Magazine: 3 out of 5

Gerber stuff: 4 out of 5

Eclipse undeniably played a pivotal role in comics on several frontiers: Advancements in printing quality; in support of creator’s rights; and a general expansion of the concept of to whom comics could appeal, as well as tackling the perceived limited range of “underground” comics by a general openness to genre.

Its place in history can certainly now be discussed; its direct impact at the time probably debatable, but as I’m certainly under-informed and suspecting better articles have already been written on the matter, I’ll spare us all my armchair research and opinionating (i.e. I’ll be lazier than usual) and just focus on the review.

But I do start there for a reason, which is to say: Eclipse had a reputation, or wanted to have a reputation, of being important, and the anthology mag Eclipse was certainly affected by that.  But don’t take my word for it; editor Dean Mullaney spells it out in his editor’s intro and lettercol answers, speaking of hopes of expanding the expectations of under- and overground comics, or praising the wide and varied styles Eclipse broached between its covers.

Alas, as I think we’ve seen with a lot of anthology mags, “wide and varied” easily equates to unfocused, and also opens the critical floodgates to pieces of “interest” – either due to oddity or because they’re by a notable creator – that maybe aren’t all that good.  The plus side of this, if you’re following a creator like Steve Gerber, is that you get to read something that might not’ve found a hone anywhere else.  The downside, if you’re not following a creator and/or in relation to the content on the whole, is that a lot of it comes across as head-scratching or, at worst, wankery.  Serialized bits like Englehart / Roger’s Coyote and Collins / Beatty’s Ms. Tree serve their weirdo adventure / noir genres well, but then you’ll have something like Trina Robbins ‘Dope’ adaptation, which, if you’ve got no context with the book from which its adapted, the comic offers absolutely zero and reads really flat.  Elsewhere, politics – Howard Cruse – pop up, which is well effected and amusing, but then there’s social politics from Don McGregor / Billy Graham and Joe Owens / Martin Herzog / Ken Steacy, which reads very specific and bottled and like the kind of self-obsessed material one generally associates with underground rags.  And then the more random odysseys like Kaz and Charles Vess which, if the art doesn’t grab you, I can’t imagine the surreal narratives will.

None of this is bad, but none of it is very grabbing – except, in my bias – Gerber’s entry (okay, and Ms. Tree).  It all feels just a bit too general and “important,” and since the more comic-booky stuff ends up being my preference, I can’t help but feel that Eclipse the mag might’ve been more fun had it dropped the pretense.

Focusing on Gerbs, ‘Role Models’ finds him teaming back up with Val Mayerick for a compelling – if rather sudden in its conclusion – Gerber rant on creative stifling.  Sure, it could be read as a Howard rebuttal, but more on the nose (Gerber, the nose?  Shocking…), Steve had been working on Thundarr the Barbarian at this point, hid he-man knock-off for Hanna Barberra.  And knock-off is a rough description, but any cartoon in the 80s with a dude with a magic sword, a battle-cry, gladiator-esque digs and anthropomorphic friends pretty much qualifies, and Thundarr hits all those checkboxes.  But – review forthcoming – when you note the names that worked on the show (besides Gerber, Buzz Dixon and others), you start to see how the series kicked at its confines with some pretty smart humor, subtle social commentary, and even attempts at broaching gender roles in cartoons…  And so there’s no doubt that the laundry list of offenses the main character in Models has to alter for her show Star Chasers – in order that it not even suggest impropriety – stank of personal experience to Gerbs.  (And just to own up that I’m not all analytically smart, this is definitely touched on in the creator bios for the issues.)

This kind of straight-forward tiger-poking was always a fun aspect of Gerb’s career, but certainly also part of why he was never able to hold onto any given crown for too long (whether it was directly rankling others or perhaps not allowing himself to do so); no sentimentality is offered regarding Role Models opinions of the damningly meaningless nature of presented culture.

Of course, what also made Steve Steve was his ridiculousness, and part two of his story makes sure to include that, solving the “mystery” of how censor Ms. Bibney-Botkins can be so inhuman.  And it is, I promise, more out there than that suggestive sentence suggests.

The criticality comes back around to its creator by story’s end, and the reproachfulness of the tale’s concluding concepts are so heavy its ultimately disappointing Steve didn’t try to extend this out a bit further, developing a bit more character over (or to the same level as) the recalcitrant jab at the industry.

For anthology collectors or your random reader: Average.  For Steve followers: Definitely worth tracking down.