I was recently asked to participate in a symposium on comic-book licensing organized by the Albany Law School in New York. The topic was a look at Dark Horse’s history as a licensee, and how being a part of a licensing program can not only generate a few sales for our company, but also can add value to the underlying creative property itself.
Mike Richardson recognized this early on, beginning with properties like Aliens and the (believe it or not) then-dormant license known as Star Wars. The successes of these franchises put Dark Horse on the comic-book map. They also created value for Fox and Lucasfilm. Notable for Fox was Mike’s unheard-of notion to combine two successful properties -- Aliens and Predator. This created a brand-new franchise that spun off into toys, films, and whatever else you can think of.
With Star Wars, we filled in continuity gaps, created a whole prehistory with Tales of the Jedi, participated in the unique licensing experiment that resulted in Shadows of the Empire, and added a host of new characters to the Star Wars, mythos, most recently Darth Talon, who is emerging as a fan favorite.
We have reached out and sought opportunities to work with others on licensing programs, providing Star Wars comics to Hasbro for their toys, Sin City and Hellboy custom graphic novels for DVD packages, collaborations with Topps on Indiana Jones, Goon toys for Mezco . . . the list goes on. Most recently, we were delighted to introduce our new pal Domo to partners like Scholastic and Jones Soda.
We bring this sense of corporate adventure, or, as our more conservative execs refer to it, wild-eyed insanity, to the product line as well. We are always looking for ways to integrate the products into publishing, but we want to always be sure that we have the support and participation of the creators and the confidence that the choices of what to do are consistent with the subject matter and characters.
Which brings us to Umbrella Academy. Recently, addressing a group of comic-shop owners at the Diamond Retailer Summit in Las Vegas, we debuted our Umbrella Academy Umbrella (now on sale). I remarked at the time, “I know that’s why I got into comics.” It got a laugh, but at the same time the audience understood where we were coming from -- we aren’t an umbrella company and never will be, but this particular time it made sense. Kind of.
Our foray into the realm of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s exciting new series didn’t end there, however. Enlisting the talents of both creators as designers, we were able to bring forward a three-dimensional set of sculptures of the characters that are exciting and very true to Bá’s unique art style. Of course, having Mr. Bá himself to create design drawings for the sculptors, as well as to suggest whatever revisions or corrections were called for, made our jobs much easier. And don’t forget that when My Chemical Romance was only a gleam in Gerard Way’s eye, he was a “turnaround” artist for a toy company working on superhero action figures. So between the two of them, with a more-than-able assist from project manager Rebecca D’Madeiros, we have arrived at one of the niftiest sets of figures to hit comics in a long time.
Please watch for these new to Umbrella Academy items in your local store or online source, and support creator ownership and product licensing with your purchase. Dollars are scarce and getting scarcer, but we think there is always room for something that delivers value, collectibility, fun, and satisfaction. We’ll all be richer for it.
Yours till the dogwood gets fleas,
David Scroggy