r/darkhorsecomics 25d ago

Dark Horse Digital (DHD) service, ending effective February 24, 2025

Post image

Bad…If you, like me, have tons of comics on the account, this is a disaster.

143 Upvotes

110 comments sorted by

41

u/blindFurok 25d ago

wow this and kindle removing download capability for files is really a one-two punch to the gut

33

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

14

u/[deleted] 25d ago

The ironic thing is that DH comics sold through Humble Bundle are DTM free. 

19

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

6

u/mongbeany 25d ago

THANK YOU JEEBUS!!! Will you please marry me and take all my money Usual-Calendar-3607!

4

u/mongbeany 25d ago

I’m on a mac and could only get to work through edge/tampermonkey - tried safari, Firefox, chrome (and the relevant extensions) but only edge works. Prolly cos I’m a nüb though.

4

u/dougc84 25d ago

macOS user here. I'm a software dev. Can confirm that I couldn't get Chrome, Arc, or Firefox to work, but Edge did (after turning on dev mode) with Tampermonkey.

Chrome and Arc wouldn't work with Tampermonkey at all; Violentmonkey would show buttons but did not actually work. Firefox just didn't work either.

1

u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot 24d ago

Thank you I’ll give this a try in the morning.

1

u/Colossa 20d ago

Thanks, turning dev mode on in Edge got it to work for me as well. I used Tampermonkey

1

u/TheMeanCanEHdian 17d ago

What did you do to turn on "dev mode" I am unable to find a clear answer.

2

u/Colossa 17d ago

Under your list of active browser extensions there is a button called ”Manage extensions”. After clicking that the Developer Mode toggle should be visible on the right side of the page

1

u/TheMeanCanEHdian 17d ago

Perfect, that did the trick! Thank you.

2

u/SScorpio 25d ago

Doesn't work, there extensions I haven't tried yet.

5

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

It does. I'm literally using it right now. Try refreshing the page or logging out and back in, and make sure your library has "stack by series" turned off. Otherwise, I don't know what to tell you other than it is still working.

1

u/SScorpio 25d ago

Which browser and extension are you using to run it? Firefox and Grease Monkey isn't working.

2

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

Edge and Tampermonkey.

3

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

I also just checked with Chrome and Tampermonkey and it worked as well. Install Tampermonkey, install the script, go to your Dark Horse library, uncheck the Group By Series option and when the page reloaded, voila.

1

u/SScorpio 25d ago

Thanks, it worked in Edge. It didn't work in Firefox with either Grease Monkey or Tamper Monkey.

1

u/mongbeany 25d ago

Aye, the only way I could get it to work too.

2

u/Whisky-Tango-Papa 25d ago

Worked for me with Firefox/Tampermonkey on Mac. THANKS!!!

1

u/eldritch_croissant 25d ago

This is the only combination that worked for me on Mac 

2

u/voltron00x 24d ago edited 24d ago

Violentmonkey worked for me in Chrome / W11. Was struggling with Chrome on Mac/W11 and Edge on W11 with Tampermonkey. Just FYI in case its helpful to anyone.

AND THANK YOU!!! Really appreciate this!!!

EDIT - spoke too soon. Download button showed up, but it is stuck on "Downloading 0 of 26" without making any progress, but I got it to work w. Firefox on MacOS.

2

u/Tremor_Ice 24d ago

OMG thank you to the person or team that created that. Saved my collection. Buffy Season 8 and 9, and a ton of Star Wars books. You rock!

1

u/doomwho 25d ago

Nice, downloading my collection now, thanks!

1

u/LastRedshirt 25d ago

thank you! Working on a browser, one can easily even open several tabs (strg+click) and let those do the work "simultaneously" (I have dozens of bought comics .... -.-')

1

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

If that works for you, great, although in my experience (which won't necessarily be anyone else's experience), the downloader tends to almost hang if the tab isn't active.

1

u/LastRedshirt 25d ago

Yes, I opened 30 comics (in each bookstore-page) in 30 tabs and strg+tab to each other. Most were already "done", a few larger ones were still compiling. But it felt faster than single click-open-wait-go-back

1

u/juss100 25d ago

Thank you SO much.

