Dark Horse Entertainment

Background

Dark Horse Entertainment is the motion picture and television production arm of Dark Horse Comics, which was known for The Mask, its sequel, Son of the Mask and its animated spin-off, The Mask: The Animated Series and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. In March 2022 Dark Horse Entertainment was acquired by Swedish game company Embracer Group along with it's parent Dark Horse Comics.

1st Logo (August 12-November 11, 1995)

Logo: On a black background, there is the stacked white text "DARK HORSE ENTERTAINMENT" in a Lithos Black font, taking up the entire screen. The "D" in "DARK" is larger than the rest of the text, and a small "TM" symbol can be seen in the corner.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Very rare. Appears on season 1 episodes of The Mask: The Animated Series.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (May 3, 1996-January 15, 1999)

Nickname: "The Dark Horse Chess Piece"

Logo: On a white background, a black knight chess piece is seen, facing the right with a mean look in it's eyes. Surrounding it is the text "DARK HORSE" on top, and "ENTERTAINMENT" on the bottom, all in a black Lithos Black font wrapping around the logo, with dots separating each letter. A registered trademark symbol is seen on the bottom of the chess piece's base.

Variants:

On Timecop, the logo's colors were inverted and was closer to the screen.
At the end of Virus (1999), the logo is colored in a bronze sheen on a black background. The registered trademark symbol is also moved to the bottom right corner of it.
Another variant exists where it just shows the Dark Horse Comics logo, which is the same barring "ENTERTAINMENT" being replaced with "COMICS", making all the letters spaced out.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the show.

Availability: Uncommon. Appears on seasons 2-3 of The Mask: The Animated Series, Timecop, and at the end of Barb Wire and Virus (1999).

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (September 18, 1999-March 5, 2001)

Nicknames: "The Dark Horse Chess Piece II", "The Golden Dark Horse Chess Piece"

Logo: Against a starfield filled with blue clouds, the same logo from before is seen, but colored yellow. As the stars moves, the logo shines with a sheen and 2 large flares circling the edges. There is a URL in the bottom left corner as well reading "DHENTERTAINMENT.COM" in a light blue color.

FX/SFX: The logo shining.

Music/Sounds: An ambient one-note piece.

Availability: Rare. Appeared on Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot when it was last seen on Fox Kids. However, it is preserved when the episodes of the show are available on Crackle.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (February 15, 2019- )

Nickname: "The Dark Horse Head"

Logo: On a sketchy white background, a black square outline, along with the outlined forms of "DARK HORSE", in a black New York to Las Vegas font, and "ENTERTAINMENT", in a generic sans font, draw themselves in as they zoom out. As it zooms out, a angular black horse head is drawn in and colored in with a rough black color, and the letters start doing that as well. The entire thing then becomes covered in black ink, smoothing out the colors and finishing up the logo. As this happens, the background becomes plain white. 2 registered trademarks can be seen, one inside the Dark Horse logo and another next to "ENTERTAINMENT".

FX/SFX: The logo drawing in.

Music/Sounds: The end theme of the show.

Availability: Current. It was first seen on The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, and has premiered on Coyote and Resident Alien. It's unknown if it'll appear on Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles.

Editor's Note: None.