What do three-panel gags, coming-of-age murder mysteries, and aboriginal science fiction have in common? Not much on the surface, but you'll find all three sharing the umbrella of Dark Horse's newest line, Dark Horse Originals.
Dark Horse Originals are the true dark horses of Dark Horse: comics that defy easy categorization, brilliant stories remarkable for the same qualities that make them hard to squeeze into clear genres. Ironically, in prose, these books would be the mainstream, filed under the general moniker of "fiction" in comics, dominated by "hard-genre" series, superheroes, and licensed blockbusters, they stand out as exceptions. We wanted to give those books--smart, genre-blind, original projects--a clear spotlight of their own, to keep them from getting lost among the spectacle, and to showcase the tremendous range of comics as a storytelling medium.
If the Originals have a flagship title, it's Carla Speed McNeil's Finder. Finder is an original in every sense: although its roots run deep and wide through comics and literature, it reaches far beyond the sum of its influences.
In the world of comics--with its strictly segregated genres and paste-up shared universes--Finder is a splendid anomaly: a wholly unique creature, nearly impossible to quantify or pigeonhole.
After all of this, you might expect Finder to be a niche sort of book--something specific enough to require its own discrete category. But it's just the opposite: a work of such sprawling breadth that to reduce it to a single genre would be a grave disservice to both story and reader.
Because, in a very real way, Finder is less a single story than a world.
Interested in exploring cities beyond your wildest dreams? Finder's the mother load.
Got an itch for far-future science fiction? Try Finder.
Hungry for myth and magic? Finder. Adventure-seeker? Finder. Need a heart-wrenching coming-of-age drama? Finder. Into psychological or supernatural thrillers? Finder. Like a good murder mystery? Finder.
Want a story that'll make you laugh aloud? Or one that’ll make you cry, or leave you breathless with wonder? Finder.
Comics that make you go "wow"? Finder. Every time.
Finder is entertaining, immersive, and accessible, but it’s also challenging: the kind of book that grabs you by the throat and pulls you in hard, a story that'll work itself deep under your skin and dig roots into brain. You'll catch yourself poring back over the pages for details you might have missed the first time through, combing your library for books mentioned offhand in the notes, doodling motifs in the margins of your to-do lists.
In short, you'll find yourself becoming, well. . . a Finder.
- Rachel Edidin