Ms. Tree is a comic book series named for its lead character, co-created by writer Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty . Her name is a paronomasia , or play on words, of the term "Mystery".
103-534: Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market. It was one of the first to offer royalties and creator ownership of rights. Creators whose early work appears in Eclipse publications included Scott McCloud , Timothy Truman , Dan Brereton , James Hudnall and Chris Ware , while
206-453: A Saber series started in 1982 and ran for 14 issues. In December 1981 production of Destroyer Duck introduced Dean Mullaney to Cat Yronwode , then news reporter for Comics Buyer's Guide . At the time, Yronwode was working as an archivist for Will Eisner . Yronwode recalled that Eisner and his wife Ann "hosted a party for me with all these comic book men I was flirting with. All these men came up; they all wanted to meet Will. One of them
309-438: A book ". Collections of comic books that do not form a continuous story, anthologies or collections of loosely related pieces, and even non-fiction are stocked by libraries and bookstores as graphic novels (similar to the manner in which dramatic stories are included in "comic" books). The term is also sometimes used to distinguish between works created as standalone stories, in contrast to collections or compilations of
412-435: A garbage man a 'sanitation engineer' - and second because a 'graphic novel' is in fact the very thing it is ashamed to admit: a comic book, rather than a comic pamphlet or comic magazine". Writer Neil Gaiman , responding to a claim that he does not write comic books but graphic novels, said the commenter "meant it as a compliment, I suppose. But all of a sudden I felt like someone who'd been informed that she wasn't actually
515-530: A story arc from a comic book series published in book form. In continental Europe, both original book-length stories such as The Ballad of the Salty Sea (1967) by Hugo Pratt or La rivolta dei racchi (1967) by Guido Buzzelli , and collections of comics have been commonly published in hardcover volumes, often called albums , since the end of the 19th century (including such later Franco-Belgian comics series as The Adventures of Tintin in
618-404: A "comic novel" on its credits page. "Graphic album" was also the term used the following year by Gene Day for his hardcover short-story collection Future Day ( Flying Buttress Press ). Another early graphic novel, though it carried no self-description, was The Silver Surfer ( Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books , August 1978), by Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and Jack Kirby . Significantly, this
721-745: A 360-page wordless book (which was never published). In the United States, there is a long tradition of reissuing previously published comic strips in book form. In 1897, the Hearst Syndicate published such a collection of The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault and it quickly became a best seller. The 1920s saw a revival of the medieval woodcut tradition, with Belgian Frans Masereel cited as "the undisputed king" of this revival. His works include Passionate Journey (1919). American Lynd Ward also worked in this tradition, publishing Gods' Man , in 1929 and going on to publish more during
824-522: A 50-page spoof of the noir - detective genre, written and drawn by the single-name French artist Loro. Nantier followed this with Enki Bilal 's The Call of the Stars . The company marketed these works as "graphic albums". The first six issues of writer-artist Jack Katz 's 1974 Comics and Comix Co. series The First Kingdom were collected as a trade paperback ( Pocket Books , March 1978), which described itself as "the first graphic novel". Issues of
927-447: A UK best-seller list. Outside North America, Eisner's A Contract with God and Spiegelman's Maus led to the popularization of the expression "graphic novel" as well. Until then, most European countries used neutral, descriptive terminology that referred to the form of the medium, not the contents or the publishing form. In Francophone Europe for example, the expression bandes dessinées — which literally translates as "drawn strips" –
1030-560: A collection of Frank Miller's four-part comic-book series featuring an older Batman faced with the problems of a dystopian future; and Watchmen (1986-1987), a collection of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ' 12-issue limited series in which Moore notes he "set out to explore, amongst other things, the dynamics of power in a post-Hiroshima world". These works and others were reviewed in newspapers and magazines, leading to increased coverage. Sales of graphic novels increased, with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns , for example, lasting 40 weeks on
1133-409: A hooker; that in fact she was a lady of the evening". Responding to writer Douglas Wolk 's quip that the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book is "the binding", Bone creator Jeff Smith said: "I kind of like that answer. Because 'graphic novel' ... I don't like that name. It's trying too hard. It is a comic book. But there is a difference. And the difference is, a graphic novel
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#17327907061131236-602: A messy divorce during 1993; Yronwode later claimed that Mullaney began behaving erratically and emptying Eclipse accounts. The company was left so low on resources that, despite receiving completed versions of Miracleman #25 and spin-off Miracleman Triumphant #1, no printer would extend them credit to print the comics. Eclipse's last publication was its Spring 1993 catalog, which was a complete bibliography of its publications, and it ceased business in 1994 before finally filing for bankruptcy in 1995. The company's intellectual property rights were later acquired by Todd McFarlane for
