If there can be said to have been a modern "Golden Age" of comics, it would have to have been the 1980s. While Miller and Moore and company were reshaping things at Marvel & DC, that's not at all related to my assertion. In fact, that's a half decade down the road yet.
I'm talking about the those glorious bright spots in the 80s expansion, before the 80s glut and the 80s collapse of the market. Printing tech had modernized and the new comics distribution network had developed to the point that it was suddenly feasible for small, independent publishers to make a fair go at putting out their own line. Independent vanguards like Dave Sim and Wendy and Richard Pini (WaRP) had proved it possible. A good number of people who truly loved comics decided it was their time, and they seized it with gusto. Many of my favorite comics of the time came from publishers like First, Pacific, Capital, Comico, Vortex, and -apropos to today's post - Eclipse. (I'm sure other excellent publishers from the time are being forgotten.)
After establishing their presence with a string of graphic novels, Eclipse launched their first ongoing title in 1981 with their eponymous anthology, Eclipse Magazine. Taking an obvious inspiration from Heavy Metal, their book pre-dated Marvel's similar Epic Magazine by a year. Though limited by black & white printing, they seemed unbounded in any other way. Talent was stellar - to kick off the premiere issue, they featured the above cover by Paul Gulacy, and stories by Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers, Jim Starlin, Howard Cruse, P. Craig Russell (raw pencils!), Marc Hempel, Chris Browne & Trina Robbins, and Max Allan Collins & Terry Beatty with the premiere of their long running Ms. Tree.
As for freedom to break from the superhero lock on the market at the time, and to explore new formats and try new things, how about Jim Starlin's take on the children's nursery rhyme, This Old Man...
...and from there bounce lightly to Howard Cruse pontificating on Death...
...
...and Marc Hempel having meta fun (back before 'meta' was really a concept) with the nature of reality in a comic book...
It was a glorious time when the rules were tested & broken, new things were tried constantly, and one never knew what might be lurking in each week's shipment of comics. A couple of years later, Eclipse Magazine would be replaced by Eclipse Monthly, in traditional comicbook format as a launch point for their expanding line. One of my personal favorites, which was actually kinda-sorta superhero-y, in a timey-whimey kind of way, followed not too long after that...
Fine Times...
page art by Jim Starlin, Howard Cruse, and Marc (sans Mark) Hempel from Eclipse Magazine #1 (1981)
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