Eclipse Comics
Trading cards | |
Imprints | Independent Comics Group 4Winds Creative Group Eclipse International |
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Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first
Creators whose early work appears in Eclipse publications included
History
Foundation
The company was founded as Eclipse Enterprises by brothers Jan and
The name was thought up by Sue Pollina, a friend of the Mullaneys, while the company's first logo was designed by
Early graphic novels
Eclipse published one of the first original
Ongoing titles
Not wanting to limit the company to graphic novels alone, the brothers devised
In December 1981 production of Destroyer Duck introduced Dean Mullaney to
Expansion
While Jan Mullaney remained based in New York to handle the economic side of the business, Dean Mullaney focused on the role of publisher and Yronwode that of editor-in-chief for Eclipse's growing number of titles, and the pair briefly relocated to Columbia, Missouri.[12] After meeting Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot Eclipse published their first superhero regular series, The DNAgents. It was joined by Eclipse Monthly, a colour successor to Eclipse, the Magazine that continued Static, Dope and Masked Man as well as introducing further characters. Ms. Tree was spun off into its own title, while Yronwode rediscovered Will Eisner's lost 1948 story John Law, which was published for the first time.[13][4] After the stopover in Missouri, Dean Mullaney and Yronwode established Eclipse's main offices in the small town of Guerneville in July 1983.[12] In October 1984 Jan Mullaney opted to discontinue his involvement in order to focus on his music career, leaving his brother as sole publisher and Yronwode officially promoted to editor-in-chief.[4] Eclipse's advertising copy flagged their stance on creator ownership,[14] the maturity of the material[15] and the individuality of the output[16]
Increased output included Scott McCloud's Zot! (which the writer-artist originally submitted through the mail) and Doug Moench's Aztec Ace.[12] Yronwode would effectively become the face of the company, continuing to write her influential Fit to Print comic in Comics Buyer's Guide and from late 1984 penning the Penumbra column printed in most Eclipse titles; it had previously been named Notes from Surf City in reference to the 1963 Jan and Dean song, an in-joke between the similarly named Mullaney brothers.[4] During this time her name was professionally rendered as "cat ⊕ yronwode" in CBG and Eclipse material, though other publishers were less exhaustive. The comic market experienced a downturn in 1984 due to a crowded market but Eclipse were successful enough to weather it; when rival Pacific Comics folded, Mullaney was able to arrange purchasing their titles. This included Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer, Mr. Monster and Somerset Holmes, as well as a recently signed deal for the American rights to Quality Communications' acclaimed British anthology Warrior. They also set up the Independent Comics Group to publish two issues of the anthology Twisted Tales, while Fred Burke would also join the company in 1984. Burke would go on to edit and write numerous titles for Eclipse.[17]
The inherited deal with Quality was fortuitously timed;
Eclipse attempted to innovate with new publishing models for comics. Among these were so-called "micro-series", limited series of two bi-weekly or even weekly issues;
Flooding
Eclipse suffered a major setback on February 14, 1986, when the
Despite the material and financial losses, in July 1986 the company launched its first regular bi-weekly title,
To avoid further flooding the company also relocated to Forestville in Sonoma County, California.[28] In July 1987, Yronwode used her Fit to Print column to announce her forthcoming marriage to Dean Mullaney, set to take place on August 15 in Forestville; readers were encouraged to write in to receive invitations.[29]
Setbacks
Eclipse's creator-owned ethos had commercial flaws; as the company owned few of its properties it was dependent on its freelancing creators to keep popular titles going as fill-in issues and spin-offs had to be cleared with the creators, who also had the rights to take their work to other publishers when contracts expired. After losing his lawsuit over Howard the Duck, Gerber wound down Destroyer Duck to return to his former employers Marvel as a freelancer;
While Airboy and Scout remained solid sellers for the company further attempts to expand into superhero comics, such as The New Wave, Kurt Busiek's The Liberty Project, Tim Truman's The Prowler and Chuck Dixon's Strike! encountered little long-term success. Between 1987 and 1988 Eclipse's share of the market fell from around 8%[35] to 3.6% (also falling behind First Comics.[36] The successful emergence of Dark Horse Comics (who also took on Mr. Monster) further ate into Eclipse's share. The company began to explore non-fiction; Yronwode and Robbins co-wrote Women and the Comics, a volume on the history of female comic strip and comic book creators. As the first book on this subject, its publication was covered in the mainstream press in addition to the fan press.[37][38][39]
Eclipse International
Attempting to diversify, in 1988 the company created a new division, Eclipse International, to publish material from overseas. One source was
Alongside this it partnered with the British independent publisher
Total Eclipse
As their tenth anniversary approached, Eclipse planned Total Eclipse, a company-wide crossover in the style of DC's blockbuster Crisis on Infinite Earths. Due to most of its characters being creator-owned permission had to be sought from each individually; many acceded.[49] Eclipse put considerable resources into the prestige-format "super series", including hiring Crisis writer Marv Wolfman to script the series and commissioning covers from Bill Sienkiewicz.[50] Despite promotional stunts such as bespoke plastic bags for comics stores,[51] Total Eclipse was beset by delays and a commercial and critical failure, nixing any hopes of relaunching the likes of Strike! and The New Wave on the back of its success.[52] Soon afterwards production problems saw the stalwart Airboy put on hiatus after 50 issues,[53] while Scout would likewise stall before mooted third series Scout: Marauder could begin. At the end of 1989 Eclipse would announce they were turning away from mainstream comics to 'special projects'.[54]
Trading cards
One of these avenues were adult-orientated trading cards. In 1988 Eclipse had become the first comics company to produce such items with the
Other sets included:
- Friendly Dictators Trading Cards in 1989 by Dennis Bernstein, Laura Sydell and Bill Sienkiewicz.[57]
- Bush League Trading Cards in 1990 by Brancato and Yaqub.
