Dark Horse Entertainment parent Embracer Group has replaced Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson as CEO, according to The Hollywood Reporter, quoting from a notice sent to Dark Horse business partners and creators. Embracer has appointed Jay Komas as interim CEO. Richardson founded Dark Horse in 1986; the company is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
Embracer’s statement described the goal of the move as “…to ensure that Dark Horse is positioned for continued success while continuing to serve creators partners, and fans at the highest level,” according to the THR report. The move is part of a plan to ‘better align Dark Horse within a more connected and forward-looking group structure.”
In his LinkedIn profile, Komas lists his most recent position as General Manager and Head of Franchise Development at Middle-earth Enterprises, a subsidiary of Embracer Group company Freemode, which like Dark Horse, is one of the companies in Embracer’s Entertainment and Services segment. He has held that role for around two years. An attorney, Komas has spent much of his career in general counsel and business affairs roles in videogame, tech, and streaming (MobiTV) companies.
Although Embracer’s Entertainment and Services segment showed a profit in its most recent quarter, in the previous quarter (ended September 30), it showed a loss, citing “difficult market conditions” for Dark Horse, which we interpreted as referring to the Diamond bankruptcy (see “Dark Horse, Middle Earth Parent Shows Loss“). In what now seems a bit ominous, in both the calendar Q3 and Q4 reports, Embracer referred to “several strategic initiatives” at Dark Horse to improve profitability.
Embracer announced the acquisition of Dark Horse in late 2021, buying 80% of the company from China-based Vanguard Visionary Assets, which acquired a majority of Dark Horse in 2018, and the other 20% from Richardson (see “Embracer Group Acquiring Dark Horse”). The purchase price was not disclosed. Embracer wrote down the value of its Dark Horse acquisition by $63 million in 2024 (see “Embracer Writes Down Dark Horse”). Embracer has extensively restructured since its Dark Horse acquisition, spinning off tabletop game company Asmodee and other assets, and shrinking its balance sheet.
Richardson, who expressed no interest in retiring the last few times we’ve seen him, played a key role in the development of the comics direct market, championing creator ownership and creative control, permanently improving the world of licensed comics, helping to introduce manga to the North American market, and aggressively developing comic properties into movies and TV shows.
We conducted an extensive interview with Richardson as part of our 50th anniversary of the direct market history project in 2023, in which he described his history with Dark Horse from its beginnings to recent years (see “ICv2 Interview: Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson”).
Source: ICv2