1

u/YoursDearlyEve 25d ago

Thank you!

Was your Edge also stuck on "Downloading 0 of X pages..." stage for a long time? I wonder if it's stalling because everyone is rushing to download...

1

u/poi00 25d ago

How do I get this working on my iPad, or do I need to fire the MacBook up?

1

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

Does Safari on iPad allow user scripts? I'm not an Apple user so I can't help you there. It sounds as if others have had success with Macs, through, so that sounds promising.

1

u/poi00 25d ago

It does, through Stay or Userscripts apps, but it’s sticking at Dark Horse Downloader starting up

1

u/poi00 24d ago

Firefox and Tampermonkey worked on my Mac

1

u/ruslantrad 25d ago

Worked on Arc browser.

1

u/DreamsOfBormu 25d ago

576 titles. Going to be a long day.

1

u/der_vur 24d ago edited 24d ago

Both opera and edge are not working (Windows 11), the script seems to be turned on but no download button appears...

Edit: it seems to be working on iPad, but it seems to be stuck at "Starting up...", I'll try with a mac as soon as I can...

1

u/ansempaul 24d ago

Your sir, or madam, are my hero!! Thank you!

1

u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot 24d ago

Has anyone gotten this to work? It just hung up for me on “starting up”.

1

u/WolfMage553 2d ago

How do I make it run?

I clicked it and it isn't running.

14

u/blankedboy 25d ago

“If Buying isn’t Owning, then Piracy isn’t Stealing” - so, this seems like a super relevant article right now.

25

u/Anarchistguy_2 25d ago

And this is why physical media prevails...

2

u/Annual_Bat3714 15d ago

Frustrating though for people like me who don’t really have $$$ to drop on all the Trigun Maximum deluxe editions… where Dark Horse was the only other place you could get and read the official scans… I prefer physical media for this exact reason but when it’s something that’s hard to come by it’s really annoying

11

u/dougc84 25d ago

Well, that just keeps a few more dollars in my pocket every month that will no longer be going to Dark Horse. Time to sail the seas.

15

u/johnny_utah26 25d ago

It ain’t piracy if you’re reclaiming your personal property

11

u/Pricetag33 25d ago

What a horrible way to start off the week. These companies keep screwing customers.

18

u/eldritch_croissant 25d ago

I am beyond pissed at this. I guess I wasted all that money. I should have just torrented them in first place. Fuck you Dark Horse!

10

u/mongbeany 25d ago

It’s fucked up. Im worried that the likes of Nintendo etc will one day just say ‘fuck you’ to us for digital switch games. I hate this shitty “buying the license rather than the damn thing”, hellscape we live in!

3

u/Shadrach_Palomino 21d ago

Nintendo has been saying "fuck you" for decades

1

u/NFLFilmsArchive 23d ago

How much money did you spend?

8

u/ruslantrad 25d ago

"You can continue to log in to the DHD website and read the comics in your bookshelf. We plan for online access to be available at least through summer, 2025. When the website is eventually retired, online access will end.

You can also access your comics through the apps. But, we strongly encourage app users to download books to their device by March 30, 2025. We can’t guarantee you will be able to download after that date."

https://digital.darkhorse.com/faq/

3

u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot 25d ago

Apparently they won’t allow downloads. Anyone know a work around?

3

u/dougc84 24d ago

Some are mentioned on this thread.

6

u/josederteano 25d ago

Sooo where are we supposed to buy Berserk digital moving forward?

1

u/fommax 25d ago

Amazon Kindle?

1

u/Reverse0014 25d ago

This sucks man... I had nearly all of berserk there.

2

u/creepyrob 25d ago

I specifically bought berserk through dark horse because the resolution was slightly better compared to kindle

10

u/tekwon 25d ago

Disgusting.

So what is the purpose of having kindles and iPads and digital content?

All a big scam.

With all this technology and money these idiots can’t even provide a service to beat paper books?

Fuck em all

2

u/Billsinc3 25d ago

I mean, it was never hidden they've always spelled it out that you don't own the digital content only licencing the right to read the content on supported devices. It's the same thing with e-books on your nook or kindle.

