Universal and comic book company Dark Horse Entertainment have signed a three-year production and distribution deal, with “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” as the first collaborative project within the new agreement.

Under the current deal, Universal has access to all characters and properties in the Dark Horse Entertainment realm, as well as any material that Dark Horse might acquire on its own and want to develop as a motion picture, the Hollywood Reporter informs.

Dark Horse in turn has the certainty that the projects it finances will be distributed by Universal.

The agreement was jointly announced by Marc Shmuger and David Linde, Chairman and Co-Chairman of Universal Pictures; and Mike Richardson, founder and President of Dark Horse.

Universal and the independent comic book company have already worked on several projects: 1994’s “Timecop” and 1999’s “Mystery Men.”

The studio will release the latest Dark Horse comic movie, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” in July. “Hellboy,” the 2004 film directed by Guillermo del Toro based on the Dark Horse Comics work “Hellboy: Seed of Destruction” by Mike Mignola, was released through Revolution Studios.

“The Golden Army” is once again directed by del Toro from a script he wrote with Mignola. Ron Perlman and Selma Blair return as Hellboy and Liz Sherman, respectively.

Other Dark Horse comics adapted for the big screen have been “The Mask,” distributed by New Line and “Barb Wire,” by PolyGram. The comic book company is already preparing other projects to take into Universal.

“We have a number of projects that we've had early discussions about, and I have definite ideas of the films I want to introduce into the deal and start working on,” Dark Horse founder and President Mike Richardson said. “We'll sit down and talk and see which one they agree with me on.”

Universal is in development on “R.I.P.D.,” based on the comic by Peter Lenkov, about a ghost-busting police force composed of ghosts. David Dobkin is attached to direct, per the Hollywood Reporter.

Trade paper Variety notes that Dark Horse, though an independent comic book company like Marvel and DC Comics, differs from these in that its stories do not focus on superheroes.

Its artists include Frank Miller (“Sin City,” “300”) and Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Gerard Way and Will Eisner. Dark Horse has also published comics based on properties such as “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Emily the Strange.”