The future of Dark Horse: “creating the very best products and experiences for fans worldwide.”

The news cycle surrounding the departure of Dark Horse founder and CEO Mike Richardson has followed a respectful but appropriate curve. On Day 1 there was shock and tributes from around the industry, as befits one of the titans of comics for 40 years. Yesterday I woke up to DMs that were more “Well actually…” pointing out several things, which I’ll get to. Also social media has begun pointing out that Dark Horse under Richardson tolerated harassment in a very public and shameful way. I think that’s all part of Mike Richardson’s legacy and it should all be examined. This is not that piece – rather a look at more of the why and what comes next concerning the regime charge at Dark Horse – but it will come in time. 

Despite everyone’s surprise at Richardson’s ouster, as many have pointed out, he’s the one who sold the company to Embracer, after PREVIOUSLY selling a controlling interest in it to the Chinese company Vanguard Visionary Assets in 2018. Dark Horse’s business was so as usual after the Vanguard acquisition that people were often shocked when I mentioned that Dark Horse was owned by a Chinese company. But evidently it was not enough, and in 2021, Dark Horse went up for sale again, amid a boom in IP library sales during the Covid-fueled streaming explosion. The result was the sale to Embracer.

At the time this seemed like a pretty good deal, as Embracer was known for being hands off with the companies it acquired, and Dark Horse did continue on with little change, publicly at least. Unfortunately the video game business is an extremely volatile one, and Embracer’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. 

Anyway, the point is, Richardson sold the company and he knew he would be gone someday. In fact, I’m told that it was expected that he would retire when he hit age 75, which was last year. But that didn’t happen. And so perhaps the hook was brought in. 

The Embracer statement on the management change, attributed to a Dark Horse employee but almost certainly put together by the new regime, was clumsy to put it mildly. As many have pointed out – publicly and privately – the lede could have been “Comics legend Mike Richardson retires at age 75! Give him his flowers!” The “executive is leaving to spend more time with their family, but they will continue as a consultant,” news item is so universal as to be a trope. But we didn’t get that. Instead it was “Hey, partners, new guy running Dark Horse. Mike was great but let’s enhance collaboration now.” Awkward. 

Why didn’t Mike get to leave to spend more time with his family? I’m not entirely sure, but Richardson didn’t sound like he was ready to retire any time anyone spoke to him. I won’t speculate further at this time. 

But you still shouldn’t cry for Mike Richardson, because as several people pointed out to me, when he sold the company he made a pile of money. Quite a large pile. He’s doing just fine. 

However the unease with his departure reflects the uncertainty over what will happen to Dark Horse next. Once again, the official statement didn’t inspire confidence. As Beat commenters pointed out, it doesn’t mention the word “comics” once. It doesn’t mention “readers” either, just “fans.”

Please be assured that Dark Horse remains fully committed to working closely with you and to creating the very best products and experiences for fans worldwide.

New CEO Jay Komas’s experience also seems publishing light:

Jay brings extensive experience with global intellectual properties across games, film, and consumer products.

The overall goal is stated as

Please be assured that Dark Horse remains fully committed to working closely with you and to creating the very best products and experiences for fans worldwide. 

Anyway I don’t want to parse a single press release too much, but it is all we have to go on for the moment. Given the rest of Embracer’s portfolio, it’s worth considering that when they restructured, Dark Horse was put in the IP group. Former Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors stated:

“Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends” will be developing immersive world-class entertainment IPs, including the iconic Lord of the Rings, leveraging in-house AAA capabilities and formidable partnerships.

So, tale as old as the 21st century: it’s all about the IP. Almost every comic book publishing company is now part of a larger entity that runs it as a low cost IP studio, not as a company that makes money publishing things. Dark Horse had already branched out quite a bit with its own toy, book, digital, film and TV,  and, briefly, video game divisions, so they were ahead of the curve on that and well positioned to fit into that kind of business model. 

Milton Griepp’s report on Richardson’s departure adds some valuable context here: Embracer’s public financial reports. 

Although Embracer’s Entertainment and Services segment showed a profit in its most recent quarter, in the previous quarter (ended September 30), it showed a loss, citing “difficult market conditions” for Dark Horse, which we interpreted as referring to the Diamond bankruptcy (see “Dark Horse, Middle Earth Parent Shows Loss“).  In what now seems a bit ominous, in both the calendar Q3 and Q4 reports, Embracer referred to “several strategic initiatives” at Dark Horse to improve profitability.

If you want to do a deeper dive, Embracer’s most recent Q3 report is from February 12th is online, and the “Middle Earth Enterprises” division sees net sales growth down 15% and writes:

Dark Horse Media and Freemode’s other businesses, with a higher share of sales from physical products, saw a seasonally stronger performance in Q3, in line with historical trends. Several strategic initiatives are ongoing to drive improved profitability within these businesses.

Uh oh, there’s those “Strategic initiatives” again. 

While Dark Horse is seen as a source of IP and partnerships for Embracer Group, they probably found out pretty quickly that some of its most valuable IP is actually owned by the creators, including Hellboy and Black Hammer. Dark Horse’s two most notable recent partnerships – Terry Moore’s Abstract Studios and Jonathan Hickman’s 3 Worlds/3 Moons – are most definitely creator owned. Dark Horse is also home to Mark Millar’s oeuvre (although that’s owned by Netflix) and Brian Bendis’s creator owned projects. And so on. While the media rights almost certainly go through Dark Horse, there again, Richardson had a very hefty producer’s fee for everything. If that producer’s fee is now removed it could free up some production costs. Even if they don’t own it, access to that beautiful iP library is still Dark Horse’s most valuable asset.

The size of the Dark Horse staff is another concern that has been repeatedly expressed to me. While Dark Horse had some small layoffs last year, it has been mostly spared the mass cuts that hit the rest of the Embracer empire. Will that continue? Or will there be strategic initiatives? 

Among the tributes to Richardson, Mike Mignola wrote this on Facebook: 

Sad news–

Dark Horse WAS Mike Richardson.

As a young comics guy I knew that Dark Horse was where the good guys went if they wanted to do creator-owned comics. It was the only home I ever considered for Hellboy–Not that I actually believe Mike would WANT Hellboy–An uncommercial artist (Me) and a very uncommercial character with a silly name and a tail (Hellboy)–But he trusted me and actually agreed to publish without really even knowing what it was all about. For whatever reason he trusted me and for 30 years he left me alone to do what I do the way I wanted to do it. I don’t believe I would have gotten that treatment anywhere else.

I know he will go on to do other things. That’s who he is.

For me–As far as I know Dark Horse is still home to Hellboy and my new “Lands Unknown” books. My hope is that things will continue as they have as far as publishing goes. Time will tell.