Dark Horse Comics, publisher of Hellboy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and dozens of other popular licensed and independent titles, today announced a new initiative to distribute single issues of its comics in digital format through third party storefronts including Amazon Kindle and ComiXology, Google Play and Apple iBooks.
The fiercely independent Oregon-based publisher had recently authorized trade collections and graphic novels to be distributed through Amazon and other platforms, but today marks the first time that individual issues will be sold through channels other than the company’s own Dark Horse Digital app. Dark Horse was the only major comics publisher in North America to forge its own path online as competitors such as IDW, Image Comics, and market leaders DC Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment used relationships with distributors to broaden their digital reach.
Dark Horse was among the first publishers to build and deploy its own branded app to sell digital editions of its comics back in 2011, opting not to distribute through third parties or license existing technology from Comixology that was becoming pervasive across the industry. As the digital comics market expanded from zero to an estimated $100 million in 2014, Dark Horse stuck to its guns but ended up missing out on a large portion of that growth.
Early in 2015, the company began distributing collected editions digitally through independent comics app Sequential, then announced a deal to bring its trade catalog (distributed by Random House) to Amazon’s Kindle and ComiXology platforms in June.
“We launched our graphic novel catalog through comiXology last June and the sales have been incredible,” noted Dark Horse President Mike Richardson. “Now readers will have full access to our monthly comics for the first time ever.”
