Dark Horse will mark its 15th anniversary in 2002, and it's enjoying a rising tide of success with a publishing program focused on comics, graphic novels and licensed media tie-in properties.
Earlier this year, Dark Horse switched from Penguin-Putnam to LPC Group for its bookstore distribution. Michael Martens, Dark Horse v-p of sales and marketing, told PW that the move has increased the company's sales across the list.
Dark Horse's biggest increases this year came from its manga (Japanese comics in translation) list. "Manga started as a slow burn that's become a nice steady flame," explained Martens. In 2001, the company reintroduced new multivolume editions of two manga masterworks, Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf & Cub, to American audiences. Martens told PW that there are 40,000 copies of each series' early volumes in print, with later volumes selling in the 30,000-copy range. Martens also noted that Dark Horse has an extensive manga backlist, with proven sellers such as Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell, Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal and Kosuke Fujishima's Oh My Goddess! leading the pack. "We now have a generation growing up that's predisposed to reading manga," Martens said. "We've just scratched the surface of those sales."
Media tie-ins are also performing well for the Portland, Ore.—based publisher. Dark Horse's licensed graphic novels expand on established media properties. The house publishes tie-in graphic novels based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer that is managed with the input of the TV series creator, Joss Whedon. Next year, Dark Horse will release Fray, the first in a series of graphic novels written by Whedon that expands the Slayer mythos. Scott Allie, who edited Fray, said the graphic novel series offers "everything you'd get out of a movie if Joss had an unlimited budget and all the time in the world."
Next year's line-up also includes an English-language edition of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy series and new Star Wars graphic novels timed to tie in with the release next summer of the next Star Wars motion picture, Episode 2. Martens told PW that in 1999, Dark Horse sold more than 100,000 copies of the Phantom Menace graphic novel adaptation through the bookstore market. He expects the next film's adaptation and related graphic albums to do just as well.
Dark Horse will also maintain its commitment to distinguished graphic novelists in 2002. Releases will include two graphic albums by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, a new Hellboy graphic novel by Mike Mignola and both volumes of P. Craig Russell's graphic novel adaptation of The Ring of the Nibelung. The company is also pursuing a line of nonfiction books that will include Blast Off!, a guide to collectible space toys, and a series of comic art instruction books.
In recent years, Martens said, Dark Horse has experienced consistent growth on its overall list and he expects next year's schedule to put the company on even stronger footing in bookstores. He added, "People are really picking up that graphic novels are a viable format for telling great stories."
