Author: larsmagne23

Seduction Index

Eclipse reprinted quite a few 40s/50s comic books. Most of them were under the Seduction of the Innocent heading and edited by Jim Vadeboncoeur, jr. The Seduction of the Innocent title was only present on the covers of the first six issues, and after that the series went to “stealth” more and only appeared in the indicia. The numbering scheme given below are the ones from the indicia.

Including the two Walt Kelly issues in this “series” of mostly pre-Comics Code horror was a strange choice, I think. And the two 3-D issues aren’t part of the series, but I included them here, anyway.

Pre-Code Index

Eclipse published the bulk of their 40s/50s comics reprints under the Seduction of the Innocent moniker (and there’s a separate index for that), but wait, there’s more! So here’s an index that lists all of Eclipse’s pre-mid-50s comics reprints (newspaper strips and the like not included).

Pacific Index

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In 1984, Pacific Comics went bankrupt. Not because publishing comics wasn’t profitable, but because their distribution arm was losing money.

Eclipse ended up buying the rights from the estate to virtually everything Pacific was publishing. This included both finished film and the rights to publish certain series. So in November of that year, Eclipse pumped out 10 ex-Pacific comics (these were the ones that complete and just had to have their indicia changed before sending off to the printer), while things less complete would roll out during the next year or so.

This included things like Luger, where Bruce Jones had written the script, but the artwork hadn’t been completed yet, but the biggie was definitely Miracleman. Pacific had planned on reprinting the British comic in the US, but Eclipse took over that project, too. It was probably the most high profile comic Eclipse published.

So for a period in the mid-80s, Eclipse didn’t really have an editorial direction of their own, but just inherited one from Pacific Comics.

3-D Index

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Eclipse has published its share of gimmicks (trading cards, scratch-off lottery cards), and one of them was three dimensional comics. You know, the kind where you wear a blue and a red glass and go “whoa” while reading.

If I’m counting correctly, they published 23 of these, which is way more than you would have thought there was a market for. The earliest ones published by Eclipse were clearly created by artists that were excited to experiment with this format and have fun. Then the drudgery set in, and Eclipse started reprinting public domain comics from the last time 3-D comics were a thing; i.e., the 50s, and also converting random comics drawn for 2-D to 3-D.

Well, the latter is just a guess, but some of the later 3-D comics (like the first The New Wave vs. the Volunteers) barely 3-D at all because the figures and objects are placed so they’re overlapping or at the edges of panels.

So while I was reading these comics, I was hugely amused at first, but then the novelty seriously wore off.

All (or virtually all) of these comics were also published in 2-D (black and white) editions. Editor-in-chief catherine yronwode wrote that those editions were done in editions of 100, and they “bound” them by hand in the Eclipse offices by stapling these 2-D innards into the normal 3-D edition covers. They’re therefore some of the rarest comics they published, and I’ve never seen a copy.

Current Events Index

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Eclipse Comics pivoted from being a company that published a bunch of action/adventure monthlies to being a graphic novel company around 1989. As part of that process, they also published a handful of “current events” comics. catherine ⊕ yronwode explains why here in the letters page of an issue of Airboy:

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In addition to the comics, they also created a series of “trading cards” (that weren’t traded; just 36 cards in a box) the also handled many of the same issues as the comics. I’ve the most significant of these below as well.

Anthology Index

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Eclipse Comics didn’t really focus on anthologies, but they did publish a really good one very early: The Eclipse Magazine. Then they stopped, and Eclipse publisher Dean Mullaney explains why:

DM: Ask anyone in publishing why they don’t take the eclectic approach to anthologies and they’ll all tell you the same thing: bad sales. Most readers want something predictable, something pigeonholed. But that shouldn’t be the entire reason for publishing. Eclipse Magazine sold well; not great, but well enough.

So after cancelling Eclipse Monthly in the early 80s, Eclipse never again did a general, eclectic anthology. But they did publish a handful of anthologies that was in different genres: Horror, sci-fi, whatever The Dreamery was, action/adventure, and current events.

Japanese Index

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Eclipse Comics was the first US company to publish translations of Japanese mainstream (i.e., children’s) comics. There had been some underground publishers that had translated more adult stuff, but not a lot of that either.

Their very first foray into Japanese comics seems to have been when they distributed Educomic’s I Saw It in 1982, but… I’m not 100% sure about that. There were ads for the book in various Eclipse comics, but that was later, unless I’m mistaken. So perhaps they distributed later editions of the book?

But Eclipse’s first “proper” Japanese publishing venture meant that they teamed up with Viz, a Japanese company, and they brought four series over. The series were all chosen by Viz, apparently. Eclipse published them as bi-weekly and monthly series, and they, by all reports, sold a lot: They were a phenomenon.

But Viz weren’t happy with the sales, and pulled out. Enter Toren Smith and his Proteus company. The comics curated (and mostly translated) by him weren’t as diverse as the Viz books. The Viz selection could perhaps look like market research, because all the four series span a wide range of genres. Proteus, on the other hand, did basically two things: Comics by Masamune Shirow (four different series), and Dirty Pair, which was written by Toren Smith himself.

And in addition, there’s What’s Michael?, which is very… different.

Smith was also unhappy with sales of these comics at Eclipse… but instead of just leaving, as Viz had done, he sued them, and was awarded $120K by the California Superior Courts in September 1994. Eclipse filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in December of the same year.

And then Smith took his books to Dark Horse.

FX Index

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In 1992, after focusing on publishing graphic novels (mostly adaptations), Eclipse started a bunch of new black and white floppy series. Prominent among these were the three FX books with “all the action of today’s hottest films”.

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In addition, most of these FX comics have scratch cards where you can win big prizes, like a trip to Hollywood and, well, comic books. All the issues I bought from ebay had the cards intact, so I guess not too many people went for the gimmick.

One of the comics, Parts Unknown, attempted a second series a year later, but without the FX designation.

Music Index

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Eclipse released a single LP, so it might seem like overkill to do an index page for that. But they also published three comics that included a flexi disc, so I thought it made sense.

Three of these four musical releases involved Timothy Truman, including the LP, so he’s responsible for (where’s my slide rule) 86% of all the music Eclipse released.

Book Index

Eclipse published a few handfuls of books with the “Eclipse Books” designation. There are two categories here, though: There’s books about comics (like Tips From Top Cartoonists), and there’s also newspaper strip reprints (like Krazy Kat and Farewell to the Gipper).

The list above is that last one I found, and it’s from 1990, so I expanded it below with other things that seemed to fit in this category.