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Look who's on the buses in #PDX – my old boss at Dark Horse Comics!

A photo posted by Anina Bennett (@bigredhair) on Feb 4, 2015 at 5:01pm PST

It’s true! As Instagrammed by Portland resident and Boilerplate co-author Anina Bennett, Dark Horse’s founder and owner Mike Richardson is part of an ad campaign for New Relic, a software development company that counts Dark Horse as a client.

Smart choice, as it allow great use of the Hellboy imagery as well.

Dark Horse Comics announced this week the launch of the newly formed Kitchen Sink Books imprint. The venture will begin publishing books in late-2013, with a focus on large-format art books, archival reprint collections, and original graphic novels. If the name of the imprint sounds familiar, that’s because it’s headed by alternative publishing pioneer Denis Kitchen who ran Kitchen Sink Press between 1969 and 1998. His partner in the new venture is book designer/editor John Lind, with whom he had previously run Kitchen, Lind & Associates.

I discovered John’s work as one of the designers of the fantastic coffeetable book The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, which was co-written by Kitchen. The book impressed me so much that I contacted him to ask if he would be the designer of my Ward Kimball biography. He agreed and Chronicle hired him for the project. John set up a beautiful layout for the book, and while his work on it will sadly never see the light of day, it was a rewarding experience personally to work with someone so talented at what they do.

Both John and Denis have a great aesthetic eye, and hooking up with Dark Horse sounds like a perfect match, both for them and comic fans. “John and I have packaged books for a number of first-rank publishers, but we have long discussed the ideal house to enjoy maximum freedom and creativity,” says Kitchen. “In longtime friend and publisher Mike Richardson and Dark Horse Comics, we found just that. It’s a kinship born of creator-friendly environments, a commitment to upholding comics history, and beautiful books produced by talented creators that we can be proud of.”

Kitchen Sink Books will initially release four to six books per year, beginning this November with The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground!, which is:

A collection of the long-out-of-print underground Comix Book series (1974–1976) that was originally edited by Denis Kitchen and Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. The collection will include work from underground creators such as Joel Beck, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Harvey Pekar, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman, Skip Williamson, and S. Clay Wilson. The book will feature an introduction by Lee, a foreword by Kitchen, and an essay written by James Vance (Kings in Disguise), accompanied by unpublished artwork, photographs, and correspondence from Kitchen’s archives.

A preview of the book’s contents can be seen on BleedingCool.com.