Portland State Magazine Fall 2008

is an added bonus, says Spalding, particularly for PSU's grow– ing international student presence; the company licenses and distributes in more than 50 countri es. DARK HORSE is an economic as well as creative success story. And it's the job of Neil Hankerson, BS '72, to worry about rhe borrom line rather than rhe storyline. When rhe self-described "business guy" joined up with Dark Horse in January 1987, his re ponsibiliries included "everything-there were three of us." Today, the work force hovers at around 125, with 10 rimes char many independent contractors contributing everything from scorylines to lettering. As Dark Horse has expanded inco merchandise and entertainment (the movies Hellboy, Bellboy fl Timecop, and TheMask, to name a few) , so coo has Hanker– son's role, overseeing business development, licensing, publish– ing, legal issues, information technology-anything having to do with the business side. "The comic fanatic among us is Mike," says Hankerson, when asked co pick a favorite Dark Horse publication, though he admits he's partial to the Star Wars stories. Several figurines from char "galaxy far, far away" line his office, which serve borh as decor and co "remind fo lks we do more than publish comics." Indeed, merchandising has proven to be a lucrative sideline for Dark Horse-no surprise for a company chat evolved out of Richardson's chain of Things From Another World comic book retail shops. Today, Dark Horse Deluxe produces tie-in produce for its own characters and for other companies', rang– ing from Peanuts and Popeye to Dilbert and Domo, a Japanese public television network's popular mascot. The PSU collec– tion will include many of these items as well. Meanwhile, Dark Horse has moved aggressively co capture a stake in Web 2.0, and now has over 63,000 "friends" on MySpace, more than DC (22,000+) or Marvel (61,000+), says Hankerson. Its Dark Horse Presents appears as an exclusive online feature, www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents. NEARLY 3,000 PIECES have been catalogued so far, and University Librarian Helen Spalding hopes that the Dark Horse collection will begin co attract donations of related ma– terials, positioning PSU as a research hub for graphic novels, comics, sequential arc, and other works. Logistics have proved challenging, from space requirements co the rime-intensive assessment and categorizing of each tide. In addition co cataloging information like author and publi– cation date, library staff logs names of illusrracors, engravers, and colorists-artisans whose contributions might otherwise be lost. There have been plenty of volunteers for the cask, says Spalding, adding char the collection is "more fun co work with than some ocher things." Assembling rhe archives has been "a long and arduous pro– cess," says Richardson, but one that he and Hankerson agree is worthwhi le, from an academic perspective, as well as the practical matter of having a backup set of the collection. For Richardson in particular, arch iving rhe comic form, both in library collections and through Dark Horse's own reprints of forgotten classics, serves as a seep coward saving a "great his– tory being lose." "Ir's one of the few original American arc forms-like jazz," says Richardson. If its impact remains undervalued, then "education needs to rake place." And what better place co begin than rhe Dark Horse alma mater? ■ j. David Santen, Jr., is a Portlandfreelance writer. Copyright left to right: Buffy the Vampire Slayer@2OOO Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Planet of the Apes0 2OO1 Twentieth Century Fox film Corporation; Aliens: Earth War #2©1990 Twentieth Century Fox film Corporation; Emily the Strange: Lost, Dark, and Bored©Cosmic Debris Etc., Inc. FALL 2008 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 17