Eclipse

Eclipse was founded in 1977 by Dean Mullaney and his brother Jan, and belongs to the small group of publishers that existed because the direct market did. Selling through comic shops rather than newsstands meant no returns, no distributor gatekeeping and no Comics Code, and Eclipse took all three seriously.

Its first book, Sabre in 1978, is routinely described as the first graphic novel made for that market. What followed was unusually varied for the period: Alan Moore's Miracleman, Scott McCloud's Zot!, Airboy, Scout, translated manga, and the Real War Stories and trading-card series that got the company into arguments it chose deliberately. It paid royalties and left creators their rights at a time when that was a position rather than a default.

A flood destroyed much of its stock in 1993 and the company went bankrupt the following year, its catalogue scattered across later owners.