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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 7, 2014 16:59:49 GMT -5
That's true... I forgot about the Mignola stuff. I sorta including taking over from another publisher (like Usagi) when I say 'licensing', even though it's not the same, it's still different from home grown talent.
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Post by dupersuper on Nov 7, 2014 17:23:46 GMT -5
It's so weird being reminded of early Image, with all the books I'm getting by them these days.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2014 19:44:51 GMT -5
I'd like to say Dark Horse had higher standards, but that probably isn't it. This is around the time they were trying to start up their own super hero shared universe. It's possible they just didn't offer a better deal than Mirage, but I would be surprised if they hadn't been contacted early on. Mirage/Tundra was already in pretty desperate financial straits at this point. Eastman had really overcommitted to Tundra, and he was spending money like water with little return. It was a combination of advances to creators that never produced, and general mismangement on poor marketing choices like huge lavish parties to court creators. Eventually, Eastman would sell Tundra to Denis Kitchen for $1 just to get it off his hands. (This is why From Hell had such a checkered publication history.)
Besides, Tundra was more interested in different material than your standard superhero faire. It's kinda telling that their exclusive artist was Simon Bisley, not someone like McFarlane or Lee. Tundra wanted to be seen as the prestige imprint, but that bit them in the ass.
Ah, I meant to say Malibu.  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2014 19:46:13 GMT -5
Dark Horse had a nice selection of high quality creator owned stuff early on. That wasn't their exclusive output though of course.
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Post by fanboystranger on Nov 7, 2014 19:50:02 GMT -5
Dark Horse had a nice selection of high quality creator owned stuff early on. That wasn't their exclusive output though of course. And Dark Horse Presents had an incredible run for several years. This is the time of Sandman, etc, but DHP was arguably the best comic being published for a good half decade around 1990. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Nov 11, 2014 13:22:37 GMT -5
In terms of why McFarlane and Liefeld went to Malibu, I found the answer in an interview they did in Wizard #9. They were actually doing a lot with Dark Horse right at the start, doing an ad exchange to promote each other's comics and even talking crossovers right from the publication of Youngblood #1, but they provide two reasons as to why they went through Malibu:
1. Malibu had been courting Liefeld since his days at DC, so the relationship was already there and the conversations had been in the works for a long while.
2. Malibu was more willing to aggressively promote Image than other companies they talked to. Malibu had recently rebranded itself in an attempt to stay viable (as per the Market Watch section of Wizard #1), and probably needed Image even more than Image needed them.
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