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https://totaleclipse.blog/2018/02/14/1981-eclipse-the-magazine/

A pretty cool blog that covers Eclipse comics from beginning to end by the titles published.

Without Eclipse, there might not ever have been creator royalties.
And without Eclipse, there might not have ever been Pacific Comics to follow the path and kick the door open to creator rights even wider.

And then came First Comics, Comico, Capital, Innovation, Fantagraphics, Graphitti, and all the rest. The 1980's was a tremendous period of creativity and innovation, arguably another golden age. Before the darkness set in. My favorite period is from about 1965-1985. But from 1981-1990, I think there was never more freedom to publish just about any idea a writer or artist could have.
And Eclipse was the genesis of that.



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The first Eclipse book was SABRE by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy, in 1978, among the very first graphic novels. 40 pages in black and white, with this wraparound cover.
There was also a 2nd printing (the version I first got), a 10th anniversary printing (1988), a 20th anniversary printing (1998), and a 30th anniversary printing.
https://comiconlinefree.com/sabre-1998/issue-Full

In addition, it was reprinted as the first two issues of the SABRE comic series. Which I like best because it presented the issues in color, and in a comic book size.

When I want to see it in black and white, I like the 20th anniversary edition best.

The initial SABRE graphic novel, along with the initial releases for 4 years, presented stand-alone works in a magazine-size book format, that in both size and as stand-alone works set them apart from pretty much everything else being published.

They didn't start doing comics till 1982.




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Eclipse continued their magazine-size graphic novel line with:

NIGHT MUSIC (Nov 1979, by Craig Russell)
DETECTIVES INC. (May 1980, by Don McGregor and Marshall Rogers)
THE PRICE (Oct 1981, by Jim Starlin)

and less impressively:
STEWART THE RAT (1981, by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan)



And ECLIPSE magazine 1-8, a bimonthly black and white anthology that ran from May 1981- Jan 1983. The most notable series being "I AM COYOTE" by Englehart/Rogers, later collected as a full color graphic novel. And also MS TREE by Collins/Beatty, and THE MASKED MAN by B.C. Boyer, that also continued into other Eclipse series.


Eclipse started off their comics line in 1982 with a SABRE comic book series. The first two issue reprinted the original McGregor/Gulacy SABRE graphic novel, splitting the original 40-page story into two 20-page parts, in color for the first time, with new 8-page backup stories in both issues by Charles Vess.

I actually like the SABRE 1 and 2 color comic reprint better than the original, and re-read them fairly frequently. I also love issue 3. After that I felt the series despite some sporadic good material was less interesting.

Issues 3-9 were a new 7-part story by McGregor and Billy Graham, and after issues 3 and 4 inked by George Freeman, the inking was truly awful.

Issues 10-14 are a 5-part Sabre story by McGregor with art by Jose Ortiz.

Plus some backup material by B.C. Boyer, Kent Williams, Michael Bair (at the time as "Mike Hernandez") and a few others, who went on to do other series for Eclipse. I liked how Eclipse gradually expanded its line of titles from an initial small number of releases, of very high quality.

Here are all the SABRE issues, that you can read in their entirety online:

SABRE 1-14
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Sabre/Issue-1?id=123387



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Another that was released in 1980 as an 8" X 11" black and white graphic novel (with a weak binding that cracks easily) by McGregor with Marshall Rogers.

It was likewise later released as a 2-issue DETECTIVES INC comic-size reprint series, in full color for the first time, in 1985.

Here is the DETECTIVES INC 2-issue series for you to read:
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Detectives-Inc/Issue-1?id=123685




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Eclipse's third graphic novel (8" X 11") was THE PRICE by Jim Starlin, released in Oct 1981.

It was preceded by "Metamorphosis Odyssey" in EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1-9 ( 113 pages total, in installments of 8 to 16 pages per issue) from Spring 1980-Dec 1981.
https://comiconlinefree.com/epic-illustrated/issue-1

It was black and white, and many missed it. So Marvel/Epic re-released it as DREADSTAR ANNUAL 1 (and only) in 1983, with color added. Here it is in its entirety for you to read, 46 pages:
https://comiconlinefree.com/comic/dreadstar


It was followed by DREADSTAR (Marvel graphic novel 3, Oct 1982), also 46 pages:
https://comiconlinefree.com/marvel-graphic-novel/issue-3_-_Dreadstar


(all three are collected in the hardcover DREADSTAR:THE BEGINNING, released in 2010, collecting all the painted art in one volume. After that Starlin went back to pen-and-ink art.)



Then followed by Marvel's 64-issue DREADSTAR comic series (1-31 by Starlin, after that continued by lesser hands).
https://comiconlinefree.com/dreadstar/issue-1


The first 5 issues were as good as the previous DREADSTAR work, after that I felt the series declined and became episodic, more like just another issue of the X-MEN or similar fare. But Starlin's first 5 years or so gave us some of the best comics storytelling the comics field has ever seen.


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NIGHT MUSIC by Craig Russell, initially released as a 1979 graphic novel (in black and white, magazine size), was also released as a 1985 comic-size color reprint series in issues 1 and 2, followed by several other sporadic issues of new material.
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Night-Music/Issue-1?id=119483









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