So some time back—just over 14 years ago, in fact!*—I posted a series of communications I had in the early 1990s with the now-defunct comic book publisher Eclipse, in which I was working with an editor who was really, really interested in publishing some of my comic book proposals. Like, really interested. Like, it was practically a done deal, you know? Practically. The fact that you have never seen my comic books in a drugstore or newstand near you might tell you exactly how that worked out, but in case you are interested in the details, you can read about it here, and here, and here, and also here.
Anyway, nearly a decade and a half** later, I got a visit from a stationery aficionado who wondered if I might have any of the envelopes Eclipse used to in our communications. I didn’t think I would, because I typically only kept letters, not envelopes, but as it turned out, I did indeed have an envelope from Eclipse tucked into the stack of letters I exchanged with them. Souvenirs from a glimpse of the promised land, man! I’ll get to the envelope in a minute, but first, here’s an example of a letter I received from Eclipse. They really did have nice stationery, now that I look at it from that perspective.
As I mentioned in the original post, a number of the series proposals Eclipse had been considering eventually got turned into novels, and this, of course, is one of them, Night Watchman, which I think is the first one I got published. The novel version was originally put out by Hard Shell Word Factory, which is now also defunct, just like Eclipse. And of course, the publisher of my second novel, A Flock of Crows is Called a Murder, also went out of business. Hmm, let’s recap:
- Eclipse: Goes defunct, assets get acquired by a famous comic book artist and author (Todd McFarlane)
- Hard Shell Word Factory: Assets get acquired by a famous writer (Piers Anthony), gets renamed to Mundania Press, goes defunct
- DarkTales Books: Goes defunct, domain name gets acquired by an interracial porn site(!), which also goes defunct; domain eventually gets parked.
Maybe I’m the problem …
Well, anyway, I think at this point I’ve padded this out enough so that it counts as a post. Yay! And now, here’s what everyone—or at least, one person—has been waiting for: An envelope from the Eclipse Saga:
That was a really nice envelope, too. You don’t see envelopes like that anymore. At least, I don’t, because I haven’t submitted anything in a long, long time …
* Good Lord.
** Did I say “Good Lord” already?
Viscosity 
The correspondence lead to some mishaps, but also publications! Very cool. I’d like to try a Flock of Crows – conjures within me lots of good sci-fi and music motifs!
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HUH!! James that is so weird how each company went defunct…..I do not think it was on you……REALLY!
But I can see why you were like What The…..????
I will say the Eclipse envelope is VERY stylish. Maybe they should have spent more time on company management & less time on stationary!!! ROFL!!!!!
(((hugs))) Sherri-Ellen (Bella Sita Mum) & ***purrss*** BellaDharma
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That occurred to me about the stationery when I was putting the post together, even though I didn’t say it! 😂
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Great minds think alike James! 😉
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Eclipse Books shouldn’t have led you on about a potential comic book contract. That’s just damn bullshit. Hope can be easily crushed in this world, like a flower underfoot, and its loss is a devastating experience.
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Well I mean I do think the editor I was working with was genuinely interested in putting out some of the books I had in the pipeline. It’s just that he pulled a Chandler and moved to Yemen (or in this case, New Zealand) and his successor was like 🤷♂️ eh never mind. This was something of a pattern with me. Maybe 15 or 20 years after this, I got an email from the office of Bill Todman Jr. (of “X-Men” movie fame, among other things) inquiring about the rights to “A Flock of Crows is Called a Murder”, in which they said something to the effect of “Since the doors are shut at DarkTales, we’re coming to you directly”. I immediately wrote back to let them know that the rights were available and also got in touch with an agent I knew to let him know about the email. The agent was like “Ah, Hollywood. If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked about the rights, I’d be rich.” Sure enough, I never heard from Bill Todman Jr.’s office again, despite following up several times. Sigh.
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Ha! Wonderful!! Thanks so much for posting James!!
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Wow, interesting….. are you allowed to re-published once a publisher is no more?
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I think it depends on your contract and what happens to the rights holder’s assets; in my case, both times I got documentation from the publisher that the rights had reverted to me (DarkTales sent it on their own; I think I had to ask Hard Shell/Mundania for it) and so I was able to republish the books myself. If either publisher had wanted to be a jerk about it they probably could have held onto the rights even after shutting down, or they could have sold/assigned them to somebody else, sort of (though not exactly) like what happened with Taylor Swift’s early masters that were obtained by Scooter Braun. But I’m, uh, not Taylor Swift, so nobody was exactly clamoring for the rights to my stuff … 😁
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