| Dean Mullaney | |
|---|---|
Dean Mullaney (left) with comics writer Steve Gerber at the 1982 San Diego Comic Con (later Comic-Con International) |
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| Born | June 18, 1954 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Publisher |
| Notable works | Eclipse Books The Library of American Comics |
| Awards | 2008, 2010-11 Eisner Awards |
Dean Mullaney (born June 18, 1954)[1][2] is an American editor and publisher whose Eclipse Enterprises, founded in 1977, was one of the earliest independent comic book companies. Eclipse would publish some of the first graphic novels; become the first comics company to publish trading cards; and was one of the first comics publishers to champion creators' rights. In the 2000s, he established the imprint The Library of American Comics at IDW Publishing, to publish hardcover collections of comic strips.
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Dean Mullaney and his brother, rock musician Jan Mullaney, are the sons of early electronica musician Dave Mullaney of the band Hot Butter.[3] The brothers founded Eclipse Enterprises in Staten Island, New York City, New York, in 1977,[4][5] and the following year published one of the first original graphic novels, Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species. Written by Don McGregor and drawn by Paul Gulacy, Sabre was additionally the first graphic novel sold through the new "direct market" of comic-book stores.[6] Eclipse went on to publish the anthology magazine Eclipse and the color-comic anthology Eclipse Monthly, the first of an Eclipse Comics line that eventually included such titles and creators as The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens; Zot! by Scott McCloud; two volumes of Detectives Inc. by McGregor and artists Marshall Rogers and Gene Colan, respectively; Stewart the Rat by writer Steve Gerber and artists Colan and Tom Palmer; and the U.S. reprints of Miracleman by Alan Moore.[7] Eclipse also brought out graphic novels featuring opera adaptations, such as The Magic Flute by P. Craig Russell, and children's literature such as The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.[8]
In the early 1980s, Mullaney met writer-editor Catherine Yronwode, who was working for cartoonist and entrepreneur 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 was Dean Mullaney, the co-owner of Eclipse Comics, a small independent publishing house. He was the most flirtatious." At some point afterward, once Yronwode finished her work organizing Eisner's archives, she and Mullaney became engaged and moved to California, where they were married.[9]
In 1986, Eclipse lost most of its back-issue stock in a flood.[10] This event, along with the repercussions of Mullaney's divorce from Yronwode, by then his partner at Eclipse, and the mid-1990s collapse of the direct market distribution system, caused the company to cease operations in 1994,[11][12] and file for bankruptcy in 1995.[13] The company's intellectual property rights were later acquired by Todd McFarlane.[14] Mullaney also attributed the company's demise to a problematic contract with the book publisher HarperCollins.[15] Eclipse's last publication was its Spring 1993 catalog, which was a complete bibliography of its publications.
In the mid-2000s, Mullaney approached IDW Publishing with a proposal to publish hardcover reprints of American comic strips. This became the IDW imprint The Library of American Comics, which debuted with the 2007 book The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1: 1934-1936, by Milton Caniff. As Mullaney described, "Terry's always been my favorite strip, and I was going to publish it in the early '80s (through Eclipse Comics), but Terry Nantier at NBM beat me to it. Luckily, I've lived long enough so that 25 years later I'm in a position to release new editions of Terry.[16] With Mullaney as its creative director, the imprint has gone on to published collections of strips including Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Bringing Up Father, Family Circus, and Bloom County.[17]
As creative director of The Library of American Comics.[17], winner of three Eisner awards in the imprint's first four years, out of fourteen Eisner and Harvey Award nominations.