Jim Starlin’s Origin of God and Birth of Death!

Tags

Death, Eclipse Comics, God, Indie Comics, Jim Starlin, origin, science fiction, Star Reach, Star Reach Classics

Jim Starlin’s single-page origin of god and his short origin of death originally appeared in the first issue of the 1974 series Star Reach. Star Reach Productions published its own Greatest Hits in 1979. In 1984, Eclipse reprinted six issues of highlights from the series as Star Reach Classics. We recommend it for fans of classic 70s science fiction. It’s in stock far more often than the original issues, and Eclipse printed it on high-quality paper, a really nice production. You can get most of them for just a couple dollars a piece.

Starlin gives us some of his finest 70s illustration, artistically superior to his more famous work on Captain Marvel, and on par with his best Warlock stories. If you enjoy these, you will enjoy Starlin’s Darklon the Mystic from that same era. Diversions of the Groovy Kind hosts some pages from Warren’s Eerie magazine where you can read part of Darklon in black and white. Or, you can drop a dollar on a back issue by Pacific Comics that reprints the complete Darklon story in color.

Collector’s Guide:
– From Star Reach Classics #1; Eclipse, 1984.

If Dinosaurs Were Meant to Fly…

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur comics, dr. watchstop, eclipse, Eclipse Comics, flight, fusion, Indie Comics, ken macklin, right stuff

In this three page story by Ken Macklin, a dinosaur invents the first set of artificial wings. “Dr. WatchStop” was one of several original creations by Macklin, about whom we haven’t been able to discover much. It seems he was in underground comics in the 70s, too.

We don’t recall ever seeing this story before last month. Fusion was never one of the Eclipse titles we got into back in the 1980s. But, you have to admit, the concept bears a striking resemblance to the core idea we had for our own little dinosaur comic. How did we find it? Our art teacher snagged this book at random out of a clearance bin for a project. Talk about synchronicity…

Collector’s Guide:
– from Fusion #7; Eclipse, 1988.
Backup art & story by Ken Macklin

Zot Ads!

Tags

Eclipse Comics, Indie Comics, Scott McCloud, Zot

Eclipse comics ads for Zot.

We like the collected black and white issues put out in hard and soft cover a few years back. But if there’s one thing we hate about collections, it’s when they don’t reproduce all the covers! Somebody in design thought we’d enjoy seeing all the Zot covers the size of a thumbnail in their collected edition. THEY WERE WRONG. So, it just might be worth our time to dig up all the back issues. Like most formerly expensive back issues, they don’t cost much these days, usually less than the price of new books on the stands.

This Pure Act of Creation!

Tags

Alan Moore, birth, birth scene, Eclipse Comics, Indie Comics, MiracleMan, MiracleMan 9, Rick Veitch

The birth scene in Miracleman #9 made it one of the most controversial issues of arguably the greatest superhero story of the 20th century. Isn’t it strange that a candid depiction of birth, an event all of us experience at least once, often draws harsher criticisms than graphic depictions of violence? Hats off to Alan Moore and Rick Veitch for this one.

Collector’s Guide:
– From Miracleman #9; Eclipse.
– Reprinted in MiracleMan TPB #2.