Mike Richardson (publisher)

Mike Richardson (born June 29, 1950) is an American publisher, writer, and Emmy-winning producer. In 1986, he founded Dark Horse Comics, an award winning international publishing house located in Milwaukie, Oregon.^[1] Richardson is also the founder and President of the Things From Another World retail chain and president of Dark Horse Entertainment,^[2] which has developed and produced numerous projects for film and television based on Dark Horse properties or licensed properties.^[3] In addition, he has written numerous graphic novels and comics series, including The Secret, Living with the Dead, and Cut as well as co-authoring two non-fiction books: Comics Between the Panels and Blast Off!^[4]

Early life

Richardson was born in Portland, Oregon. His family moved to Milwaukie, a suburb of Portland, in 1955. He is a graduate of Portland State University, where he majored in art and played for the university basketball team.

Career

While in college, Richardson built a list of clients as a freelance artist and had planned on starting an art agency under the name Dark Horse Graphics. In 1980, Richardson quit his job producing art and designing products for a furniture company located in Portland and moved to Bend, Oregon with his wife, Karie, and their newborn daughter, Michelle. He used a credit card with a $2,500.00 limit to open a small, pop culture retail store. The store’s name, Pegasus Fantasy Books, was chosen off a list of twenty suggestions he submitted to the State of Oregon when applying for a DBA registration. The store opened for business on January 1, 1980. After a name change to Things From Another World in 1993, the original store grew into a chain with as many as eleven locations in three states, including Universal Studio’s CityWalk in Los Angeles and Sony’s Metreon in San Francisco. The success of the on-line TFAW retail site led to a decision to limit expansion plans and, reduce the number of brick-and-mortar locations, in favor of increased emphasis toward on-line sales.

Dark Horse Comics

Richardson frequently hosted writers and artists at signings in his retail stores. He repeatedly heard these creators complain that they did not own or control the characters they created, a general practice continued from the industry’s earliest days. An idea began to form in his mind about creating a comics publishing company that offered ownership to those creating intellectual properties. Dark Horse Comics was born focusing on the rights of comics creators, and with the help of friend and writer Randy Stradley, released its first publication, Dark Horse Presents #1, in July 1986. Richardson paid 100% of the book’s profits to the creators featured in the book. Hoping to sell 10,000 copies in order to break even, DHP #1 topped the 50,000 sales mark. The company quickly grew from there. Paul Chadwick’s Concrete graduated from the pages of DHP into its own title, and became a critical, as well as financial, success. Many of the titles and characters created in the early days of Dark Horse were created, written, or plotted by Richardson and Stradley.

Over the years, Dark Horse grew behind creator owned projects such as Frank Miller and Geof Darrow’s Hard Boiled, Miller’s Sin City and 300 Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, and Eric Powell’s The Goon. Richardson’s interest in Japanese pop culture led to Dark Horse’s early entry into the American manga scene. The company achieved success with major Japanese titles, including Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf & Cub, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, and Masamune Shirow’s Ghost In the Shell. Following these successes, Dark Horse imported Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal and Kosuke Fujishim’s Oh My Goddess to the United States’ where the series' have become two of the longest running Japanese manga titles in the country.

In 1988, Dark Horse introduced a series based on Jim Cameron’s Aliens film. Breaking from comics’ tradition, the series was presented as a direct sequel, continuing the adventures of the movie’s main characters and related directly to the film’s plot. This approach was repeated by Dark Horse in subsequent series based on films such as Terminator, Predator, Star Wars, and the comics mega-hit, Aliens vs. Predator. This approach to film properties has become standard in the comics industry, and Dark Horse remains a leader in that category. Dark Horse is currently the largest privately owned comics company in North America.

Along with his other activities, Richardson continues to write comics. In 2014, his collaboration with Stan Saki, 47 Ronin, was placed on the American Libraries Teen reading List.

Dark Horse Entertainment

Early on, Dark Horse Comics received attention from the film industry, with producers and studios attempting to option the publisher’s titles. From the beginning, Richardson’s goal was to keep Dark Horse and its creators as involved in the development of its titles for entertainment as possible. It quickly became apparent that the only way to assure involvement was to act as a producer on those projects. In 1989, Richardson met producer Larry Gordon, who had heard about the company through his creative executive, Lloyd Levin. Gordon offered him the chance to get involved with a small horror film he was developing, As a result, Richardson set up Dark Horse Productions, later to become Dark Horse Entertainment, and received a co-producer credit on Many Cota’s Dr. Giggles. Two of Richardson’s own creations, The Mask, and TimeCop followed in 1994 and both topped the box office charts. In 2008, Richardson received an Emmy as Producer of the John Landis directed documentary, Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project. Richardson and DHE have been involved in producing over 30 film and television projects since 1992.

