Metaphysique (1992) #1-2 by Norm Breyfogle.
Perhaps the right way to think about Eclipse’s 1992 is a return to what had worked for Eclipse last time they’d had serious money problems. In 1986, after a flood wiped out their back issue stock, they went all in on the black & white boom, pumping out a large number of titles, including parodies (which we’ve just seen with X-Farce). They also had successes with a number of action/adventure series (and now there’s Mad Dogs).
They also published a large number of “micro-series” reprinting old fantasy and horror comics, and what do we have here? A two issue reprinting some old Norm Breyfogle comics.
This one has a framing story (well, not really a story, but still), so there’s some new work. But as you can see, as opposed to those old fantasy reprints Eclipse did, this one is in black and white, and on non-white, cheap paper. (The mid-80s reprints were all in colour and on nice paper.)
As is the norm with these things, we get a bunch of unconnected stories, done in a variety of styles (since these probably were made over a long period of time). The framing story seems to hint at some unity in terms of theme, but I couldn’t really detect any.
I wonder whether this was originally a colour comic? It looks like it was made for a magazine sized anthology, based on the aspect ratio, but, as usual, there’s nothing that says where these pieces are from.
Most of the stories aren’t in that lush style, unfortunately, but instead in this. But at least he has his characters protest when the as-you-know-Bob-ing gets too much.
It’s not always easy to tell whether this kind of stuff is meant to be so over the top that it’s funny, or whether it’s just… the way it is.
Oh, is that the rationalisation drunk drivers use? I’ve wondered.
A couple of the stories definitely go for humour.
Hey, that’s a real purdy drawing thar.
Breyfogle went on to greater fame as an artist on Batman comics, but he returned to the Metaphysique character, too.