Tag: Dark Horse

Back in October, at the ICv2 digital summit, there was a lot of talk about whether digital comics would kill brick-and-mortar stores -- one way to stave off that dire future vision was the idea of digital store exclusives -- things that you can only download from a store. The video game industry has been doing this for a while. When Dark Horse announced their own digital initiative, retailer exclusives were part of the mix. (DC has also announced their intentions to offer retailer incentives, but they have yet to be made official.) Anyway, Dark Horse has just announced they will be making exclusive 8-page stories from their hottest titles available only through comics shops -- via the print-out-a-code-and-hand-it-over method. Wow. So simple. First titles involved include B.P.R.D.,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Mass Effect. PR below and a sample page from B.P.R.D. Casualties above.

Just a few weeks ago we were musing about how to get digital comics reviewed, and in our ongoing conversations about this is definitely seems to be the wave of the future. And now Dark Horse has made it official by joining NetGalley, a service that has been automating galley distribution for book publishers for a few years now. Instead of sending out review copies to a kabillion different sites and magazines, publishers can just send them to NetGalley -- reviewers sign up for an account and you're off to the races.

Now this is smart! After FCBD, Dark Horse is making its free comics available for free download for a limited amount of time. Downloads will be available starting Wednesday, May 11, and run through the end of the month. Criminal Macabre/Baltimore and Avatar: The Last Airbender/Star Wars: The Clone Wars will both be available via computer, Mac iOS device on the Digital.DarkHorse.com, or via the Dark Horse Comics bookshelf app.

The Dark Horse comics app has been live for 48 hours and the reviews are starting to come in as is some info on what's selling. While you can't get sales figures from Apple, they do list a running top ten of in-app purchases for all commercial apps. Here are the DH best sellers as of about noon today:

A few years ago Dark Horse made a splash by announcing an all-new project with CLAMP, the insanely popular supergroup of manga-ka behind such hits as CHOBITS, CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, and CLOVER. Since then, little has been heard as CLAMP was busy with other projects and scheduling was not possible. However, DH has just announced that GATE 7 is finally coming out in October and released the cover image.

Yesterday was the big day for the launch of Dark Horse's digital store -- and apparently it was a hit -- at least one server melted from the onslaught of fans, according to a press release:

More on recent changes at Dark Horse with publisher Mike Richardson.

More on recent changes at Dark Horse with publisher Mike Richardson.

CBR is reporting a round of layoffs at Dark Horse including editors Shawna Gore and Dave Land and sales assistant Max Sato. The Beat has learned that Tim Ervin, Gore's ex-husband, and another editor at Dark Horse, were also let go.

Two new positions, one a new face, one a familiar one.

Okay, some Dark Horse love for the new series RESIDENT ALIEN, one of a number of series premiering in the new DARK HORSE PRESENTS.

Here's the lineup: