I found this ad in the very first issue of Mania, which is almost fifteen years old.
You'll notice the slightly obscured Dark Horse logo in the corner. Mania was one of the last titles to be launched by Dark Horse International before they were forced to close shop. Presumably because of conditions placed upon them by WHSmith (which is why the first issue came with a FREE BADGE!) who through their monopoly on Newsagent distribution in the early Nineties saw the number of available publications decrease rapidly.
- Mood:curious
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chasethestars
chasethestars
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Why were they 'forced' to close shop?
You really could post these sorts of things on SD as well you know. :)
WHSmith took over distribution of Newspapers & Periodicals for the whole country, they had a list of requirements that needed to be met, as they still viewed the medium of comics for children that meant that everything had to have some sort of promotional material attached to it, which is why there was a badge attached to the cover of Mania #1.
It could also have been the case that sales were not large enough to sustain a second office, unlike in America where they have the Direct Market to sustain their sales, that same market in the UK acquires its titles from the US, making a UK subsidiary somewhat redundant.