PSU Magazine Winter 1999

From art major to business mogul, Mike Richardson is conquering the comic book world. By Susan Hauser '70 ike Richardson '77 stretches out his lanky frame in the executive's chair behind his large, wooden desk. Nearly every inch on the walls of his office is covered with framed comic art or movie posters; every shelf is lined with comic books and graphic nove ls, and any other spare space is taken up by action figures based on cinematic comic characters. For a kid of any age, and particularly for the 48-year-old publisher of Dark Horse Comics, this place feels like home. As a matter of fact, just down the comer from Dark Horse's marketing offices is the very spot where a little kid from the neighborhood used to buy comic books. This place was once Milwaukie Pharmacy, next door to Olsen's Five and Dime. Now the build– ing, on Milwaukie's Main Street, houses what is surely the town's most successful enterprise-the nation's third largest comic book publisher. And the little kid , who grew up to be