For the longest time, in the comic book industry, “Dark Horse” and “Star Wars” were synonymous with each other. They created a rich and extensive library of alternate-canon storylines from a galaxy far far away. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked — I mean, Disney got involved.
Dark Horse has worked with a lot of properties, and a lot of partners, but their latest partnership with the cast of Critical Role seems to be working out well for them. They’ve just announced their third limited series based on the popular D&D liveplay show…this one a prequel. Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins Series III will take you back to the world of the original campaign for more pre-campaign tales never before told.(IGN broke the news and first published the cover art below.)
Critical Role is the nation’s most popular D&D liveplay series, and it’s now a multimedia experience. There’s an official Critical Role campaign book issued by D&D itself. There’s an animated series on the way, and the makers even have their own board game publishing label now. This new announcement from Dark Horse, a Critical Role comic book, is just the latest product on the pile at this point.
In a few days Netflix will debut the second season of their Umbrella Academy TV show, based on the comic series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. You could watch this family of superhero wannabes have adventures, or you could live them. The experience will soon be replicated in the form of a tabletop card game, and it’s on Kickstarter this moment.
Dark Horse Comics has been publishing material related to the Alien and Predator movies for nearly its entire existence. They took a chance on an Aliens book in 1988 and it took off, paving the way for countless expanded universe stories, and acquired Predator in 1989. It was Dark Horse that came up with the idea of merging the two properties, something the movie studio later adapted for itself.
The Umbrella Academy is returning for a second shot at greatness on Netflix…but its members cannot physically reunite to promote that fact! Fortunately this season was already filmed pre-pandemic, but getting a trailer together required some remote cooperation.
Dark Horse’s run of informational Zelda picture-books has become one of their most lucrative ventures — so much so that they’ve announced an expansion into other Nintendo properties. It was revealed today that Mario is getting his first giant heavy tome filled with behind-the-scenes information and amazing character art blowups. Chibi Robo, could you be next?
The Hellboy films have been very much cult-classics, and were starred and helmed by fan-favorite director Guillermo Del Toro and actor Ron Perlman. But now, a reboot of the films is coming, and with it a new star in David Harbour. At San Diego Comic Con, the actor talked about the original comics, and why Hellboy is actually a perfect hero for where we are right now:
In 2013 Dark Horse, in arrangement with Nintendo, published an English translation of Hyrule Historia, a thick hardcover full of art and sketches from every game in the Legend of Zelda Series up to Skyward Sword. It sold extremely well and was followed up with Art and Artifacts earlier this year, containing everything that didn’t make it into the first book.
Comics are a funny thing, as sometimes you’d like to think about certain comic characters coming together, but it seems totally impossible for one reason or another. Yet, in recent years we’ve seen some of the most improbable team-ups ever happen. Batman and Green Hornet teamed up for the second time in history, then Batman met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Justice League is currently teaming up with the Power Rangers,and now, Wonder Woman is about to meet Conan The Barbarian.
Prepare to feel old: Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about to turn 20. On March 10, 1997 a TV adaption of an obscure 1992 movie appeared on an upstart network barely anybody watched…and it grew to become one of the most popular and influential programs ever made. There was nothing like it at the time and the show set the blueprint for genre television as we know it today. Every single urban fantasy or superhero series produced since that time owes something to it (or borrows from it outright). Buffy Summers saved the world. A lot.
With more than 10 million players across all platforms, Overwatch has become a huge success in its short lifespan. That popularity is now crossing over into other mediums as Blizzard has revealed that a graphic novel based on the game is being developed.