1339-594: A non-fiction book about Steve Ditko. The subject was covered in Fit to Print and Penumbra columns. The events were alluded to in a tongue-in-cheek framing sequence Yronwode wrote for Miracleman #8. The damage caused was estimated at $ 200,000. Despite the material and financial losses, in July 1986 the company launched its first regular bi-weekly title, Airboy . A revival of a defunct Golden Age aviator hero originally published by Hillman Periodicals between 1942 and 1953,
1442-424: A perfect time to retire terms like "graphic novel" and "sequential art", which piggyback on the language of other, wholly separate mediums. What's more, both terms have their roots in the need to dissemble and justify, thus both exude a sense of desperation, a gnawing hunger to be accepted. Author Daniel Raeburn wrote: "I snicker at the neologism first for its insecure pretension - the literary equivalent of calling
1545-515: A periodical titled Graphic Story Magazine in the fall of 1967. The Sinister House of Secret Love #2 (Jan. 1972), one of DC Comics ' line of extra-length, 48-page comics, specifically used the phrase "a graphic novel of Gothic terror" on its cover. The term "graphic novel" began to grow in popularity months after it appeared on the cover of the trade paperback edition (though not the hardcover edition) of Will Eisner 's A Contract with God (October 1978). This collection of short stories
1648-460: A point where the bi-monthly title shipped three issues between April 1988 and December 1989 due to artist John Totleben 's health issues. While Airboy and Scout remained solid sellers for the company further attempts to expand into superhero comics, such as The New Wave , Kurt Busiek 's The Liberty Project , Tim Truman's The Prowler and Chuck Dixon's Strike! encountered little long-term success. Between 1987 and 1988 Eclipse's share of
1751-477: A title Word Warriors which featured a Ms. Tree story in 1987. First Comics published a three-issue limited series in entitled The P.I.s: Michael Mauser & Ms. Tree (1985), a cross-over story featuring Ms. Tree and Michael Mauser . Max Allan Collins has written four Ms. Tree prose short stories. "Red Light" (1984) and "The Little Woman" (1985) appeared in issues #1 and #2 of The Files of Ms. Tree . "Louise" (1992) and "Inconvenience Store" (1994) appeared in
1854-778: A total of $ 25,000. Due to most of the company's titles being creator-owned this largely consisted of the Airboy characters and trademarks for some of the anthology titles; at the time McFarlane and others involved believed it also included a two-third share in Miracleman . Eventually it was discovered that Quality Communications, and thus Eclipse, had never correctly licensed the characters from creator Mick Anglo . After their contract with Eclipse ended in 1988, manga translator Toren Smith 's Studio Proteus signed with Dark Horse. Finding his income suddenly increasing despite similar sales, Smith instigated an audit of Eclipse's finances, revealing
1957-588: A traditional book format. European creators were also experimenting with the longer narrative in comics form. In the United Kingdom, Raymond Briggs was producing works such as Father Christmas (1972) and The Snowman (1978), which he himself described as being from the "bottomless abyss of strip cartooning", although they, along with such other Briggs works as the more mature When the Wind Blows (1982), have been re-marketed as graphic novels in
2060-774: A year after A Contract with God though written and drawn in the early 1970s—was labeled a "graphic novel" on the cover of Marvel Comics' black-and-white comics magazine Marvel Preview #17 (Winter 1979), where Blackmark: The Mind Demons premiered: its 117-page contents remained intact, but its panel-layout reconfigured to fit 62 pages. Following this, Marvel from 1982 to 1988 published the Marvel Graphic Novel line of 10" × 7" trade paperbacks—although numbering them like comic books, from #1 ( Jim Starlin 's The Death of Captain Marvel ) to #35 ( Dennis O'Neil , Mike Kaluta , and Russ Heath 's Hitler's Astrologer , starring
2163-632: A year to focus on Eclipse. Not wanting to limit the company to graphic novels alone, the brothers devised Eclipse, the Magazine , a 68-page bi-monthly black-and-white anthology title with a rotating group of creator-owned characters. The first issue, dated May 1981, introduced the hard-boiled female detective Ms. Tree by Max Allan Collins and Steve Ditko 's Static . The title later introduced Steve Englehart 's Coyote , Trina Robbins ' adaptation of Sax Rohmer 's Dope , McGregor and Colan's Ragamuffins (which Mullaney later described as "perhaps
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#17327907061132266-599: Is "the first American graphic novel". Similarly, critic Jason Sacks referred to the 13-issue "Panther's Rage"—comics' first-known titled, self-contained, multi-issue story arc—that ran from 1973 to 1975 in the Black Panther series in Marvel's Jungle Action as "Marvel's first graphic novel". Meanwhile, in continental Europe, the tradition of collecting serials of popular strips such as The Adventures of Tintin or Asterix led to long-form narratives published initially as serials. In January 1968, Vida del Che
2369-473: Is a novel in the sense that there is a beginning, a middle and an end". The Times writer Giles Coren said: "To call them graphic novels is to presume that the novel is in some way 'higher' than the karmicbwurk (comic book), and that only by being thought of as a sort of novel can it be understood as an art form". Some alternative cartoonists have coined their own terms for extended comics narratives. The cover of Daniel Clowes ' Ice Haven (2001) refers to
2472-449: Is impregnated by an old flame who is manipulating her to kill his wife. She decides to keep the baby, creating a unique series of adventures of this homicidal PI fighting off criminals even while dealing with a full term pregnancy, while the mob family she hates moves to protect her in their own way. In 2007, Hard Case Crime published Deadly Beloved , the first novel about Ms. Tree and the character's first appearance in 14 years. The book
