Portland State University’s Branford P. Millar Library recently accepted a donation of three copies of every comic book ever published by Dark Horse Comics, instantly making the institution the first university in the United States to keep any such archive. Dark Horse is the third-largest comics publisher in the country after industry powerhouses Marvel and DC Comics; it’s best known for creator-owned material such as Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and Frank Miller’s Sin City and 300, as well as for publishing licensed series based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Predator, and Star Wars, among many others. Dark Horse has also published a great deal of American translations of Japanese manga, such as Akira, Oldboy, and Ghost in the Shell. Consider this a victory for the institutional acceptance of comics as an art form, or for PSU students looking to read an entire stack of My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way’s The Umbrella Academy series without having to spend a dime.
Comics 101 [Portland Monthly]