Dark Horse Entertainment and Slovenia-based Strip Art Features (SAF) have teamed up to create a new company, Venture, which will publish graphic novels and comic books with the intent to launch them onto film and television. The first graphic novel to be produced by the firm will be BLOOD TIES by Belgian artist Hermann and writer Yves H. The story is described as a Faustian tale that journeys into a rotten big city with a junior detective from the suburbs named Sam Leighton. Dark Horse's Mike Richardson and SAF's Ervin Rustemagic forged the partnership in an effort to bring European and South American titles to the U.S. for film and/or TV development. Venture will operate out of Dark Horse's office on the Universal lot in Universal City, California. SAF works with 600 artists from around the globe and publishes hundreds of comic books and graphic novels in over a dozen languages. Rustemagic formed SAF in 1972 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, however the business was destroyed during the civil war in 1992. He and his family fled in 1993, and he rebuilt his business in Slovenia. In 1992, Richardson expanded Dark Horse Comics into film and television company, Dark Horse Entertainment. Richardson has served as executive producer on New Line's THE MASK and Universal's TIME COP. Universal's MYSTERY MEN was based on a Dark Horse comic, and Dark Horse's THE LORDS OF MISRULE and HELLBOY are in development at various studios.