ICv2 interviews Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson. He touches a bit on Star Wars and handling franchises:
Media tie-ins seem to be the thing across all businesses these days. Before Dark Horse, I don’t think many companies had that much success with what we call licensed titles. I think the reason for that is that it was basically a financial move on those companies’ parts and I don’t know that the books were always good. They could have slapped a logo on the cover and expect that to sell, and often the work inside the cover wasn’t that great or inspiring. We didn’t approach it that way. Being fans ourselves as opposed to business people, we decided to find properties that we were enthusiastic about. In those early days, Randy [Stradley] and I would plot out stories and bring a writer in, and we’d basically create sequels to the movies and try to do it in an intelligent way. Obviously the fans responded because our licensed books sold huge numbers and still do years later.
The Star Wars stuff is in part one; part two focuses on manga and creators, and part three discusses webcomics, ratings, and plans for the future.
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