Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I realize we've been doing this for twenty years. Twenty years! Back in 1986, I was a freelance penciller, pounding out Dr. Strange and such when Mike Richardson served this loony idea to start publishing comics. After all, an army of upstart yahoos were making small fortunes pumping out black-and-white comics, mostly based on the same soon-to-be-a-joke formula. So, Mike thought, if you put actual professional artists and writers together and let them do their thing, you should be able to produce something worthwhile and maybe even profitable.
I'd been kicking around this idea called Black Cross for a long time, and Mike wanted to use it as the lead feature in Dark Horse Presents #1. Figuring the time had come to stop kicking the idea and actually do something with it, I agreed. Along with Paul Chadwick (the real star of the book) and Randy Emberlin, we created the material for DHP #1, released it in the summer of 1986, and the damn thing became a hit. Dark Horse followed up with more Dark Horse Presents and a growing list of titles. To be honest, we lucked out some. Had we started a year sooner or a year later, I'm not sure I'd be writing about this success story. We were in the right place at the right time with the right idea.
. . . And twenty years went by just like that. Dark Horse has seen its share of triumphs (and a few tragedies) and has somehow survived the periodic biblical plagues that have ravaged the comics industry over the years. Luckily, we seem to be beyond those days when we feared the ground would open up and swallow us, as it did countless other publishers. This game ain't easy, and even a boatload of money can't guarantee a roster spot. In fact, other than Dark Horse's building a brand that actually stands for something, and to see the great work that we've published, I'm most often pleased to see how each fat-walleted big talker who enters the fray and threatens to change the industry forever goes down in flames, a fire of cash and hubris. I think we've earned a little bit of righteous schadenfreude.
To be sure, luck is a component of any success, and we've been lucky: lucky to have begun when readers were looking for new voices, lucky to have gained the confidence early on of some of the most talented creators out there, lucky that we saw the value of diamonds lying on the ground that bigger companies seemed too busy and bloated to notice. But we've also succeeded because of what we've done and what we stand for, and that stuff is bought with love and sweat, not with money.
While it's better to be lucky than good, it's far better to be lucky and good.
-Chris Warner