Eclipse had no regular releases in October and November, 1993, so skipping ahead to December....

From Parts Unknown II: The Next Invasion


Mike's Amazing World indicates their next release in February, 1994 and also that it was their last.  I know they had some trading card products at the tail end of their existence; but, we are just about at their bankruptcy.

Last new one, yeah.  Eclipse had some kind of association with Claypool Comics, though that might have just been cat yronwode.  I thought it was a distribution or marketing deal, and cat included info about their releases, like Elvira and Soulsearchers & Co, in her CBG column.  I haven't come across a reference to what their association actually was.  Claypool continued on, as Eclipse ground to a halt.  Of course, it was in her CBG column that cat revealed what had been going on, sort of, at the end.  Dean Mulaney was having an affair and had cleaned out a bank account, used to pay the writers and artists; though they had cash problems ever since they were hit by the flood of the Russian River, in 1986.  Mike Grell's James Bond mini was held up because they had to pay their printer up front, after too many bounced checks and they had to wait for the cash to come in.  he said all 3 issues were inhouse, on time, but they couldn't pay to have them printed.  They also had problems with royalties owed to them from their book deal, with Harper-Collins, who was publishing trade paperbacks for them, for distribution to book stores.  The Hobbit was their big seller, there, plus the Miracleman stuff and some of the Barker material.  That made things worse.  For a time, the trading cards seemed to be their focus, since that bubble was in full swing and they made good money off their serial killer set and the Bush League cards, about Iran-Contra.  I actually had a set of their Comic Creator Cards, where Todd McFarlane finally got his dream of being on a baseball card (if memory serves, he is holding a bat).  It was the only trading card set I ever bought, apart from a finished set for Warriors of Plasm, to read the intro story (which was a waste of money, but cost me less than a case of the cards would have).

It's interesting to watch their growth and then when their decline kicks in.  85-88 are probably their biggest years, then things start coming apart.  They were doing well with the manga titles; but, then they got into a dispute with Studio Proteus, who were doing the work to reformat them for Western reading and they took their books with them, since they had the contracts with the Japanese publishers.  Total Eclipse was killed by delays and that signaled the end of their superhero material, other than Zot and Miracleman (more or less).  Tim Truman was supposed to do Scout:  Marauder, but ended up doing work for DC and Dark Horse, instead, plus some cover illustrations for the Wild Cards anthology series, edited by George RR Martin, and the Grateful Dead Comix stuff.  Chuck Dixon was working for DC and Marvel and Dan Brereton would be working for DC, as was Tom Lyle and most of the Airboy group of artists (or Dark Horse).

Sad, really, as I enjoyed a lot of what Eclipse was publishing; but, they were more fans than business people and it caught up to them, along with changes in the market, from when they started.  First Comics was the result of greed influencing bad decisions; but, Eclipse seemed more like too lofty of aspirations.  Comico, like First, made the bad decision of trying to do newsstand distribution and paid dearly for it, but Eclipse was pretty much beholding to the Direct Market and didn't have the right publisher to aid with bookstore penetration.  Really, I don't think any independent did, until the 2000s.  DC had Warner Books, which helped immensely.

Eclipse's final publication was actually a catalog of all of their titles, in the Spring of 1993.  They ceased all operations in 1994 and filed for bankruptcy in 1995, with Todd McFarlane buying up their assets, to gain Miracleman, which resulted in a lot of legal bills for him and no Miracleman comics (apart from an appearance by Mike Moran, in Hellspawn #6).  The thing was, at the time, there were higher bids for individual properties; but, the bankruptcy court judge didn't want to deal with piecemeal liquidation and accepted McFarlane's offer for everything, even though it was lower than the cumulative total.  At the time, that was questioned as to whether the judge carried out his duties of ensuring the best payoff for the creditors.  I guess it was a case of "some money now" was better than "no money at all" or "maybe better money, down the road....possibly."

In part and that was cat yronwode's claim.  Really, they were in shaky financial straits after the flood of their offices and warehouse, in 1986.  Eclipse made a lot of their money by selling back issues, via mail order, since a lot of people missed earlier issues on crowded stands.  They lost a ton of product and it really hurt. their cash flow, which began to affect their ability to pay their bills.  By the 90s, they were bouncing checks to creators and to their printers.  Mike Grell's James Bond mini, 3 issues, was delivered on time, but took 18 months to be released because they didn't have the cash to print them on time and their printers had cut off their credit.  Neil Gaiman stopped turning in scripts on Miracleman because he hadn't been paid for previous work.  They had a bit of an upsurge, with trading cards, but it wasn't enough.  They secured a book deal with Harper-Collins, right at the end of the 80s or start of the 90s; but, H-C was really slow in paying them their royalties from bookstore sales.  Dave Wenzel's The Hobbit was a big seller, as were the Miracleman trades; but, H-C, which was part of Rupert Murdoch's empire, were hanging on to the money, doling it out in a trickle.  That hurt them more, as they were publishing fewer and fewer things for the comic book market.  cat claims that he cleaned out bank accounts and she called him, while he was away on a business trip and discovered he was having an affair, when the mistress answered the phone.

The flood crippled them, the speculator boom and crowding of stands that increased put them in critical condition, the H-C deal had them on life support and Mullaney's business shenanigans pulled the plug.

At one point, Eclipse and First were arguably the top independent comic book publishers and their business practices really forced DC and Marvel into doing more for creators, with royalties and such.  First kind of starts going south when Mike Gold stepped down and their attempt at newsstand distribution also hurt, before they bet the farm on Classics Illustrated.

Eclipse was steady, until the flood, in 1986.  They really put out a lot of product, between 1987-1989; but, the cash flow issue was catching up, fast.  Plus DC and Marvel crowding stands.

Really, Dark Horse turned out to be The Little Engine That Could, thanks to Mike Richardson's sound business strategies and practices, some Hollywood money, and ability to attract superstar talent.  Comico was also doing okay, until they tried newsstand distribution, around 1986-87, which hurt them badly and they struggled after, into the first bankruptcy, then the second, under Andrew Rev.

Fantagraphics kept themselves relatively small; but they had a close call when Seven Hills book distributors went under, owing them a lot of money.  Thankfully, an appeal to retailers and fans to but from them directly floated them while things stabilized.

Innovation was one I thought would have legs, based on their variety of material and quality books; but, a penchant for T&A and some underperforming books, plus a brief foray into CD-Rom comics, hurt their cash flow.

Renegade had a nice line of books, but were crowded out, as was Vortex, for the most part.

Tundra had no right to fail, except Kevin Eastman was throwing money at people who weren't producing books and he bled cash until he shut it down.  Sometimes, having enough money at the start isn't a good thing and a lot of people took advantage of him.  Steve Bissette talked about it in The Comics Journal and it was just a chaotic mess.