Passion doesn't pay: Dark Horse Comics workers unionize

MILWAUKIE, Ore. (CN) — Workers at Dark Horse Comics publicly announced Wednesday that employees at the comic publisher’s headquarters have organized a union, joining a growing wave of labor organizing across comics, games and creative media.

The union, called Dark Horse Workers United, says it has support from a supermajority of employees across multiple departments at the company’s headquarters in Milwaukie, Oregon, just outside of Portland.

“At the moment, we have just under 70 public supporters and more who are aligned with us but not public,” said Riley VanDyke, a graphic designer and member of the organizing committee.

VanDyke and fellow organizer Riley Pittenger, who works in sales, said the organizing effort began roughly a year and a half ago with a small group of employees frustrated by low pay, inconsistent workplace policies and a lack of transparency across departments.

“Dark Horse’s strength is in its employees,” VanDyke said. “Everyone is extremely passionate and kind and creative, but they’re also extremely underpaid.”

Workers described what they called a “passion tax” within comics publishing — the idea that employees accept lower compensation because the work is creatively fulfilling.

“It’s an open secret that the company leans on the ‘passion tax’ to get talented people for very low cost,” VanDyke said. “We love working here. We love the work we do and the people we do it with, and we want our collective standard of living to reflect the amount of passion we put into the work we do for Dark Horse.”

The union says conditions and policies vary sharply between departments because of what organizers described as siloed management practices. Disputes over remote work policies after the Covid-19 pandemic further motivated workers to organize.

“When one of our coworkers asked about the inconsistent standards for remote work between departments after Covid, they were told: ‘This has always been an in-office job. There’s the door if you don’t like it,’” Pittenger said.

He said many employees cannot afford to live near the company’s offices and are not compensated for commuting, despite some jobs being compatible with remote or hybrid work.

Workers say the union’s early priorities include establishing clearer workplace policies, improving pay equity, increasing transparency and creating stronger protections for employees who raise concerns.

“Oregon is an at-will state,” Pittenger said. “We want our coworkers to benefit from the solidarity of union representation and legal resources.”

No bargaining dates have been set yet, according to organizers. The group said bargaining priorities will ultimately be determined democratically by union members through surveys and elected bargaining representatives.

“Our biggest goals are around creating a sustainable and transparent workplace environment,” VanDyke said. “A successful first contract would be one that puts in place the building blocks for more equitable pay across the board, and allows everyone in the company a voice in decisions moving forward.”

The organizing committee said the union has received legal counsel and support from the Communications Workers of America, though workers emphasized the union itself is employee-led.

The campaign comes at a moment of uncertainty for the company. Organizers said they were “devastated” by the recent closure of the last locations of Things From Another World, Dark Horse’s longtime retail arm, and said affected workers remain included in the proposed bargaining unit through the end of June.

“It is an immense loss for our company to end these spaces and roles that were a direct line to the fans of our titles and products,” Pittenger said.

Workers also cited concerns about artificial intelligence in creative industries as part of their push for formal workplace protections.

“As a creative workplace, one of the things we want to ask for is protection against AI encroaching on our work,” VanDyke said. “We have been told by management that AI is not in the future for Dark Horse, but we need protections in place in order to guarantee that. Promises are one thing, policy is another.”

Organizers framed the campaign as part of a broader labor movement within creative industries, including recent union drives in publishing, games and comics. Fellow Portland-based comic publisher, Image Comics, formed Comic Book Workers United in 2023. Yet that union has seen little progress and soon filed complaints against Image with the National Labor Relations Board for reportedly mistreating and targeting union members.

“I hope we can influence more creative workplaces to take steps to take back some of their own power,” VanDyke said. “Creative jobs are some of the easiest to take advantage of, because creativity isn’t valued like more ‘hard skills,’ most of the time.”

Management has not responded publicly to the campaign as of Wednesday, though organizers said they hoped the company would voluntarily recognize the union.

Pittenger argued the campaign aligns with the values Dark Horse historically promoted around creator ownership and creators’ rights within comics publishing.

“Dark Horse first stood out in the industry as a champion of creators’ rights,” he said. “Voluntary recognition of our union from management would help our company stand out again, especially to new generations of comics professionals seeking a career that fulfills both passion and survival.”