2575-412: Is that 'graphic novel' just came to mean 'expensive comic book' and so what you'd get is people like DC Comics or Marvel Comics—because 'graphic novels' were getting some attention, they'd stick six issues of whatever worthless piece of crap they happened to be publishing lately under a glossy cover and call it The She-Hulk Graphic Novel ..." Glen Weldon, author and cultural critic, writes: It's
2678-500: Is used, while the terms stripverhaal ("strip story") and tegneserie ("drawn series") are used by the Dutch/Flemish and Scandinavians respectively. European comics studies scholars have observed that Americans originally used graphic novel for everything that deviated from their standard, 32-page comic book format, meaning that all larger-sized, longer Franco-Belgian comic albums , regardless of their contents, fell under
2781-705: The Central Intelligence Agency 's involvement in the Iran–Contra affair . The commercial success of the Iran-Contra Scandal trading cards set led to similar sets on other deliberately provocative subjects – gaining Eclipse considerable mainstream publicity in the process. These included: Less sensational trading card sets included The Comedy Channel presents the Rock Bottom Awards by Peggy Gordon and Sienkiewicz; this
2884-460: The digest-sized , adult-oriented "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust , a film noir -influenced slice of steeltown life starring a scheming, manipulative redhead named Rust. Touted as "an original full-length novel" on its cover, the 128-page digest by pseudonymous writer "Drake Waller" ( Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller ), penciler Matt Baker and inker Ray Osrin proved successful enough to lead to an unrelated second picture novel, The Case of
2987-657: The $ 2000 starting money. The name was thought up by Sue Pollina, a friend of the Mullaneys, while the company's first logo was designed by Mark Gruenwald . The company was initially headquartered at 81 Delaware Street, Staten Island, New York . Eclipse published one of the first original graphic novels , and the first to be sold through the new " direct market " of comic-book stores, Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy . Published on 30 September 1978 and previewed in Heavy Metal ,
3090-551: The 1930s). As the exact definition of the graphic novel is debated, the origins of the form are open to interpretation. The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck is the oldest recognized American example of comics used to this end. It originated as the 1828 publication Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois by Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer , and was first published in English translation in 1841 by London's Tilt & Bogue, which used an 1833 Paris pirate edition. The first American edition
3193-426: The 1930s. Other prototypical examples from this period include American Milt Gross 's He Done Her Wrong (1930), a wordless comic published as a hardcover book, and Une semaine de bonté (1934), a novel in sequential images composed of collage by the surrealist painter Max Ernst . Similarly, Charlotte Salomon 's Life? or Theater? (composed 1941–43) combines images, narrative, and captions. The 1940s saw
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3296-455: The 1963 Jan and Dean song , an in-joke between the similarly named Mullaney brothers. During this time her name was professionally rendered as "cat ⊕ yronwode" in CBG and Eclipse material, though other publishers were less exhaustive. The comic market experienced a downturn in 1984 due to a crowded market but Eclipse were successful enough to weather it; when rival Pacific Comics folded, Mullaney
3399-409: The 1991 UK Comic Art Award for Best Graphic Novel Collection. The deal ended in 1992. As their tenth anniversary approached, Eclipse planned Total Eclipse , a company-wide crossover in the style of DC's blockbuster Crisis on Infinite Earths . Due to most of its characters being creator-owned permission had to be sought from each individually; many acceded. Eclipse put considerable resources into
3502-534: The Beanworld and Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters , Don Chin 's spoof of the already-parodic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , while Russell continued his adaptations with comic versions of the operas Salome and Pelleas and Melisandre under the Night Music banner. Eclipse also produced a series of Murray Ward's indexes to various DC titles, continuing from his deal with Pacific; to avoid
3605-478: The Bristol Literary Society, on " the death of the novel ". Updike offered examples of new areas of exploration for novelists, declaring he saw "no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic strip novel masterpiece". Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin's Blackmark (1971), a science fiction / sword-and-sorcery paperback published by Bantam Books , did not use
3708-573: The British independent publisher Acme Press to distribute their comics in the American market. Highlights from the relationship included Power Comics , a four-issue superhero title with art by Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland ; Aces , a five-issue black-and-white anthology of serialized Jazz Age genre stories which were originally published in Europe; licensed James Bond material in the form of
3811-485: The Muerta family is a major plot thread. Her methods often include deadly violence, which she uses with little hesitation. In contrast to genre conventions, she faces serious consequences throughout the series for these violent actions including arrest, imprisonment, commitment to a mental hospital, and involuntary medication. In another genre divergence, the male Michael Tree's son, Mike Jr., inadvertently falls in love with
