Claypool Index

In 1993 time, Eclipse had almost stopped publishing comics themselves. They were packaging graphic novels (mostly adaptations) for HarperCollins, who published and distributed the books to the bookstore market. That left Eclipse with nothing but non-sports trading cards to publish themselves, which they did prodigiously.

Enter Claypool Comics: Despite what seemed to be the assumption at the time, Claypool was apparently not an Eclipse imprint or front, but instead a completely independent publisher who outsourced the practical details of publishing (production work, sending the books to the printers, collecting the money from the distributors) to Eclipse.

And it meant that the “Eclipse” portion of the solicitation form wasn’t blank during this period.

All these series continued after Claypool (sort of) severed their ties with Eclipse, and three of them continued to be published until 2006. Elvira, for instance, reached issue 116 before Claypool owner Richard Howell was forced to shut down when Diamond, the sole comics distributor at the time, stopped carrying their comics.

I say “sort of”, because Eclipse Comics editor-in-chief catherine yronwode continued to do their back issue sales for many years through her Comics Warehouse.

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