Personal life

Richardson is married with children. He names Charles Dickens and James Ellroy as his favorite writers, and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as his favorite album. He is also fond of basketball, guitars and fine wine.^[5] He resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Bibliography

Comics

Editor

• Cheval Noir (#1 – 23 1989)
• Aqua Blue: The Blue Planet (1990)
• The Adventures of Luther (#1 – 9, 1990, ISBN 978-1-59307-725-9)
• Indiana Jones & the Fate (#1 – 4, 1991)
• Andrew Vachss’ Hard Looks (#1 – 10, 1992, 1-56971-209-2)
• Andrew Vachss’ Hard Looks (1996)
• Dark Horse Presents (volume 2, #1 - 30, 2011)
• Dark Horse Presents (volume 3, #1 – 15, 2014)

Writer

• Boris the Bear (#1-12, 1986)
• Wacky Squirrel (#1-4, 1987)
• Wacky Squirrel Halloween Special (1987)
• Wacky Squirrel Summer Fun Special (#1, 1987)
• The Mark (1987)
• Godzilla (#1 -6, 1988)
• Insane (#1-2, 1988)
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (#4, 1991, ISBN 978-1-87857-436-7)
• Aliens: Countdown (1991)
• Predator: The Bloody Sands (story, 1992)
• Aliens Newts Tale (1992)
• Comics Greatest World (#1 – 4, 1993)
• Will To Power (#1 - 12, 1994, ISBN 978-1-59307-364-0)
• The Mask: Official Movie (1994)
• Star Wars: Crimson Empire (1998, ISBN 978-1-56971-355-6)
• Terror of Godzilla (1999)
• Star Wars: Crimson Empire II - Council of Blood
• Star Wars: Crimson Empire – Council (1999, ISBN 978-1-56971-410-2)
• Aliens: Genocide (story, 2000)
• The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings: Gone (2003)
• Adventures of the Yellow Jacket, Monarch of the Moon DVD insert comic)
• Cravan: Mystery Man of the 20th Century (2005, ISBN 978-1-59307-291-9)
• Living With The Dead (2007, ISBN 978-1-59307-906-2)
• The Secret (#1-4, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59307-821-8)
• Cut (2008, ISBN 978-1-59307-845-4)
• Return of the Gremlins (2008, ISBN 978-1-61655-669-3)
• The Occultist (2012, ISBN 978-1-59582-745-6)
• Star Wars: Crimson Empire (2012, ISBN 978-1-56971-355-6)
• 47 Ronin (2013, ISBN 978-1-59582-954-2)
• The Atomic Legion (2014, ISBN 978-1-61655-312-8)
• Father’s Day (2014, ISBN 978-1-61655-579-5)
• Underground (2014, ISBN 978-1-61655-416-3)
• Deep Gravity (2015, ISBN 978-1-61655-619-8)
• Echo (2016)
• 51 Deep (2016)

Books

• Comics: Between the Panels (ISBN 1-56971-344-8)
• Blast Off: Rockets, Rayguns, Robots and Rarities (ISBN 978-1-61655-009-7)

Filmography

Year	Film	Writer	Producer	Director	Notes
1992	Dr. Giggles		N	Manny Coto	Co-producer
1994	The Mask		N	Chuck Russell	Executive producer
	Timecop	N	N	Peter Hyams	Executive Producer
1995	Enemy		N		TV movie
1996	Barb Wire		N	David Hogan	Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Picture
	The Mask Animated		N		Executive Producer TV series
1997-1998	Timecop		N		Executive producer TV series
1999	Virus		N	John Bruno	Executive producer
	Mystery Men		N	Kinka Usher
1999-2001	Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot		N		Executive producer TV series
2003	Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision	N		Steve Boyum	Direct-to-DVD
2004	Hellboy		N	Guillermo del Toro
	Alien vs. Predator		N	Paul W. S. Anderson	Executive producer
2005	Monarch Of The Moon		N		Executive producer
	Splinter		N	Michael Olmos	Executive producer
	Son of the Mask		N	Lawrence Guterman	Executive Producer
2006	Hellboy: Sword of Storms		N	Tad Stones Phil Weinstein	Direct-to-DVD Executive producer Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program
	Driftwood		N	Tim Sullivan (director)
2007	Hellboy: Sword of Storms		N	Tad Stones Phil Weinstein	Direct-to-DVD Executive producer
	My Name Is Bruce		N	Bruce Campbell
	30 Days of Night		N	David Slade	Executive Producer
	Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project		N	John Landis	Emmy Award winner
2008	Hellboy II: The Golden Army		N	Guillermo del Toro
2012	Dark Horse Motion Comics		N		Internet series
2013	R.I.P.D.		N	Robert Schwentke
2015	Dark Matter		N		Executive Producer Television series
2016	The Legend of Tarzan		N	David Yates	Producer

Nominations and Awards

• 1997 Razzie Nomination for Barb Wire
• 1999 Eisner Awards Nominated Best Comics-Related Book - Comics Between the Panels – (author with Steve Duin)
• 2007 Emmy Nomination for Hellboy: Sword of Storms
• 2008 Emmy Award Won for Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Special - Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (producer)
• 2010 Overstreet Hall of Fame For contributions to comic book art.
• 2010 Governors’ Gold Award - State of Oregon for Contribution to the Arts
• 2012 Eisner Awards: Won for Best Anthology - Dark Horse Presents (editor)
• 2012 Harvey Awards: Won for Best Anthology - Dark Horse Presents (editor)
• 2013 Eisner Awards: Won for Best Anthology - Dark Horse Presents (editor)
• 2013 Harvey Awards: Won for Best Anthology - Dark Horse Presents (editor)
• 2014 Eisner Awards: Won for Best Anthology - Dark Horse Presents (editor)
• 2012 Harvey Awards: Won for Best Anthology - Dark Horse Presents (editor)
• 2014 Eisner Awards: Nominated for Best Limited Series – 47 Ronin (writer)
• 2015 American Library Association named Richardson's 47 Ronin to its Great Graphic Novels for Teens list

References

External links

• Mike Richardson at the Internet Movie Database
• Mike Richardson at the Grand Comics Database

• Mike Richardson at the Comic Book DB