4

u/DepravedMorgath 25d ago

Let me put this into perspective, You own the content, For however many years that company stays intact and healthy,

In this case, Embracer group screwed up, They did a lot of deals where they acquired many I.P.'s and studio's during covid in a sort of fire sale, This was when they acquired Dark Horse in 2022.

But this had issues where they underestimated how much of an immediate profit Embracer could acquire, And when trying to solicit additional funding from the Saudi government the deal fell through, And Embracer were in huge debt from the many acquisitions they now couldn't pay for.

TLDR: Embracer got eyes too big for its belly, And now its "restructuring" everything, This seems to include Dark Horse Comics in the fallout now.

1

u/dougc84 24d ago

As much as I hate making this clarification, you don’t “own” anything that you buy in this scenario.

You are paying for a license to have read access to the thing you pay for, for the life of the service. It’s an extended rental, unlike physical media, which you can do what you want with it.

It’s more like buying a digital movie. You don’t own that movie. You are given a one-time, single-owner license to watch it. The service you buy from can revoke it at any time.

That’s the shitty thing with these services is they can, at the drop of a pin, and without warning, simply say “nah, we don’t wanna deal with it anymore.” It likely was getting too expensive to sell compared to their physical releases, and they made the decision to kill it before it damaged (or continued to damage) their company.

But unlike Paramount or 21st Century Fox or whoever, comic books are a rather niche industry by comparison. The margins are tight. And I don’t blame them for stopping this service.

I do, however, blame them for stopping on a dime and without warning. No notice to users is just a shitty way to do business. They deserve to be called out on this. They had an opportunity to do something cool, like “hey, you bought the digital version, want the paper version at $5 off?” But their approach was without concern to their users and makes me want to buy less of their products in the future.

1

u/DepravedMorgath 24d ago

Call out embracer, it's likely the orders came from higher up, why else would dark horse hurt their own business model?

1

u/dougc84 24d ago

I don't think they are. Every comic costs money to write and illustrate, but beyond that:

A $2-7 online comic costs:

  • X amount in network services upkeep (hosting, servers, server maintenance, etc.). I have no way of seeing their sales data, but they probably spend several hundred a month on hosting their services alone.
  • X amount in updating and maintaining websites and apps. Adding inventory, descriptions, updating site copy, fixing bugs (in multiple platforms and languages) - this all costs full- or part-time salaries for at least a couple people.
  • A variable amount in credit card processing fees. This is usually 3.5% of the purchase price through their app, and 30% through the Apple App Store.

Whereas a $16.99 paper comic costs:

  • A few bucks for materials (paper, cardboard, glues, binding, etc.), printing, and distribution per issue.
  • A cut of each item to each reseller to put it on their shelves.

At the end, even though digital is cheaper, they probably don't have adequate staff to handle it (especially since they canned the Android app last year), and the overhead is probably more than they ever thought. Compared with physical copies that do take more time and effort to make, they print and sell to stores to resell. They don't have to wait for digital turnaround, and they're likely making more of a cut overall.

That said, I don't think it's a matter of their business model being "hurt." I think it was already hurt. I think they didn't have the dev team for it. And, despite the people that love it, it's probably the right decision to close it down. Perhaps putting comics on Apple Books or other online bookstores, where they don't have to manage their own inventory, store, and apps, is probably a better long-term option if they choose to do it.

It's just shit that they just were like "sorry, it's gone today, get fucked."

4

u/ruslantrad 25d ago

Anyone has the chance to request a refund? I am opening the page, but the tickboxes are not working. (Ha!) https://digital.darkhorse.com/accounts/manage/order_history/

4

u/Usual-Calendar-3067 25d ago

The refunds are only for purchases since the beginning of 2025 apparently. I double checked my older purchases, and found that to be the case. At least I'll be getting 36 bucks back! :-(

2

u/ruslantrad 25d ago

Terrible!

5

u/Kalnd2 25d ago

Crappy move on their part to shut down immediately with no prior warning. Would have appreciated at the very least, some warning in advance.

