Born of a maxed-out credit card and a passion for creator rights, Dark Horse Comics of Milwaukie, Oregon, has transformed the creative landscape in the Pacific Northwest, turning the Portland area into the country's largest community of cartoonists and graphic artists outside of New York. Dark Horse was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, who had opened a small chain of comic-book stores in the early 1980s on the strength of that credit card. Frustrated that the market had little to offer other than the usual super-hero fantasies, Richardson and Randy Stradley decided to publish comics aimed at more mature readers and—in a novel break with industry traditions—offer the creators full ownership of the material.