Founded by brothers Jan and Dean Mullaney in April of1977 it not only published the first graphic novel solely intended for the newly created comicbook speciality market SABRE : SLOW FADE OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy it was also the first comicbook publishing company to offer royalties and creator ownership of rights.
Now I have never claimed to be the most knowledgeable comicbook historian so you can find a more complete history of Eclipse Comics on wikipedia but being a comicbook reader during the 80s and 90s instead of just somebody who has read about that time period in comicbook magazines I can tell you that I definitely was aware of Eclipse Comics.
While I didn't religiously read their entire output - not because of the quality but because I didn't do that with any comicbook company out there since I didn't have an exactly generous allowance - there are some comic series I was aware of but didn't read like the already mentioned SABRE, SCOUT, MR. MONSTER, MS. TREE, COYOTE, STEWART THE RAT, ADOLESCENT RADIOACTIVE BLACK BELT HAMSTERS, SOMERSET HOLMES, ZOT, Jack Kirby's DESTROYER DUCK, Alan Moore and John Totleben's MIRACLEMAN ( so we have a connection to SWAMP THING ) and others I read like Jim Starlin's DREADSTAR : THE PRIZE, Don McGregor and Gene Colan's RAGAMUFFINS and DETECTIVES INC ( although it took me decades to track them down which makes it all the more tragic that I had to sell them - together with most of my extensive Gene Colan library ), Mike Grell's JAMES BOND : PERMISSION TO DIE ( which also was not that easy to get ), Dave Steven's ROCKETEER, Kurt Busiek and James Fry III LIBERTY PROJECT, Masamune Shirow's APPLESEED, Adam Warren's DIRTY PAIR ( of which I had a signed and numbered copy of the graphic novel hardcover ), TWISTED TALES or DNAGENTS which were even published in Germany by the Condor Verlag under the weird name of THE UNBEATABLE FIVE.
With a lot of these I didn't read them when they were published which was in part because I didn't have access to american comics and so had to wait until they were published in Germany by companies like Condor or the annual summer vacation in Spain if those were available there.
The other reason was that even if I came across them I was not at a stage in my comicbook reading journey where I could really appreciate them which happened wit some of the greatest artists of all time like Jack Kirby or Gene Colan whom I didn't care for much and only later on could fully understand especially when I tried to do my own comicbooks.
Coming back to the genesis of this post, as I mentioned in my Bob Layton Silver Centurion IRON MAN post the idea was to make some quick posts with the material from the few comicbook artists I follow on facebook.
And which I seldomly get to use. So the next post was supposed to be another Ron Frenz tribute post - probably about THE MIGHTY THOR or THUNDERSTRIKE but while preparing all the material for that post I came across his cool cover for the 35th issue of Eclipse Comics AIRBOY series.
As usual I went through all the issues I could find online and since I liked the covers so much - as some of them were made by great artists like Dave Stevens, Timothy Truman, Paul Gulacy , Ernie Colon, Dave Dorman, George Evans, Ron Wagner or Joe Kubert - I was going to do a post on it.
But while compiling the covers - and some choice pages with the Valkyrie - I came across so many Eclipse Comics in house ads that caught my eye that I thought it could be interesting and educational for my readers to see all of the different series they published. Especially in light of the fact that some of them were published during the much maligned 90s.
In any case since while writing this I have come some original art that not including them in this post would be a crime we will come to the rest of the Eclipse Comics in house ad in the next instalment of this.
nothing to do with eclipso
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