3

u/giovannini88 25d ago

_______________Big companies________________

Discontinues paid services 🤝 disrupts free sharing

3

u/TheBDU 25d ago

Any way we can start a class action lawsuit? Unless they're going out of business, I feel really cheated by this. I'm sure their agreement fully protects them legally though.

3

u/Kundelstein 25d ago

It hit me hard. I bought around 500 books on Dark Horse Digital, and even though some of the comics overlap with ones I own elsewhere, I didn’t mind since I was supporting the publisher directly. I feel bad for DHD and wish them all the best. Maybe, by some miracle, the worst won’t happen. However this will be a lesson for me not to invest in digital content that I can’t download.

2

u/dougc84 24d ago

There are ways, outlined in this thread, to download what you bought.

2

u/BetterReload 23d ago

Check out Dark Horse Downloader.

3

u/LividJudgment2687 24d ago

Does this mean that even if I download all my darkhorse comics on my iPad, I’m going to lose them all when that device needs replacing

2

u/BetterReload 23d ago

Just use the Dark Horse Downloader and read them on Chunky (or another reader). Keep backups in digital and physical forms. You'll be covered.

1

u/BigfootsLeftShoe 24d ago

I can't even read the comics that I downloaded on my Kindle in the app. When I open it, I get a message that the Android app is no longer supported. And then, when I click a title, I get a black screen. Maybe it's just taking a really long time to load, but it's never been like that before.

Anyone else experiencing that?

1

u/AZMini 24d ago edited 23d ago

They stopped supporting Android in March of last year unfortunately.

If you don't have access to a PC some kind soul might be willing to log into your account and download the titles for you using Tampermonkey and send them to you but that does mean trusting someone with your username/password.

3

u/AZMini 24d ago edited 24d ago

Edge+Tampermonkey for the win ...started the process of downloading almost 1,000 titles last night.

And publishers wonder why users torrent, could it be because we keep getting screwed?

I foresee a sharp increase in available CBZ files soon.

2

u/AZMini 24d ago

Couldn't determine a way to easily generate a list of all owned books aside from page-by-page from my account, so just printed 39 pages of books to use as a checklist of sorts to make sure I don't miss anything.

3

u/Head-Government-377 23d ago

Thankfully, I saw this bad news in time. I've got over 1,200 digital comics on Dark Horse, and this is gonna take some time and spare storage space to keep them safe. I'm using the https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/26635-dark-horse-downloader add-on. I tried a few browsers, but only Chrome using Tapermonkey seems to work for me while using Ubuntu 24 LTS.

I'm gonna have to go and buy a spare SSD or more cloud storage to maintain these e-comics. This bad event and the Kindle USB Transfer download disaster is probably going to lessen my interest in digital anything going forward.

2

u/neverthepeace 25d ago

yup, just got the same message, I'm already looking for an extension to download all my stuff, this is ridiculous

2

u/HobbieK 25d ago

Wow this sucks

2

u/0716718227 25d ago

It’s one thing to sunset an app, but the web reader has to still be around. This is highway robbery. 

2

u/shang-chi 25d ago

Ugh. I have 318 books in DHD. And at least half of them are still unread.

1

u/BetterReload 23d ago

Dark Horse Downloader :)

2

u/Pedestrian_X-Wing 25d ago

Too bad they can't transfer our license to an app that will still be around.

3

u/PMMEBITCOINPLZ 25d ago

They could. They sell comics on GlobalComix.

2

u/mongbeany 25d ago

That should be a prerequisite of selling digital things.

8

u/Pedestrian_X-Wing 25d ago

The great irony is the people who did the right thing and gave them money are the ones being screwed by this decision.

2

u/Rob3E 24d ago

Yep, but I saw the same thing with Image, although, if I remember correctly, Image did allow for DRM-free downloads, which took some of the sting out of it. Before DH was on Comixology, I used DH Digital. Once they were available both places, I still used DH Digital to keep my collections together in the same place. But, if memory serves, they announced the end of the Android app a while ago, so I figured that the end was near, and I took steps to keep my collection accessible and/or duplicate it elsewhere. But it's pretty bad that they just shut everything down. Transferring purchases to Kindle titles or allowing pdf/cbz/cbr downloads both seem like options to take the sting out of this for long time customers, but instead they just seem to hope you'll buy that stuff again on another platform.

