Dark Horse, Saf In Partnership

Dark Horse Entertainment has partnered with Slovenia-based Strip Art Features to create a new company, Venture, which will publish graphic novels and comic books with the intent of adapting the material for the big and small screen.

The first graphic novel under the new pact, "Blood Ties," by Belgian artist Hermann and writer Yves H., is a Faustian tale that follows junior detective Sam Leighton, an honest cop who leaves his quiet suburban life for the big city only to find it rotten to the core. Venture is in the process of bringing a writer on board to adapt the material.

The partnership between Dark Horse's Mike Richardson and SAF's Ervin Rustemagic is an effort to bring works of SAF's European and South American artists and writers to the United States, where their works will be published under the Venture imprint and developed for film and television.

Venture will operate from Dark Horse's offices as an independent producer and bring projects to studios and financiers on a case-by-case basis. Dark Horse is now operating from offices on the Universal lot.

SAF works with more than 600 creators worldwide and publishes hundreds of comic books and graphic novel titles annually in dozens of languages. Until April, Rustemagic was partnered with Scott Mitchell Rosenberg in Platinum Studios and was the company's president. The partnership dissolved so that Rustemagic could spend less time on administrative duties and more time with artists, but they remain partnered on several projects.

"Soon after leaving Platinum, I started to talk to my old friend Mike Richardson about things that we had talked about building years ago, ideas that we had somehow abandoned for various reasons," Rustemagic said, explaining how Venture got its start. "We both decided that it was the right moment to pick up those ideas and to finally materialize them."

Dark Horse's comic book publishing led Richardson to the world of filmmaking, and he started Dark Horse Entertainment in 1992. The company has since been involved in New Line Cinema's "The Mask" and Universal Pictures' "Time Cop," both of which Richardson executive produced. Universal's "Mystery Men" was based on a Dark Horse comic, and Dark Horse has in development features based on "The Lords of Misrule" and "Hellboy."

Rustemagic has spent the past 30 years developing comics with creators and licensing their rights all over the world as well as publishing hundreds of comics, mostly in the graphic novel form in Europe. He founded SAF in 1972 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. In 1992, SAF's offices and the Rustemagic's house were completely destroyed, and more than 14,000 pieces of original art were lost in the flames. Rustemagic and his family escaped from the war at the end of 1993, and he rebuilt his business in Slovenia.