3914-490: The Winking Buddha by pulp novelist Manning Lee Stokes and illustrator Charles Raab. In the same year, Gold Medal Books released Mansion of Evil by Joseph Millard. Presaging Will Eisner's multiple-story graphic novel A Contract with God (1978), cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman wrote and drew the four-story mass-market paperback Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book ( Ballantine Books #338K), published in 1959. By
4017-417: The acclaimed revival of Marvelman written by Moore, though legal issues – resulting in the book being retitled Miracleman – had to be resolved before Eclipse could run the title. Miracleman was originally one of three 75¢ books launched by Eclipse (along with The New Wave and the new-material Laser Eraser and Pressbutton ) as part of a short-lived deal with a Finnish printer at the time they were
4120-407: The backlog catalogs of Casterman and Les Humanoïdes Associés . Some in the comics community have objected to the term graphic novel on the grounds that it is unnecessary, or that its usage has been corrupted by commercial interests. Watchmen writer Alan Moore believes: It's a marketing term... that I never had any sympathy with. The term 'comic' does just as well for me ... The problem
4223-399: The book as "a comic-strip novel", with Clowes having noted that he "never saw anything wrong with the comic book". The cover of Craig Thompson 's Blankets calls it "an illustrated novel". Ms. Tree (comic book) The title character is Michael Tree, a female private detective who takes over her husband's investigation business when he is murdered. In her first case, she captures
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4326-542: The book was a success. This led to the Mullaneys being contacted by P. Craig Russell , McGregor's collaborator on Marvel Comics ' Amazing Adventures . Eclipse published Russell's experimental Night Music 1 in November 1979, by which time the company had also released a compilation of Fred Hembeck 's parody Dateline: @!!?# strips from The Buyer's Guide to Comics Fandom . Russell later created comic adaptations of numerous operas for Eclipse. A more sophisticated logo
4429-491: The cheapest direct market full colour comics ever made. However, the results of the printing were severely lacking and the price soon became unviable, with Eclipse reverting the books to their standard 95¢ bracket after the initial printing contract expired. After the Warrior material ran out Moore continued the series at Eclipse. Other new additions around this time were Timothy Truman 's Scout , Larry Marder 's Tales of
4532-400: The collected editions of Frank Miller 's The Dark Knight Returns in 1986 and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ' Watchmen in 1987. The Book Industry Study Group began using graphic novel as a category in book stores in 2001. The term is not strictly defined, though Merriam-Webster 's dictionary definition is "a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as
4635-413: The comic had described themselves as "graphic prose", or simply as a novel. Similarly, Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species by writer Don McGregor and artist Paul Gulacy ( Eclipse Books , August 1978) — the first graphic novel sold in the newly created " direct market " of United States comic-book shops — was called a "graphic album" by the author in interviews, though the publisher dubbed it
4738-458: The company after learning of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster 's struggles to gain recognition for creating Superman in 1968, and that this led him to create a company with an ethos that respected creator ownership and royalty payments over the then-standard industry practice of work-for-hire . Jan Mullaney, a session keyboardist who had toured with the Bee Gees and Bad Company , put up
4841-575: The company focused on collected editions, and only occasional titles – such as Truman's revisiting of pulp hero The Spider or zeitgeist-tapping spoofs such as X-Farce (a satire on Rob Liefeld 's X-Force ) and Loco vs. Pulverine (based on Lobo and Wolverine )--made any impression on sales charts. Several titles, such as a new Aztec Ace mini-series and several titles under the Eclipse F/X horror label, were announced but failed to reach publication. By 1991 Eclipse typically held around 1% of
4944-473: The company owned few of its properties it was dependent on its freelancing creators to keep popular titles going as fill-in issues and spin-offs had to be cleared with the creators, who also had the rights to take their work to other publishers when contracts expired. After losing his lawsuit over Howard the Duck , Gerber wound down Destroyer Duck to return to his former employers Marvel as a freelancer; Aztec Ace
5047-501: The complication of Eclipse's logo appearing on books featuring another publisher's intellectual property, these were published via a sub-label named the Independent Comic Group. Eclipse attempted to innovate with new publishing models for comics. Among these were so-called "micro-series", limited series of two bi-weekly or even weekly issues; a line of 3-D stereoscopy books in collaboration with Ray Zone (including
5150-541: The controversy when the cards were collected as a pair of albums, True Crime Vol 1 – G-Men & Gangsters and True Crime Vol 2 – Serial Killers & Mass Murderers in 1993. Following the success of the True Crime trading cards, in 1993 Eclipse published the two-issue series True Crime Comics as well as the True Crime Comics Special . Eclipse's creator-owned ethos had commercial flaws; as
5253-430: The daughter of the Muerta matron. The female Michael disapproves of this arrangement, but respects her stepson's decision while observing with amusement the Muerta matron's futile attempts to discourage it. To Ms. Tree's shock, when the relationship grows enough to make marriage probable, the Muerta family decides Mike's stepmother is now family and initiates a reconciliation with her while going legit. In addition, Michael
