Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

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Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by possumgrease »

https://www.newsarama.com/38170-conan-t ... -2019.html
I have no idea how much the loss of Star Wars and now Conan will hurt the bottom line, but I'm sure this is tough on Dark Horse.

I still haven't read the Dark Horse Conan material (despite all of the positive reviews from board members), but I plan to soon. I assume Marvel will promptly print omnibus of their old material and "Legends" collections of the DH material like they did with Star Wars.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by grendeljd »

Wow - I wonder how & why they got the license back... would they deliberately just be trying to snatch some *more* dollar share away from Darkhorse? Are Conan comics that big of a seller these days? I love Conan (as I've probably mentioned elsewhere on this board recently), I have a near complete run of the Marvel colour comic series, but I never got into the DH stuff. Nor would I be inclined to try it out just because Marvel has it back.

Also, I sincerely hope that image is just meant as a promotional thing - nobody needs to have Conan actually become merged into the Marvel superhero universe (not even as a character from & existing in a long distant past era).
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by superman-prime »

id think dark horse is running out of steam not a lot left after star wars and many of those were great along with conan stuff

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by Zhuge1 »

superman-prime wrote:id think dark horse is running out of steam not a lot left after star wars and many of those were great along with conan stuff
Eh -- Dark Horse has been around for a long time and they had a lot of stuff prior to Star Wars and Conan. They'll likely be fine.

Regarding Conan -- Marvel did a good job with the title back when they had it. I only read a few of the Dark Horse Conan comics years ago and thought they were pretty decent as well.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by Cyberstrike »

grendeljd wrote:Wow - I wonder how & why they got the license back... would they deliberately just be trying to snatch some *more* dollar share away from Darkhorse? Are Conan comics that big of a seller these days? I love Conan (as I've probably mentioned elsewhere on this board recently), I have a near complete run of the Marvel colour comic series, but I never got into the DH stuff. Nor would I be inclined to try it out just because Marvel has it back.

Also, I sincerely hope that image is just meant as a promotional thing - nobody needs to have Conan actually become merged into the Marvel superhero universe (not even as a character from & existing in a long distant past era).

Some rumors are that since Disney is buying Fox and Fox MIGHT own the rights to Conan as an IP, so back to Marvel he goes. If true chances are you will see Aliens, Prometheus, Predator, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse possibly jump to Marvel.
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by superman-prime »

and joss would ya make more firefly if thats the case please

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by grendeljd »

Cyberstrike wrote:
grendeljd wrote:Wow - I wonder how & why they got the license back... would they deliberately just be trying to snatch some *more* dollar share away from Darkhorse? Are Conan comics that big of a seller these days? I love Conan (as I've probably mentioned elsewhere on this board recently), I have a near complete run of the Marvel colour comic series, but I never got into the DH stuff. Nor would I be inclined to try it out just because Marvel has it back.

Also, I sincerely hope that image is just meant as a promotional thing - nobody needs to have Conan actually become merged into the Marvel superhero universe (not even as a character from & existing in a long distant past era).

Some rumors are that since Disney is buying Fox and Fox MIGHT own the rights to Conan as an IP, so back to Marvel he goes. If true chances are you will see Aliens, Prometheus, Predator, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse possibly jump to Marvel.
Holy crap. That would be a huge exodus of IP's to Marvel! Here's hoping that the new Berger Books do well for Darkhorse... if all those properties get sucked out of Darkhorse, now thats probably worrisome for them!
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by IMJ »

I wonder if their acquisition of this has anything to do with the long rumored 3rd Conan movie that would wrap up Arnold's trilogy of sorts.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by myron »

IMJ wrote:I wonder if their acquisition of this has anything to do with the long rumored 3rd Conan movie that would wrap up Arnold's trilogy of sorts.
that might have some traction...


I really liked the Dark Horse Conan stuff...well written and decent art.

Hope Marvel isn't acquiring it just to bury it... :hope:
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by Sven the Returned »

myron wrote:
IMJ wrote:I wonder if their acquisition of this has anything to do with the long rumored 3rd Conan movie that would wrap up Arnold's trilogy of sorts.
that might have some traction...


I really liked the Dark Horse Conan stuff...well written and decent art.