- The Comedy Channel presents the Rock Bottom Awards by Peggy Gordon and Sienkiewicz; this was a more light-hearted set that mixed political and celebrity targets.[58]
- Coup D'Etat – The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Trading Cards in 1991, by Brancato and Sienkiewicz.[64] These benefitted from an increased interest in conspiracy theories about the killing due to Oliver Stone's film JFK bringing it to a wider audience.[65][66][67]
- Crime and Punishment Trading Cards in 1992 by Bruce Carroll and Bill Lignante, featuring excerpts from famous criminal cases such as Sirhan Sirhan and Squeaky Fromme;[68] Lignante was a former courtroom sketch artist.[69]
- The Maury Povich Show, while Michigan senators put forward a resolution to ban the cards before they had even been released, while legislators in Maryland and Arkansas made similar moves. Reporting on the issue, comics industry magazine Amazing Heroes noted Shel-Tone Publications' similar Bloody Visions set had attracted no such censure when released previously.[74] Yronwode would later claim Eclipse received around 10,000 items of hate mail, and wrote about the controversy when the cards were collected as a pair of albums, True Crime Vol 1 – G-Men & Gangsters and True Crime Vol 2 – Serial Killers & Mass Murderers in 1993.[75]
- AIDS Awareness Trading Cards in 1993, which sought to provide a greater awareness of the effects and history of the disease; the set was packaged with a condom[76][77][78][79] and mixed information about the disease with images of both everyday and celebrity victims (including Freddie Mercury, Liberace and Rudolf Nureyev, as well as including a theory that AIDS had been "developed by teams of American and Soviet bio-warfare technicians and tested on people in Africa and Haiti before being introduced to North America's homosexual population"[80]
Less sensational subject matter also included baseball bloopers,[81] James Bond, Country Music and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon.[82]
Decline and closure
After the failure of Total Eclipse, Eclipse would largely discontinue superhero comics bar the ongoing Zot! (which would end in 1991
By 1991 Eclipse typically held around 1% of the market and had been definitively overtaken by Malibu, Valiant and Image. Having always done most of their business with comic stores rather than larger retailers, Eclipse were one of many small publishers adversely affected by the post-speculator boom contraction of the direct market, and by a problematic contract with the book publisher HarperCollins.[89]
Bankruptcy
Problems were exacerbated when Mullaney and Yronwode underwent a messy divorce during 1993;[90] Yronwode would later claim that Mullaney began behaving erratically and emptying Eclipse accounts.[91] The company was left so low on resources that despite receiving completed versions of Miracleman #25 and spin-off Miracleman Triumphant #1 no printer would extend them credit to print the comics.[92] Eclipse's last publication was its Spring 1993 catalog, which was a complete bibliography of its publications, and it ceased business in 1994[93] before finally filing for bankruptcy in 1995.[94]
Assets
The company's intellectual property rights were later acquired by Todd McFarlane for a total of $25,000.[95] Due to most of the company's titles being creator-owned this largely consisted of the Airboy characters and trademarks for some of the anthology titles; at the time McFarlane and others involved believed it also included a two-third share in Miracleman.[96] Eventually it would be discovered that Quality Communications, and thus Eclipse, had never correctly licensed the characters from creator Mick Anglo.[97]
Controversies
Payment of creators
After their contract with Eclipse ended in 1988, manga translator Toren Smith's Studio Proteus signed with Dark Horse. Finding his income suddenly increasing despite similar sales, Smith instigated an audit of Eclipse's finances, revealing the keeping of two sets of books to avoid paying the agreed royalties. A large judgement was eventually made against Eclipse, the losses from which were a factor in the company's strained finances.[92]
Garry Leach,[98] Dez Skinn,[99] Alan Davis,[100] Neil Gaiman,[92] Mark Buckingham,[101] Dave Stevens[102] and Mike Deodato[92] have all gone on the record to state they were either not paid or not paid correctly for work with Eclipse, while Davis has also stated his work was published without his permission.[100]
Lawsuits
In 1992, the convicted
Eclipse was also a plaintiff when Nassau County, New York, seized a crime-themed trading card series of theirs under a county ordinance prohibiting sales of certain trading cards to minors.[105] The case, in which Yronwode testified and the American Civil Liberties Union provided Eclipse's representation, reached the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. It ruled against the county, overturning the ordinance.[106][107][108]
Titles
See also
References
- Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species. Eclipse Enterprises.
- Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species. Eclipse Enterprises.
- ^ a b c d e f Mullaney, Dean (w). "Ten Years After!" Total Eclipse, no. 1 (May 1988). Eclipse Comics.
- ^ Fantagraphics Books.
- ^ "Eclipse Comics". USPTO Report.
- ^ Gough, Bob (2001). "Interview with Don McGregor". MileHighComics.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved September 13, 2011.
- ^ Rockwell, John (April 5, 1990). "Conan in Comics? Yes. Hulk? Sure. But Fafner? Wotan?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 28, 2015.
- ^ Bails, Jerry; Ware, Hames (eds.). "Dean Mullaney". Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999. Archived from the original on May 11, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
- ^ Mullaney, Dean (w). "Kingston, Youngstown, San Bernandino?" Total Eclipse, no. 2 (August 1988). Eclipse Comics.
- ISBN 1-59582-011-6.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- ^ a b c Mullaney, Dean (w). "In Chicago Even Beans Do It!" Total Eclipse, no. 3 (November 1988). Eclipse Comics.
- ^ Markstein, Don. "John Law". Don Markstein's Toonopedia.
- ^ "This guy is totally bored with comics! (advertisement)". Amazing Heroes. No. 62/1985 Preview Issue. Redbeard, Inc. January 1, 1985.
- ^ "I grew up! (advertisement)". Amazing Heroes. No. 66. Redbeard, Inc. March 1, 1985.
- ^ "The Eclipse Formula (advertisement)". Amazing Heroes. No. 67. Fantagraphics. March 15, 1985.
- ^ Mullaney, Dean (w). "California, Here I Come!" Total Eclipse, no. 4 (January 1989). Eclipse Comics.
- ISBN 9780786473601.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- ISBN 978-1603601801.
- ^ Fantagraphics Books. March 1, 1986.
- ^ a b c d Mullaney, Dean (w). "Ten Years Later" Total Eclipse, no. 5 (April 1989). Eclipse Comics.
- ^ Fantagraphics Books. August 15, 1988.
- ^ Yronwode, Catherine; Nagasiva, Nagasiva (2002). "The Lesser Book of the Vishanti: A Companion to the Dr. Strange Comic Books". LuckyMojo.com. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
- , no. 8 (June 1986). Eclipse Comics.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- Fantagraphics Books. September 1, 1986.
- Fantagraphics Books. May 1, 1987.
- Fantagraphics Books. July 1, 1987.
- ^ Shayer, Jason (December 2008). "Steve Gerber in the Marvel Universe". Back Issue! (#31). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 33–40.
- Fantagraphics Books. October 1, 1985.
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- Fantagraphics Books. September 15, 1987.
- Fantagraphics Books. March 15, 1989.
- ^ "Women in the Comics: Assertive and Independent Women Make a Comeback" Miami Herald (newspaper), December 1, 1988.
- ^ "Comic Books Are For Adults Too" by William Singleton, Scripps Howard News Service, Chronicle-Telegram (newspaper), January 7, 1988.
- ^ "Funny How Things Change" Daily Herald (newspaper), December 28, 1988.
- Fantagraphics Books.
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- Fantagraphics Books. August 1, 1988.
- Fantagraphics Books. February 29, 1988.
- ^ Curson, Natasha. "Acme – take two Earthquake Pills and exit over cliff...," Natasha Curson blog (August 18, 2010).
- ISBN 978-1-84411-004-9, p. 293.
- ^ Yang, Sam. "A Loaf of Bread, A Jug of Wine and Eddie Campbell," The Comics Journal #145 (Oct. 1991), p. 59.
- ^ "British Awards Announced," The Comics Journal #142 (June 1991), p. 17.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- Fantagraphics Books. February 29, 1988.
- Fantagraphics Books. April 1, 1988.