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#17327907061135356-523: The final issue of the series. In 1988 Eclipse had become the first comics company to produce trading cards with the Iran-Contra Scandal Trading Cards, with text written by Paul Brancato and featuring art by Salim Yaqub. In 1989, Eclipse co-published (with Warner Books ) the graphic novel flip book Brought to Light . The comic, by writers Alan Moore and Joyce Brabner and artist Bill Sienkiewicz , dealt in part with
5459-415: The finest thing we ever published") and B.C. Boyer's Masked Man . October 1981 saw the publication of Jim Starlin 's Dreadstar graphic novel The Price when the writer-artist was having contractual issues with Marvel. The success of the volume enabled Starlin to leverage a better deal with Marvel, and led to the creation of Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1982. Dean Mullaney later claimed Epic's name
5562-488: The first six issues of Eclipse Magazine , a newsstand-magazine-sized, black-and-white anthology title; shortly thereafter Eclipse began featuring the character in her own, regularly sized comic book. The first three issues of the Eclipse Comics series were titled Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures . This was shortened to Ms. Tree with issue #4. Most storylines were multi-issue affairs. A notable exception
5665-517: The first to use it. These included the Time magazine website in 2003, which said in its correction: "Eisner acknowledges that the term 'graphic novel' had been coined prior to his book. But, he says, 'I had not known at the time that someone had used that term before'. Nor does he take credit for creating the first graphic book". One of the earliest contemporaneous applications of the term post-Eisner came in 1979, when Blackmark 's sequel—published
5768-502: The heading. Writer-artist Bryan Talbot claims that the first collection of his The Adventures of Luther Arkwright , published by Proutt in 1982, was the first British graphic novel. American comic critics have occasionally referred to European graphic novels as "Euro-comics", and attempts were made in the late 1980s to cross-fertilize the American market with these works. American publishers Catalan Communications and NBM Publishing released translated titles, predominantly from
5871-611: The increasing output both Burke and Letita Glozer (Yronwode's half-sister) were added to the full-time editorial staff, while Beau Smith joined as Sales Manager. To avoid further flooding the company also relocated to Forestville in Sonoma County, California . In July 1987, Yronwode used her Fit to Print column to announce her forthcoming marriage to Dean Mullaney, set to take place on August 15 in Forestville; readers were encouraged to write in to receive invitations. In
5974-456: The keeping of two sets of books to avoid paying the agreed royalties. A large judgement was eventually made against Eclipse, the losses from which were a factor in the company's strained finances. Garry Leach , Dez Skinn , Alan Davis , Neil Gaiman , Mark Buckingham , Dave Stevens and Mike Deodato have all gone on the record to state they were either not paid or not paid correctly for work with Eclipse, while Davis has also stated his work
6077-601: The late 1960s, American comic book creators were becoming more adventurous with the form. Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin self-published a 40-page, magazine -format comics novel, His Name Is... Savage (Adventure House Press) in 1968—the same year Marvel Comics published two issues of The Spectacular Spider-Man in a similar format. Columnist and comic-book writer Steven Grant also argues that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko 's Doctor Strange story in Strange Tales #130–146, although published serially from 1965 to 1966,
6180-461: The launching of Classics Illustrated , a comic-book series that primarily adapted notable, public domain novels into standalone comic books for young readers. Citizen 13660 , an illustrated, novel length retelling of Japanese internment during World War II , was published in 1946. In 1947, Fawcett Comics published Comics Novel #1: "Anarcho, Dictator of Death", a 52-page comic dedicated to one story. In 1950, St. John Publications produced
6283-433: The market and had been definitively overtaken by Malibu , Valiant and Image . Having always done most of their business with comic stores rather than larger retailers, Eclipse were one of many small publishers adversely affected by the post-speculator boom contraction of the direct market , and by a problematic contract with the book publisher HarperCollins . Problems were exacerbated when Mullaney and Yronwode underwent
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#17327907061136386-461: The market fell from around 8% to 3.6% (also falling behind First Comics . The successful emergence of Dark Horse Comics (who also took on Mr. Monster ) further ate into Eclipse's share. The company began to explore non-fiction; Yronwode and Robbins co-wrote Women and the Comics , a volume on the history of female comic strip and comic book creators. As the first book on this subject, its publication
6489-618: The maturity of the material and the individuality of the output Increased output included Scott McCloud 's Zot! (which the writer-artist originally submitted through the mail) and Doug Moench 's Aztec Ace . Yronwode effectively became the face of the company, continuing to write her influential Fit to Print comic in Comics Buyer's Guide and from late 1984 penning the Penumbra column printed in most Eclipse titles; it had previously been named Notes from Surf City in reference to
6592-416: The murderer and discovers his link to the Muerta organized crime family. Ms. Tree's dead husband was named Michael Tree, the joke being that after the marriage they had the same name. The female main character's real first name actually is Michael; when friends want to irritate her they deliberately mispronounce it as "Michelle". Series creator/writer Max Allan Collins makes no secret of the fact that Ms. Tree
