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While my selection for most valuable publisher doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of the entire staff of iFanboy and may not coincide with your own either, it certainly ought to. Reflect and coincide, that is. In as much as it’s entirely accurate, which you’ll see in the paragraphs to come. That’s how editorials work.  

(EDIT: And Usagi Yojimbo as well! Thanks, Andrew, AKA WinTheWonderBoy.)

In broad terms, Dark Horse relishes in a heady blend of horror and science fiction, probably best known for Mike Mignola’s occult comedy Hellboy and franchise titles like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and yes, Star Wars. They’ve also been making use of the official Robert E. Howard license (to my delight). If we’re to look at the cliche of Marvel as representing “your” world and DC representing a heightened kind of mythic world, Dark Horse is, I dunno, the underworld. If you’re one for gallows humor, there is a life after Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith. And it’s this dichotomy of weirdness and mirth that won me over in the last year. 

There are trappings of these genres, embraced by Dark Horse, which truly lend themselves to this medium. While writers and artists of mainstream superhero comics (which I stress that I adore zealously) have been toiling for years to escape the over-wrought and flamboyant styles of the 90s, downplaying the sex and violence for a more sophisticated storytelling mode, horror and science fiction comics are defined by reckless abandon and experimentation. I won’t deny that each month I discover more and more artists using a fresh and exciting technique in mainstream books (and that’s to be lauded from ramparts) but this practice is still often viewed as risky and reserved for special occasions. It’s seen as more special than it really should be. Because diverging too far from the model could alienate the readership. There’s also an issue of economy of time and of clarity. So we’ve grown accustomed to serviceable scripts and renderings, which is a necessity in serialized storytelling on this scale. And when things like economy enter into the picture, what’s lost is authorship. That unique stamp. That spirit and heart of a work. When I pick up a new limited or ongoing series from Dark Horse, I’m almost always looking at a new and thrilling world furnished by something out of the ordinary. There’s something freer about these books. It’s that allure of the unfamiliar. And we see this with new books from Oni and Image and Icon and Vertigo as well, but I can’t help but notice that it’s Dark Horse with the uncanny track record. At least with me. What we’re looking at is the halfway house between the big dogs and the underdogs. A really reliable mutt. You can come to expect a level of time-tested quality, but what you don’t expect are all the other qualities which come with it.

Dark Horse, as I’ve mentioned, is the home to original series (some longstanding and others entirely new) as well as franchise adaptations. Two different animals, each with their own unique training challenges. And I think it’s balanced here. And I think the collective of writers and artists and letterers and editorial know what they’re doing and care about what they’re doing. Hellboy was once a brilliant showcase for Mike Mignola’s visual storytelling. It has expanded outward into a wider universe where he continues to mold the myths and folktales of many cultures through his own art and the art of people like Richard Corben, Duncan Fegredo, as well as the teams of filmmakers Tad Stones and Guillermo del Toro. And that’s just Hellboy proper. In 2008, the cast of the offshoot B.P.R.D. was illustrated by Guy Davis, Paul Azaceta, Herb Trimpe, John Severin, Jason Shawn Alexander, Jason Armstrong, and Ben Stenbeck. Josh Dysart and John Arcudi co-wrote a number of these books in 2008 and have helped to establish my favorite continuity cluster in comics. It would have been a terrific year for Hellboy, even if there hadn’t been a movie (which I enjoyed quite a bit).

 

And let’s not forget the new worlds being forged by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba (The Umbrella Academy) and Rick Remender and his ragtag team of “scientists” (which is the perfect way to describe artists like Jerome Opena, Eric Nguyen, and Eric Canete). Way is still finding his, well, way, but his ideas are so exciting. Given time, he’s going to create some thrilling comics. I truly believe he’s a master in the making. Remender ranks among the creators I admire most in the industry. He’s devastatingly inventive and has expressed such a passion for storytelling and  appreciation for the artistic talent he’s working with. Just give a listen to his Talksplode episode. Or, better still, pick up Gigantic and Fear Agent and The End League. We don’t rally for such books simply because they need more attention but because they deserve more attention, and you deserve to spend you attention on things which are delightful. 

Adaptations, be they book to screen, screen to book, book to other kind of book, screen to other kind of screen (let alone stages) are tough to pull off. They come with expectation, a pre-installed audience to contend with, and usually another writer’s style to marry with thine own. There’s a stereotype related to franchise adaptations in comics. They’re awful. But that’s not so much true these days. Literature to comic? Conan the Cimmerian and Solomon Kane are worthy of your time. I’ve written about Conan before, but Scott Allie and Mario Guevara’s Solomon Kane will surprise you. It’s Robert E. Howard’s thinking man’s adventure story. Pious and devastating, Kane is the Jonah Hex of  the Black Forest. It has the creepiest mood, and it’s one of the hidden treasures of 2008. One of the more popular books on the shelves is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.What more needs to be said than “racist Dracula?” Whedon’s treating this book as a continuation of the television series, which continues to be a ridiculously exciting concept. Just recently, the creators of Pushing Daisies mused that they might continue their story in comic form, undoubtedly due to the overwhelming reaction to the Buffy comics. That’s thrilling, because comics are being evaluated as a serious alternative to an arguably broken Hollywood system. If not broken, then imperfect. Comic readers are now seen as a receptive audience, a savvy audience, and the community is a sanctuary for ideas which have been deemed too unusual for prime time. Comics aren’t for the scraps anymore. They’re a refuge for good taste, for big and bright ideas, and for new and exciting stories. So, what better time to be the company at the forefront of adaptation? Which I hope you’ll agree is an art and not a synonym for bastardization. Not less than, but equal to other means of conveying story.

And so, submitted for your approval, and ideally, your further investigation, I give you Dark Horse, my selection for best publisher of 2008.