DH says comics are now mainstream…and now, the sarcasm.

Came across a press release today from Mike Richardson and Dark Horse stating something that the rest of us (mainstream included) have been through the looking glass on for quite a while. Read the full release here:

Comic Books Are the New Mainstream
— Millions of Americans are fans of comic book
creations, and many might not even know it.

Sure. Why not? After all, isn’t it always that case that when something attains mainstream status, it automatically necessitates a PRESS RELEASE? The PR angle here isn’t wasted on me. Certainly a successful company with quality, rev-generating properties like Dark Horse wants to remind us that, while Iron Man and The Dark Knight alone have taken in enough in theater sales to fund an effective coup against Omar Bashir (look it up), they’ve got the goods, too. (And the thing is they do, damn it!)

Thing is, if you’ve got what the mainstream is so obviously aware of, the point of telling us all falls a bit moot. Not to mention the oxymoron this produces, i.e. that Dark Horse “remains the number one independent voice in the industry because of the embrace of the mainstream consumer.” Still trying to get my head around that one.

I write this with the realization that this post may prompt Dark Horse to never publish anything from panel88. Of course, my cockles couldn’t help but be warmed just a bit in knowing what such a blacklisting would say about who actually reads this blog.