6695-558: The official adaptation of Disney Michael Jackson vehicle Captain EO ) and – later – flexi disc records containing theme songs for titles. By this point, Eclipse was selling around half a million comics a month, and was the third largest comics publisher after Marvel Comics and DC Comics . Eclipse suffered a major setback on February 14, 1986, when the Russian River flooded after heavy rainfall. Eclipse's offices were swamped;
6798-507: The official adaptation of latest film Licence to Kill and three issue mini-series James Bond: Permission to Die — the first James Bond comic book storyline not adapted from a previous work — both featuring art from Mike Grell ; mini-series Steed and Mrs. Peel (based on television show The Avengers but renamed to avoid confusion with the highly prominent Marvel Comics series of that name ) by Grant Morrison and Ian Gibson ; and Eddie Campbell 's The Complete Alec . The collection won
6901-495: The ordinance. Graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art . The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book , which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks . Fan historian Richard Kyle coined
7004-676: The period 1987–1993, Eclipse became involved with a selection of comics and trading cards on real-world political topics. The early political comics were the results of partnerships with activist groups like Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors , Citizen Soldier , and the Christic Institute . In 1987, the company published the antiwar comic Real War Stories #1, edited by Joyce Brabner , with work by Mike W. Barr , Steve Bissette , Brian Bolland , Paul Mavrides , Dean Motter , Denny O'Neil and John Totleben (among others). In 1991, Eclipse published Real War Stories #2,
7107-493: The police. Eclipse was also a plaintiff when Nassau County, New York , seized a crime-themed trading card series of theirs under a county ordinance prohibiting sales of certain trading cards to minors. The case, in which Yronwode testified and the American Civil Liberties Union provided Eclipse's representation, reached the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals . It ruled against the county, overturning
7210-446: The prestige-format "super series", including hiring Crisis writer Marv Wolfman to script the series and commissioning covers from Bill Sienkiewicz . Despite promotional stunts such as bespoke plastic bags for comics stores, Total Eclipse was beset by delays and a commercial and critical failure, nixing any hopes of relaunching the likes of Strike! and The New Wave on the back of its success. Soon afterwards production problems saw
7313-464: The publisher also produced creator-owned work by Don McGregor , Mark Evanier , Gene Colan , Alan Moore , Steve Englehart , Steve Gerber and P. Craig Russell . The company was founded as Eclipse Enterprises by brothers Jan and Dean Mullaney – the sons of early electronica musician Dave Mullaney of the band Hot Butter – in April 1977. Dean Mullaney later claimed that he was inspired to create
7416-662: The radio and pulp fiction character the Shadow , and released in hardcover). Marvel commissioned original graphic novels from such creators as John Byrne , J. M. DeMatteis , Steve Gerber , graphic-novel pioneer McGregor, Frank Miller , Bill Sienkiewicz , Walt Simonson , Charles Vess , and Bernie Wrightson . While most of these starred Marvel superheroes , others, such as Rick Veitch 's Heartburst featured original SF/fantasy characters; others still, such as John J. Muth 's Dracula , featured adaptations of literary stories or characters; and one, Sam Glanzman 's A Sailor's Story ,
7519-465: The role of publisher and Yronwode that of editor-in-chief for Eclipse's growing number of titles, and the pair briefly relocated to Columbia, Missouri . After meeting Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot Eclipse published their first superhero regular series, The DNAgents . It was joined by Eclipse Monthly , a colour successor to Eclipse, the Magazine that continued Static , Dope and Masked Man as well as introducing further characters. Ms. Tree
7622-404: The series was written by the prolific Chuck Dixon . The title initially had another unusual format, being a 16-page 50¢ full-colour title initially. While this was eventually dropped, Airboy was a critical and commercial success for Eclipse, and several spin-off titles followed. Superhero series The New Wave also launched using the bi-weekly model before becoming a standard monthly. To deal with
7725-679: The stalwart Airboy put on hiatus after 50 issues, while Scout likewise stalled before mooted third series Scout: Marauder could begin. At the end of 1989 Eclipse announced they were turning away from mainstream comics to 'special projects' (including their trading card business). After the failure of Total Eclipse , Eclipse largely discontinued superhero comics bar the ongoing Zot! (which ended in 1991) and Miracleman . Instead, comics output largely focused on literary adaptations, including J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Hobbit , Anne McCaffrey 's Dragonflight and several Clive Barker works, either as mini-series, one shots or graphic novels. Otherwise
7828-431: The term graphic novel in an essay in the November 1964 issue of the comics fanzine Capa-Alpha . The term gained popularity in the comics community after the publication of Will Eisner 's A Contract with God (1978) and the start of the Marvel Graphic Novel line (1982) and became familiar to the public in the late 1980s after the commercial successes of the first volume of Art Spiegelman 's Maus in 1986,
7931-647: The term "graphic novel" in Capa-Alpha #2 (November 1964), a newsletter published by the Comic Amateur Press Alliance, and again in an article in Bill Spicer 's magazine Fantasy Illustrated #5 (Spring 1966). Kyle, inspired by European and East Asian graphic albums (especially Japanese manga ), used the label to designate comics of an artistically "serious" sort. Following this, Spicer, with Kyle's acknowledgment, edited and published