Hope Marvel isn't acquiring it just to bury it... :hope:
If it has a sales jump like Star Wars i will lose all faith in the rationality of the comic book market.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by geocarr »

Cyberstrike wrote:Some rumors are that since Disney is buying Fox and Fox MIGHT own the rights to Conan as an IP, so back to Marvel he goes. If true chances are you will see Aliens, Prometheus, Predator, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse possibly jump to Marvel.
Aliens vs. The Brood vs. The X-Men

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by armlessphelan »

I don't know if Disney is going to give Marvel the comic rights to all of the properties they buy. Marvel isn't making the comics starring the Disney princesses for example. I think that Marvel will just publish books they had previously: Conan and Star Wars being big examples.

And Dark Horse isn't like, say, Dynamite or IDW. They aren't wholly reliant on licensed comics to keep their business afloat. They also publish a number of creator-owned stuff and also own their own characters (the CGW stuff) that they can trot out again. (Man, do I wish the Project Black Sky line had lasted longer. But there's only so much room for shared universes.)
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by Cyberstrike »

armlessphelan wrote:I don't know if Disney is going to give Marvel the comic rights to all of the properties they buy. Marvel isn't making the comics starring the Disney princesses for example. I think that Marvel will just publish books they had previously: Conan and Star Wars being big examples.

And Dark Horse isn't like, say, Dynamite (sucks!) or IDW. They aren't wholly reliant on licensed comics to keep their business afloat. They also publish a number of creator-owned stuff and also own their own characters (the CGW stuff) that they can trot out again. (Man, do I wish the Project Black Sky line had lasted longer. But there's only so much room for shared universes.)

Wrong without Aliens, Prometheus, Predator, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly and that is why they have been grabbing up a lot of rights to video games Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Tomb Raider, The Witcher, and Halo to make up for the loss of Star Wars. If they were lose all of their license IPs Dark Horse would be out of business in a less than a year. The rest of what they publish is cult-classic stuff like the Hellboy Universe and offbeat creator-owned stuff, the rest of their own stuff like CGW, The Mask, and Timecop (when was the last time that 2 had a comic book series) are small nostalgia cult classics at best who without the cheesy 90s movies no one would remember them.

IIRC over 40% of IDW's output is from Hasbro alone and Dynamite should go out of business since they're setting on a bunch of IPs and not doing a damn thing with them.
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by armlessphelan »

I could see Dark Horse surviving if they went the Image comics route and solely published creator-owned stuff. But that's a moot point because, as you pointed out, they have a lot of video game licenses that have nothing to do with Disney or FOX. Dark Horse will be fine. Honestly, depending on much the license is, losing a title might not hurt the bottom line at all. (Star Wars was their best-selling product for YEARS, but the license was so expensive that when they lost it they really didn't lose much in the way of income.)
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by otomo »

Tough break for Dark Horse or Conan fans? :)
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by maraxusofkeld »

Hopefully they did not integrate him into the normal Marvel universe, but the promo shot looks to show otherwise facepalm.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by grendeljd »

maraxusofkeld wrote:Hopefully they did not integrate him into the normal Marvel universe, but the promo shot looks to show otherwise facepalm.
I wouldn't interpret that promo poster literally.

Not that they *wouldn't* do it, but I doubt they will actually put him in Marvel continuity. I don't think they did the last time, back in the 70's/80's - but then again, it's a wholly different company now.
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by dornwolf »

Cyberstrike wrote:
armlessphelan wrote:I don't know if Disney is going to give Marvel the comic rights to all of the properties they buy. Marvel isn't making the comics starring the Disney princesses for example. I think that Marvel will just publish books they had previously: Conan and Star Wars being big examples.

And Dark Horse isn't like, say, Dynamite (sucks!) (sucks!) or IDW. They aren't wholly reliant on licensed comics to keep their business afloat. They also publish a number of creator-owned stuff and also own their own characters (the CGW stuff) that they can trot out again. (Man, do I wish the Project Black Sky line had lasted longer. But there's only so much room for shared universes.)

Wrong without Aliens, Prometheus, Predator, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly and that is why they have been grabbing up a lot of rights to video games Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Tomb Raider, The Witcher, and Halo to make up for the loss of Star Wars. If they were lose all of their license IPs Dark Horse would be out of business in a less than a year. The rest of what they publish is cult-classic stuff like the Hellboy Universe and offbeat creator-owned stuff, the rest of their own stuff like CGW, The Mask, and Timecop (when was the last time that 2 had a comic book series) are small nostalgia cult classics at best who without the cheesy 90s movies no one would remember them.

