Star Wars (Dark Horse)
We wanted to create sequels to the movies we loved," says Mike Richardson, the comics fan and entrepreneur who challenged publishing giants Marvel and DC in 1986 when he founded Dark Horse Comics -- one of the most successful independent publishers in the industry. Though it was Marvel who first got the ball rolling on Star Wars comics in the 1970s and 1980s, Dark Horse revitalized the license in the early 1990s and proved it could do as good if not better a job than either of the Big Two.
"The Star Wars comics that came before us tended to look like other comic books," explains Richardson. "They were line art with a four-color process and an inker putting in the black outline. It looked very traditional. They also had giant rabbits with ray guns. That, for me, didnt really suit the Star Wars universe that well. [At Dark Horse] we wanted to make it very cinematic and as close to the films as possible."
