering her own issues of anxiety, Bingham-Blenk revealed she has come to use it as a strength to keep her head in the game with all the different books she juggles. She credited her editorial mentors such as Cushing who taught her different methods of organization.
When it came to lessons learned as an editor, Thorpe said the best advice he received is that it’s imperative to have at least one person who is the expert in the subject, something he makes ensures when he works on licenses for Nintendo and other things. Spencer echoed a similar sentiment saying the best advice he received from an editor is that you have to know what you don’t know.
According to Cushing, navigating the approval process with licensees is different for each one and requires balancing schedules and expectations. Dark Horse editorial tries to accommodate within reason but sometimes a bit of pushback for reasonable deadlines is required.
As the Dark Horse 40th anniversary panel drew to a close, there was one major announcement with Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers, a four-issue series by writer Christopher Hastings, artist Denis Medri, colorist Dan Jackson (Stranger Things), and letterer Lucas Gattoni. Most noteworthy about the book is a special blank character sheet cover that was the the idea of editor Spencer Cushing.
Though there was very little time set aside for a normal fan Q&A, the editors did reveal that if they could see comic adaptations of unproduced script, they would love William Gibson’s first-draft screenplay for Alien 3. The holy grail however would be Kevin Smith’s infamous Superman Lives script.