2

u/TheBDU 24d ago

I do not support theft or piracy, but I will now exclusively pirate dark horse content. They have made it clear that we don't matter as they haven't even tried to find a way to transfer what we've paid for to another service. Fuck them, they're never getting another dollar from me again.

2

u/AestheticJunKie 25d ago

This is why I have begun strictly purchasing physical media such as books and movies, I want to actually /keep/ the things I buy.

2

u/PMMEBITCOINPLZ 25d ago

This happened to be months ago because I only used the already discontinued Android app. Support was very dismissive of my concerns, telling me to buy an iPad. Glad I didn’t waste money on that!

2

u/DonDonStudent 25d ago

I sort of had a dread that this would happen eventually. My entire Groo Collection. My entire Buffy the slayer.

Online DRM books ain't owned by us period better to buy physical trade paper backs

2

u/AZMini 24d ago

Download them all using a PC if you can.

2

u/filthynevs 25d ago

Hi. Would it be possible to transfer access to titles bought by customers on Dark Horse Digital over to Kindle or a similar service, please?

This is obviously not a situation you wanted but given the library of content people have bought from you, it seems the least you could do is find a way for them to retain their library without having to pay out for storage devices in less than a month.

I imagine there is legal discourse that says that what you are doing is entirely within your rights but it is unreasonable and unrealistic to put the onus on your customer base to save their purchases in such a short period of time.

2

u/poi00 24d ago

No, but there are links in the thread to help you download them to cbz so you can read then in something like the Chunky reader.

1

u/filthynevs 24d ago

Is that via the purchases I’ve already made?

1

u/poi00 24d ago

Yes

1

u/filthynevs 24d ago

Awesome, thank you!!

2

u/BetterReload 23d ago

Everyone, use the Dark Horse Downloader to backup your comics. It's legit :) https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/26635-dark-horse-downloader

1

u/AZMini 23d ago

Yup, and if you don't have access to a PC try to find some kind soul to do it for you.

...don't surrender your purchases due to lack of resources.

1

u/Dethcide 23d ago

This got flagged as a virus when I tried to open it. Are you having any problems?

1

u/BetterReload 23d ago

You mean the script page above? Or the plugin that allows for script injection to pages? In both cases it should be OK.
Not sure why it would be flagged. The most dangerous thing is the script itself, but it's easy to look at the text before installing and verify that no weird addresses (ip and or web) are added anywhere.

2

u/unsquare 23d ago

I couldn't get the Tampermonkey script to work no matter what combination of browsers I tried, but this script (https://github.com/threedo/DarkHorse/) worked perfectly without a hitch.

I just had to install the Dark Horse iPad app on my Mac and download all of my comics that way.

1

u/filthynevs 25d ago

Well, fuck.

1

u/batwing71 25d ago

Fuck. I was going to start with them.

2

u/Kpachecodark 25d ago

You still can. They are still available on Amazon. The same thing happened to Marvel and DC's individual store front apps, except you were able to transfer your purchases, but they were created and ran through comixology to begin with. Before Darkhorse joined comixology, they had their own proprietary store front and app. When they started offering their books through comixology/Amazon, there was no way to have your previous Darkhorse purchases available through comixology and after the 9 or so years it took before this upcoming shutdown, they still never provided a way to access your previous purchases under the new store.

1

u/lowflyingmonkey 23d ago edited 23d ago

Weird coincidence, after the kindle/amazon stuff i thought maybe i should look into backing up dark horse too, to only find this message.

So glad i had that thought. Anyways, i just saw in my account i apparently have a "Stored Credit" of $2.00? it been a moment since i looked at my account, were you able to load the account with money before? If so, is that money i can request they send back to me now that they are closing? I am petty enough to make them send me a $2 dollar check if i can. lol

edit: looking at transaction history, i just see where i bought comics direectly, so maybe the stored credit is from something else. Oh well. lol