Mike Richardson had been pretty involved in the retail/distribution side.  He started his first store with a credit card, with a $2500 limit, then built that to a chain of eleven stores, before starting the publishing side.  He was smart to start with black & white and push a real alternative and the initial issue of DHP sold 50,000 copies, on a break even of 10,000.  He attracted a lot of talent early, with creative ownership.  Once he put out that first Aliens mini, he had a massive hit on his hand.  Then, getting Byrne, Miller, and Mignola to do stuff with them brought the fanboys along; not to mention the speculators.

The closest I thought Dark Horse got to getting themselves in trouble was when they launched the Comics Greatest World line. A lot of it was pretty derivative and fairly average; but, he had enough hits within it (X, Ghost, Barb Wire) to cover the others.  Plus, Aliens and Predator were doing big business and Star Wars was doing well, with revival fever.  On top of it, they got some serious cash for movie options, which went into the business.  That was the other thing; it appeared that he put the profits into the company, rather than skimming the lion's share off the top (at least, that's how it appeared from the outside).

Eclipse had problems with the Mulaney brothers, who I've heard some stories about some questionable behaviors.  Cat Yronwode could be Jekyll and Hyde, which caused issues with creators.  It sounded like things kind of went with big highs and lows there.


I covered Eclipse in my Other Guys thread and I had a ton of material from them, both comics and graphic novels; and, later, scans.  Just a treasure trove of material.  I've been holding off on Dark Horse, since they are still going.  I have to get around to doing the A Distant Soil review, then I plan on going into Image, then Star*Reach, then, maybe, Dark Horse. 

Oh, I'd put Eclipse ahead of Comico.  Eclipse had such a breadth in their material and just a really nice visual mix.  Comico had a lot of great material and some very good; but, there was some real turbulence there and they only had a couple of really good years.  Eclipse had ten really good years, before the wheels came off and they stayed in the fight until the end.  Comico went downhill fast after the fiasco of trying to sell on newsstands and with behind-the-scenes turmoil.

First was spectacular until DC lured away (or back) most of their top creators.  The Classics Illustrated revival was doomed to failure, despite some really nice work on the series.