IIRC over 40% of IDW's output is from Hasbro alone and Dynamite (sucks!) should go out of business since they're setting on a bunch of IPs and not doing a damn thing with them.
Sad thing is they really don't push those game titles all that much. You'd think there would be a natural crossover between comic and game fans but video game based comics just don't seem to have the gas to really sell or be promoted.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by superman-prime »

i miss the old avp stuff from them wish they would go back to alot of their roots

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by armlessphelan »

dornwolf wrote:
Cyberstrike wrote:
armlessphelan wrote:I don't know if Disney is going to give Marvel the comic rights to all of the properties they buy. Marvel isn't making the comics starring the Disney princesses for example. I think that Marvel will just publish books they had previously: Conan and Star Wars being big examples.

And Dark Horse isn't like, say, Dynamite (sucks!) (sucks!) (sucks!) or IDW. They aren't wholly reliant on licensed comics to keep their business afloat. They also publish a number of creator-owned stuff and also own their own characters (the CGW stuff) that they can trot out again. (Man, do I wish the Project Black Sky line had lasted longer. But there's only so much room for shared universes.)

Wrong without Aliens, Prometheus, Predator, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly and that is why they have been grabbing up a lot of rights to video games Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Tomb Raider, The Witcher, and Halo to make up for the loss of Star Wars. If they were lose all of their license IPs Dark Horse would be out of business in a less than a year. The rest of what they publish is cult-classic stuff like the Hellboy Universe and offbeat creator-owned stuff, the rest of their own stuff like CGW, The Mask, and Timecop (when was the last time that 2 had a comic book series) are small nostalgia cult classics at best who without the cheesy 90s movies no one would remember them.

IIRC over 40% of IDW's output is from Hasbro alone and Dynamite (sucks!) (sucks!) should go out of business since they're setting on a bunch of IPs and not doing a damn thing with them.
Sad thing is they really don't push those game titles all that much. You'd think there would be a natural crossover between comic and game fans but video game based comics just don't seem to have the gas to really sell or be promoted.
The big exception to this rule seems to have been Tomb Raider, especially the Top Cow run. But it isn't doing so well under Dark Horse, unless trades are a big seller.
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by superman-prime »

the old preditor and aliens stuff was great along with dark empire 1 2 and shodows

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by The Dirt Gang »

Not sure how I feel about this. I read a few trades of the Busiek/ Nord run and they were quite good.

Side note: 1 of the trades had some great conversations via letters between R.E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. It was a great addition.

My mom was a big fan of the 70s Marvel Conan run. I still have her collection.

Side note: My dad was a big fan of Katy Keene and Romance comics. Go figure!

Part of me fears what Disney/Marvel buying IPs could mean in the long run for some of the more stable smaller publishers, but I'm hopefully this could mean more Conan movies particular Arnold's King Conan.
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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by maraxusofkeld »

The Dirt Gang wrote:Not sure how I feel about this. I read a few trades of the Busiek/ Nord run and they were quite good.

Side note: 1 of the trades had some great conversations via letters between R.E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. It was a great addition.

My mom was a big fan of the 70s Marvel Conan run. I still have her collection.

Side note: My dad was a big fan of Katy Keene and Romance comics. Go figure!

Part of me fears what Disney/Marvel buying IPs could mean in the long run for some of the more stable smaller publishers, but I'm hopefully this could mean more Conan movies particular Arnold's King Conan.
Disney is starting to own too much IPs. Look how the comic end of Marvel has suffered since their acquisition of the company. When was the last time that DC consistently outsold Marvel each month? Maybe for a time in the early 90's?

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by whovian »

I think Marvel mostly wants to clean up their existing library of Conan material and repackage them in Omnibus format like they did with Master of Kung Fu. For that reason alone I'm excited about Conan being back at Marvel.

And could it be that Marvel as a whole anticipates a future lack of interest in superhero films and maybe wants to hedge their bets on eventually releasing a Conan movie at least five years down the line? Though for now it looks like Amazon is doing a TV series.

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Re: Tough Break for Dark Horse - Conan to Marvel in 2019

Post by geocarr »

whovian wrote:Though for now it looks like Amazon is doing a TV series.
Interesting... :hm: I hadn't heard anything about that.
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