- ^ Williams-Pennick, Virginia (October 15, 1988). "Comics in Review". Amazing Heroes. No. 151. Fantagraphics.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- ^ Fantagraphics Books. December 1989.
- Fantagraphics Books. February 15, 1989.
- ^ "The Beautifully Drawn True Crime Trading Cards From The '90s Were An Instant Outrage". Ranker.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- Fantagraphics Books. October 1990.
- ^ Fantagraphics Books. November 1991.
- ^ Crossen, Judith. "Trading Card Fame for S&L Scoundrels", Reuters via Philadelphia Daily News, September 9, 1991
- Boston Globe, September 18, 1991
- ^ "Insider Trading with Keating, Milken", Los Angeles Daily News, October 20, 1991
- ^ Rubin, Paul (August 14, 1991). "Keating Gets Carded: Your Money Might Be Safer in These than in an S&L". Phoenix New Times. Archived from the original on September 14, 2011. Retrieved September 13, 2011.
- Fantagraphics Books. May 1990.
- ^ Jones, Kathryn. "Price tag on JFK intrigue Assassination aficionados spawn cottage industry",The Dallas Morning News, November 22, 1991
- ^ "Kennedy Assassination is an Industry with Growing Market", Associated Press via The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio), November 28, 1991
- Fantagraphics Books.
- ^ "1992: Crime and Punishment Trading Cards". Total Eclipse.
- ^ "Where It's Wall-to-Wall Celebrities : An Illustrator Pictorializes Star-Conscious L.A. for Palms' Famous Gallery". Los Angeles Times.
- The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), April 30, 1992
- ^ "'True Crime' Cards Thriving Despite Outrage", The New York Times, June 16, 1992
- Sacramento Bee, June 19, 1992
- ^ "Killer Cards: Two groups trying to deal fatal blow to criminal cards", The Oregonian, August 18, 1992
- Fantagraphics Books. July 1992.
- ^ "1993: True Crime Trading Card Booklets". Total Eclipse.
- ^ "AIDS cards to include condoms", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (newspaper), September 23, 1992)
- Dallas Morning News, July 7, 1993
- ^ "AIDS Activism turns to cards", Dayton Daily News, July 13, 1993
- Boston Globe, January 15, 1994
- ^ Hutchinson, B. (1993). It’s in the AIDS cards. Alberta Report / Newsmagazine, 20(25), 21
- Fantagraphics Books. May 1991.
- ^ "Trading Cards". Total Eclipse.
- Fantagraphics Books. January 1991.
- Fantagraphics Books.
- Fantagraphics Books. August 1991.
- Fantagraphics Books. July 1991.
- Fantagraphics Books. January 1992.
- Fantagraphics Books. July 1992.
- ^ MacDonald, Heidi (March 30, 2007). "Mullaney on Eclipse". "The Beat" (column), Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on May 7, 2007.
- ^ "Newswatch: Business News: Eclipse Copes with Divorce and Back Debt". The Comics Journal (165): 12. January 1994.
- ISBN 9781605490274.
- ^ ISBN 9781605490274.
- ^ "Comics Publishers Suffer Tough Summer: Body Count Rises in Market Shakedown". The Comics Journal (172): 13–18. November 1994.
- ^ "Newswatch: Eclipse Files for Bankruptcy". The Comics Journal (174): 25. February 1995.
- ^ "McFarlane Buys Eclipse Assets at Auction". The Comics Journal (185): 14–15. March 1996.
- ^ "Neil Gaiman's Journal: Last Legal Post for a long time". Journal.neilgaiman.com. February 25, 2004. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
- ^ "CCI: Cup O Joe – Marvelman at Marvel". Comic Book Resources. July 24, 2009. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
- ISBN 9781605490274.
- ISBN 9781605490274.
- ^ ISBN 9781605490274.
- ISBN 9781605490274.
- ^ "Comic Book Artist Magazine #15 - Dave Stevens Interview - TwoMorrows Publishing". twomorrows.com.
- ^ "Serial Killer Sues Trading Card Maker", San Jose Mercury News, December 18, 1992
- ^ "Card-Carrying Rebels: Two Guerrilla Journalists Turn Crime and Crises into Camp Collectibles" by Kathleen Donnelly, San Jose Mercury News (newspaper), January 10, 1993
- ^ "Nassau County Limits Sale of Crime Trading Cards". The New York Times (newspaper), June 16, 1992
- ^ "Nassau Is Faulted for Law Over Killer Trading Cards", The New York Times (newspaper), October 17, 1995
- ^ "Arts & First Amendment Issues: Comic Books". First Amendment Center. Archived from the original on December 21, 2004. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
- ^ "ECLIPSE ENTERPRISES INC v. GULOTTA | FindLaw". caselaw.findlaw.com. 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2015.