Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Dark Horse Comics, Image, Netflix | Tagged: Mark Millar, millarworld

This is Why Netflix Moved Millarworld From Image Comics to Dark Horse

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool reported that Mark Millar's entire Image Comics Millarworld/Netflix line to Dark Horse Comics for 2024.

Published Wed, 06 Dec 2023 17:57:08 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Thu, 07 Dec 2023 19:03:58 -0600

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Article Summary

Mark Millar's Millarworld lineup leaves Image Comics for Dark Horse in 2024.
Millar acknowledges a successful 10-year run with Image Comics via Twitter.
Netflix consolidates by moving its owned Millarworld IPs to Dark Horse Comics.
Occam's Razor applies: The Dark Horse shift is simply strategic consolidation.

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool reported that Mark Millar was pulling his entire Image Comics Millarworld/Netflix line to Dark Horse Comics for 2024, following his recently completed The Ambassadors, Night Club, Magic Order, Nemesis and Big Game. And that Dark Horse is one of the publishers where Millarworld began, alongside Avatar, Marvel, Image and Top Cow, with Chosen at Dark Horse, later American Jesus at Image Comics and then Chosen One on Netflix, who paid around $25 million for the imprint. But why?

Mark Millar posted to Twitter, "A big thank you to all our pals at @ImageComics for a great 10 years as our publisher. We had a ball and produced some books we're all very proud of. V Best to that whole team on behalf of the Netflix/ Millarworld crew!" Yan Zhao Yang asked, "Congrats on the deal. Out of curiosity what were the main points that drew you to Dark Horse? Customer (creator) service? Quality of products? Willingness to deal? Public relations? Reputation?" Mark Millar replied, "All of the above. They're great!"

But on investigation and asking around, the answer is much, much simpler. Really, it is quite dull. Netflix owns Millarworld, the first content company they actually bought, for around $25 million. Netflix licenses all its intellectual property for comic books to Dark Horse Comics, such as Stranger Things, Masters Of The Universe, and The Witcher, while adapting any Dark Horse comic books to the screen, such as Polar, Usagi Yojimbo, Chickenhare and Umbrella Academy, with the likes of Bang!, Mind MGMT, Revenge Inc., and Lady Killer.

So this is all about consolidation; Netflix is moving the comic book publishing deal for the company it owns to the company it already extended its publishing/licencing deal with last year. Consolidation. It's that simple. And since Netflix owns Millarworld, that's what happened. Occam's Razor wins again.

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