8034-425: The term originally; the back-cover blurb of the 30th-anniversary edition ( ISBN 978-1-56097-456-7 ) calls it, retroactively, the first American graphic novel. The Academy of Comic Book Arts presented Kane with a special 1971 Shazam Award for what it called "his paperback comics novel". Whatever the nomenclature, Blackmark is a 119-page story of comic-book art, with captions and word balloons , published in
8137-459: The title was halted due to "circumstances beyond [either party]'s control". In November 1988 Viz chose not to renew their contract with Eclipse, instead setting up their own American publishing wing. Eclipse continued to work with Studio Proteus on other manga imports, including Dominion and The Lost Continent . The company also commissioned Adam Warren to create an English-language version of Dirty Pair . Alongside this, it partnered with
8240-506: The wake of the term's popularity. Briggs noted, however, that he did not like that term too much. In 1976, the term "graphic novel" appeared in print to describe three separate works: The following year, Terry Nantier , who had spent his teenage years living in Paris, returned to the United States and formed Flying Buttress Publications , later to incorporate as NBM Publishing ( Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine ), and published Racket Rumba ,
8343-429: The water reached the second floor of their building, as well as Mullaney and Yronwode's homes. Mullaney recalled that Yronwode had to be rescued from her office by a Red Cross canoe; while he was able to save much of the original artwork in the offices by moving it up to the third floor It destroyed the company's inventory of back issues, as well as colour separations for planned reprints of Zot! and Yronwode's notes for
8446-452: Was DC Comics' Ms. Tree Quarterly (renamed Ms. Tree Special for its last two issues) which was comic-sized but much thicker than a typical comic book, with a much higher page count, and presented a full-color, complete Ms. Tree story in every issue. In 2019, Titan Comics began publication of a trade paperback collection of five Ms. Tree stories, which also included the "rare Ms. Tree prose story" Inconvenience Store . The 264-page volume
8549-464: Was Dean Mullaney, the co-owner of Eclipse Comics, a small independent publishing house. He was the most flirtatious." The pair began a personal and professional relationship, though the former aspect was initially kept private. Yronwode rapidly became Eclipse's de facto editor-in-chief . While Jan Mullaney remained based in New York to handle the economic side of the business, Dean Mullaney focused on
8652-469: Was a mature, complex work focusing on the lives of ordinary people in the real world based on Eisner's own experiences. One scholar used graphic novels to introduce the concept of graphiation, the theory that the entire personality of an artist is visible through his or her visual representation of a certain character, setting, event, or object in a novel, and can work as a means to examine and analyze drawing style. Even though Eisner's A Contract with God
8755-547: Was a more light-hearted set that mixed political and celebrity targets; as well as cards on baseball bloopers, James Bond , country music , and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon . The company's 1992 trading card set, True Crime by Max Allan Collins , George Hagenauer, Paul Lee, Valarie Jones, Peggy Collier and Jon Bright, covering both mafia and gang figures such as Al Capone and Hymie Weiss to more recent mass killers such as John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer , drew considerable controversy after an Eclipse press release
8858-403: Was a true-life, World War II naval tale. Cartoonist Art Spiegelman 's Pulitzer Prize -winning Maus (1986), helped establish both the term and the concept of graphic novels in the minds of the mainstream public. Two DC Comics book reprints of self-contained miniseries did likewise, though they were not originally published as graphic novels: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986),
8961-592: Was able to arrange purchasing their titles. This included Dave Stevens ' The Rocketeer , Mr. Monster and Somerset Holmes , as well as a recently signed deal for the American rights to Quality Communications ' acclaimed British anthology Warrior . They also set up the Independent Comics Group to publish two issues of the anthology Twisted Tales , while Fred Burke also joined the company in 1984. Burke subsequently edited and wrote numerous titles for Eclipse. The inherited deal with Quality
9064-555: Was also commissioned from Tom Orzechowski ; it remained the company's insignia for the rest of its existence, minor alterations aside. The profits earned to date were used to fund publication of McGregor's Detectives, Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green (with artist Marshall Rogers ) and Steve Gerber 's Stewart the Rat . In 1980 Mullaney moonlighted as co-editor of the brand-new hobbyist publication Comics Feature , produced by Hal Schuster 's New Media Publishing , but left after
9167-565: Was cancelled due to the inability to find satisfactory artists; Scott McCloud's work on the Creator's Bill of Rights caused delays on the award-winning Zot! ; Dave Stevens struck a deal with Comico to serialise new Rocketeer material; DNAgents and its spin-off Crossfire were abandoned when Mark Evanier took on work for DC Comics ; Ty Templeton abandoned Stig's Inferno soon after transferring it to Eclipse when he received offers to work on Booster Gold ; and Miracleman slowed to
9270-401: Was covered in the mainstream press in addition to the fan press. Attempting to diversify, in 1988 the company created a new division, Eclipse International, to publish material from overseas. One source was Japan , where manga was produced in prodigious amounts; the success of imported anime such as Robotech and Voltron had showed a large potential market for such subject matter. A deal
