When he was a young boy, David Holland used to dream about a magic book. "The pictures on its pages moved, and the people in it talked," he says. "Maybe that influenced me somehow."

Maybe. Today, as a Web application developer at Dark Horse Comics Inc. in Milwaukie, Ore., Holland makes comic books come alive for the thousands of fans who visit the company's six Web sites.

There, they can see exclusive animated serial movies, read online comic books, join discussion groups, download screen savers and games, sign up for free e-mail and order print comics, art, memorabilia and other merchandise related to fantasy and adventure entertainment ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Ring of the Nibelung.

But what the public sees is only part of what Holland is responsible for as a Web application developer. He also creates and maintains internal browser-based applications that support the site and Dark Horse's business, from content management tools for editors to sales reports for accountants to an inventory management system for the IT department.

"It's equally important to make a site that people outside the company can use easily and to satisfy our internal customers' needs for applications," Holland says.

Achieving those goals requires a Web application developer to be proficient in much more than writing code and using technology: The developer must also be part marketing strategist, part business strategist and always focused on the customer.

"You cannot hide from the customer," Holland says. "Our customers know their material, and they'll let us know if we do something wrong."

Team Play

At Dark Horse, Holland is one of nine members of an Internet team that includes developers, designers and specialists such as content editors and Flash multimedia artists. They must all work together with Dark Horse's editorial staff to create successful public sites, so communications skills and teamwork are important aspects of his job, Holland says.

"I learned to put my own ego aside," he says. "A lot of programmers guard their little trade secrets, but there's no room for that here." Instead, Holland says, the Internet team members share their capabilities with one another, as well as with other Dark Horse employees.

For example, the Dark Horse editors continually create content for the site, from interviews with comic book authors and artists to announcements about upcoming releases. Holland says the Internet team realized it could help editors by building them a tool that enables them to create content, test and review it, and then schedule it for automatic posting on a specific date to a company Web site.

The team also supports Dark Horse's brick-and-mortar retail partners, creating a password-protected area on the company's Web site at which retailers can check on their orders, account status and inventory levels.

In addition, Holland and the Internet team are expected to get into the mind of the Dark Horse customer so they can create cross links on each page of product content. That lets

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