PRESS RELEASE:
Dark Horse is pleased to announce the promotion of Mark Bernardi to vice president of book trade and digital sales. Bernardi spearheaded the development and launch of the Dark Horse Digital website and apps, as well as the sales of Dark Horse books on Amazon, Comixology, iBooks, and other major platforms. During his tenure with the company, Bernardi has played many roles in the book trade, from sales and inventory analysis, marketing support, and selling hurts and remainders to managing the digital-book side of Dark Horse’s relationship with Penguin Random House.
Bernardi will replace the outgoing VP of book trade sales, Michael Martens, when Martens leaves Dark Horse at the end of August.
“Michael has done tremendous work helping to establish and grow Dark Horse’s book trade business,” said Bernardi, “and I’m grateful to be working closely with him as I transition into my new role. I’m very excited about my new position and look forward to doing my part to help further expand our presence in the book trade.”
In his 20 years at Dark Horse, Bernardi has managed a wide variety of projects and programs involving almost every facet of the company’s business. He managed newsstand distribution from 1996 to 2015 and sales of print advertising from 1996 to 2013. He has also led Dark Horse’s product sales division, managed the company’s presence at conventions and events, and worked on licensing and custom publishing projects.
“Mark has been an invaluable member of the Dark Horse team. He has big shoes to fill, but he’s uniquely qualified and we are extremely pleased to see him take on this new position,” added Dark Horse president Mike Richardson.
Mark Bernardi has worked in and around the publishing industry for over 25 years. While he attended the University of Texas at Austin, he worked for five and a half years at the 120-year-old University Co-op Bookstore, in both the trade and textbook departments. He then spent two years as circulation director for the now-defunct national magazine distributor Fine Print before joining Dark Horse Comics in 1996.
Please join us in congratulating Mark Bernardi on his past accomplishments and wishing him luck in his new role in the company.
About Dark Horse
For 30 years, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, the company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent, such as Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Geof Darrow, Brian Wood, Gail Simone, Stan Sakai, and Guillermo del Toro, and comics legends, such as Will Eisner, Milo Manara, Kazuo Koike, Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties, such as The Mask, Ghost, X and Barb Wire. Its successful line of comics, manga and products based on popular properties includes Dragon Age, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Tomb Raider, Halo, The Witcher, Serenity, Game of Thrones, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading entertainment publishers.
