[8][10] Dark Horse Comics holds a notoriety for being the most reputable publisher in regard to allowing creators to retain ownership of their work.

[11] Founder Mike Richardson created the company with creator rights in mind because of his frustration with the treatment of artists by comic publishers of the time.

[7] They have published several creator owned comics such as Frank Miller's Sin City and 300, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, and Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy.

[11] This model allows the company to pull poorly performing series while also retaining the ability to reprint past works without intense scrutiny.

[11] In 2006, The New York Times reported that "Dark Horse pays by the story or the page, and shares profit generated by comic books and related merchandise.

That is different from the standard work-for-hire arrangement at DC and Marvel: creators are paid for a specific story and perhaps receive royalties from collected editions, but the bulk of the revenue, and all of the merchandising opportunities, remain with the companies".

[8] Mike Richardson was an active follower of the Amateur Press Association (APA), an organization focused on critiquing comics through conventions, fan projects, and newsletters.

[8] After his success, Richardson began buying the rights to several titles including: Godzilla in 1987, Aliens, Predator in 1989, and Star Wars in 1991 (owned by Marvel prior to the Dark Horse Comics acquisition).

[11] In addition to this title, Miller introduced several other limited series set in dystopian societies including Give Me Liberty which ran from 1990-1991 and Hard Boiled.

[11][13] The Mask, a mini series from Mark Badger, debuted in Dark Horse Presents 10-20 in 1991 and had a successful film adaptation, starring Jim Carrey, in 1994.

[14] Dark Horse Comics created the imprint Legends and as part of their focus on creators, the publisher began working with Mike Mignola.

[11] Eisner Award winning Usagi Yojimbo, written and drawn by third generation Japanese-American artist, Stan Sakai debuted in Dark Horse Comics in 1996 as a monthly issue and ran until 2019.

[citation needed] In early 2017, Dark Horse Comic entered partnership with Crypton Future Media to publish official English-language Hatsune Miku-related manga.

[22] Both Forbes[23] and Publishers Weekly reported that "the investment stake is rumored to be about $20 million and will give Vanguard a majority interest in Dark House".

[35][36][37] Multiple news outlets highlighted that this deal gives Embracer Group access to Dark Horse's[36][38] "300-plus pieces of intellectual property".

Dark Horse isn't simply the fourth-largest comic book publisher in the U.S. industry, after all; it's also a company with a first-look deal with Netflix, as well as an ongoing relationship with Universal Content Productions.

)[citation needed] Other publications include Akira, Astro Boy, Berserk, Blade of the Immortal, Ghost in the Shell, Lone Wolf and Cub, Trigun and Blood Blockade Battlefront by Yasuhiro Nightow, Gantz, Hellsing and Drifters by Kouta Hirano, Blood+, Multiple Personality Detective Psycho, FLCL, Mob Psycho 100, and Oreimo.

Dark Horse also publishes a number of titles by the all-female Japanese manga artist group CLAMP, including Clover, Chobits, Okimono Kimono, Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Gate 7.

The DH Press imprint publishes novelizations of Dark Horse's more popular comic book titles, including Aliens and Predator.

The newest addition to M Press is an original graphic novel The Fifth Beatle by Vivek Tiwary, Andrew Robinson, and Kyle Baker, published in November 2013.

Its original purpose was to draw on Dark Horse properties but expanded to include such collectibles as Tim Burton's Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys, Joss Whedon's Serenity, and merchandise for the popular video-game franchise Mass Effect.

Dark Horse, working with Big Tent Entertainment and the NHK broadcasting corporation, brought Domo-kun to the United States with a series of products ranging from Qee figurines to journals and stationery sets.

Creators published under the Kitchen Sink line include Will Eisner, Frank Miller,[50] Harvey Kurtzman, Tony DiTerlizzi[51] and collections/anthology titles include work from Jack Davis, Will Elder, Art Spiegelman, S. Clay Wilson, Monte Beauchamp, Bob Powell, Justin Green, Trina Robbins, Harvey Pekar, Arnold Roth, and Al Jaffee.

This would include series such as The Goon, Hillbilly and Big Man Plans, as well as Brendon Small’s Galaktikon and Rebecca Sugar’s Pug Davis.

Some of these include Aliens, Army of Darkness (before Dynamite Entertainment acquired the license), Indiana Jones, Predator, RoboCop, The Thing, Star Wars, The Terminator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and its spin-off, Angel), Planet of the Apes, Let Me In, Ninja Gaiden, Plants vs. Zombies, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In 2013 CCP Games announced that Dark Horse would be publishing a series of comic books based on stories collected from players of the MMORPG EVE Online.

Additionally, the partnership is intended to be a gateway for Dark Horse to bring its comic book library to new foreign markets, with a particular focus on China".