9373-536: Was fortuitously timed; Alan Moore had recently taken over writing Saga of the Swamp Thing for DC Comics , triggering the so-called British invasion . The Warrior deal brought in Axel Pressbutton and The Spiral Path , which were coloured by Eclipse and printed in limited series, as well as taking over Peter Milligan 's Strange Days anthology, starring Johnny Nemo . The deal also included
9476-412: Was inspired by Velda, Mike Hammer's secretary, a stacked, gun carrying, six-foot tall brunette and Mike's lover, who was almost as tough as he was. The basic premise of Ms. Tree was, "What if Velda and Mike Hammer eventually got married, and on their honeymoon he was murdered?" Throughout the series, in addition to isolated cases that often touch on social issues of the day, Ms. Tree's vendetta against
9579-674: Was picked up by Entertainment Tonight , leading to accusations of sensationalism . The series was also lambasted on The Today Show and The Maury Povich Show , while Michigan senators put forward a resolution to ban the cards before they had even been released, while legislators in Maryland and Arkansas made similar moves. Reporting on the issue, comics industry magazine Amazing Heroes noted that Shel-Tone Publications' similar Bloody Visions set had attracted no such censure when released previously. Yronwode later claimed Eclipse received around 10,000 items of hate mail, and wrote about
9682-531: Was published by a traditional book publisher and distributed through bookstores, as was cartoonist Jules Feiffer 's Tantrum ( Alfred A. Knopf , 1979) described on its dust jacket as a "novel-in-pictures". Hyperbolic descriptions of longer comic books as "novels" appear on covers as early as the 1940s. Early issues of DC Comics ' All-Flash , for example, described their contents as "novel-length stories" and "full-length four chapter novels". In its earliest known citation, comic-book reviewer Richard Kyle used
9785-552: Was published in 1842 by Wilson & Company in New York City using the original printing plates from the 1841 edition. Another early predecessor is Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags by brothers J. A. D. and D. F. Read, inspired by The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck . In 1894, Caran d'Ache broached the idea of a "drawn novel" in a letter to the newspaper Le Figaro and started work on
9888-432: Was published in 1978 by a smaller company, Baronet Press, it took Eisner over a year to find a publishing house that would allow his work to reach the mass market. In its introduction, Eisner cited Lynd Ward's 1930s woodcuts as an inspiration. The critical and commercial success of A Contract with God helped to establish the term "graphic novel" in common usage, and many sources have incorrectly credited Eisner with being
9991-459: Was published in Argentina, a graphic novel written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and drawn by Alberto Breccia . The book told the story of Che Guevara in comics form, but the military dictatorship confiscated the books and destroyed them. It was later re-released in corrected versions. By 1969, the author John Updike , who had entertained ideas of becoming a cartoonist in his youth, addressed
10094-524: Was published without his permission. In 1992, the convicted serial killer Kenneth Bianchi , one-half of the pair known as the Hillside Stranglers , sued Yronwode for USD $ 8.5 million for having an image of his face depicted on a trading card; he claimed his face was his trademark. The judge dismissed the case after ruling that, if Bianchi had been using his face as a trademark when he was killing women, he would not have tried to hide it from
10197-427: Was purposefully picked to cause confusion with Eclipse. Another disgruntled Marvel creator to work for Eclipse was Gerber; Eclipse commissioned his Destroyer Duck series. Another anthology, it was partly motivated to allow Gerber to raise funds to sue Marvel over the ownership of Howard the Duck . The first issue of Destroyer Duck sold 80,000 copies and proved to the Mullaneys that colour ongoing comics were viable;
10300-409: Was released on July 17 the same year. Eclipse Comics Aardvark-Vanaheim Aardvark-Vanaheim / Renegade Press co-publishers Renegade Press DC Comics Hard Case Crime Ms. Tree also had two one-shot 3-D comics published by Renegade Press: Ms. Tree 3-D #1 (August 1985) and Ms. Tree's 1950's Three-Dimensional Crime #1 (July 1987). Literacy Volunteers of Chicago published one issue of
10403-611: Was spun off into its own title, while Yronwode rediscovered Will Eisner 's lost 1948 story John Law , which was published for the first time. After the stopover in Missouri, Dean Mullaney and Yronwode established Eclipse's main offices in the small town of Guerneville in July 1983. In October 1984 Jan Mullaney opted to discontinue his involvement in order to focus on his music career, leaving his brother as sole publisher and Yronwode officially promoted to editor-in-chief. Eclipse's advertising copy flagged their stance on creator ownership,
10506-494: Was struck with Shogakukan 's subsidiary Viz Communication for some of their titles, which were translated and modified for the American market by Toren Smith 's Studio Proteus . The first titles were Area 88 , Kamui and Mai, the Psychic Girl . These were successful and were followed by other similar titles, including Appleseed . However, before Eclipse could publish the heavily advertised Lum * Urusei Yatsura
10609-429: Was written by Max Allan Collins, with a painted cover by Ms. Tree co-creator Terry Beatty. Hard Case Crime also published the complete Ms. Tree comic collection into graphic novel format for Titan Comics . Ms. Tree's adventures were published by four different comic book companies including Eclipse Comics , Aardvark-Vanaheim , Renegade Press , and finally DC Comics . Her introduction and first storyline appeared in
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