Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson has been ousted from the company after 40 years. Peril of the Brutal Dark from Vertigo sells out. Image’s Invincible Team-Up covers drive half a million in sales.
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Episode Transcript:
Dark Horse CEO out.
Another Vertigo title sells out.
Images’s Invincible team-up variants drive big sales.
This is Comic Book Club News for March 6, 2026.
Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson Out Of Company After 40 Years:
In a true shocker for the comic book industry, Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson, who founded the company 40 years ago in 1986, has been let go, and replaced by a gaming executive.
The news came yesterday (March 4) from The Hollywood Reporter, who framed it as “is out,” which makes it clear that Richardson did not leave by choice. Instead, it was the choice of Embracer, a Swedish company that mostly specializes in owning other video game companies. Richardson sold Dark Horse to Embracer in 2022, and though he stayed on as CEO since then, he’s subsequently been replaced by gaming exec Jay Komas, who will be the interim CEO of the company.
Konas, again per THR, was campaigning for Richardson’s job for months, but also doesn’t have any Hollywood experience. He has worked in “senior leadership roles at Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and LucasArts” with a “background in managing and expanding IP across multiple categories.” Given Dark Horse helped pioneer IP back in the ’80s with licensed sequels to Aliens, Terminator and Predator, as well as Star Wars, it’s not totally out of left field. And there have been plenty of other Dark Horse comics that have made the leap to movies and TV, from The Umbrella Academy and Sin City to The Mask.
But — to be frank — seeing the company pivot from a comic book lifer like Richardson to a gaming exec who may or may not be interested in comics is alarming. Richardson is so passionate about the medium he left his job and took out a loan in 1980 to open Pegasus Fantasy Books, which later became the chain Things From Another World. He then launched Dark Horse Comics off the success of the store(s) in 1986, and expanded what the company does dramatically since then, with a long list of books, monthly comic books, collectibles, and more.
What this means for the future of Dark Horse — as well as Richardson — is TBD. As is, Embracer certainly picked the dark horse candidate.
Another Vertigo Title, Peril of the Brutal Dark, Sells Out:
DC’s renewed Vertigo lineup has pulled off a hat trick, with Peril of the Brutal Dark becoming the third title in a row to sell out and go back to print.
The book by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips follows Bleeding Hearts and End of Life in the second printing club. Curiously, The Nice House by the Sea #7, which kicked off the line, did not seem to sell out; though maybe given that’s a known property and halfway through a sequel series, retailers knew how much of that to order in advance.
The second printing of Peril of the Brutal Dark will feature a new logo coloring cover, and a variant featuring Hayden Sherman’s inks from their original variant. Both covers will hit stores on April 22.
Invincible Team-Up Variants Drive 500,000 In Sales:
Image has been on a tear lately — and drawn a fair amount of scrutiny — for its comic book sales. While titles like D’Orc, White Sky and Narco have been selling out, the publisher’s upcoming Invincible Team-Up covers have reportedly been driving big sales across the board. Specifically, half a million copies in sales.
Per Bleeding Cool, via their sources in Image, which means Image sent it to them directly to post, let’s be honest, the March-debuting team-up covers drove an average order of 14,000 copies per title, for 35 titles. While that surely varies per book and per store, that’s a big bump for Image titles that may regularly get sub-5,000 orders per copy, or even less… Despite all the crowing about the health of the comic book industry lately, there’s still a wide gap between the top-selling titles and the bottom-selling ones.
With more programs like this in the offing — Gert from I Hate Fairyland takes over in April — will the Image Revolution 2.0 continue? Stay tuned.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And this podcast is an Invincible team-up as well, so you gotta listen to it 14,000 times.
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
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