It was the company's first ongoing title, Eclipse having previously published graphic novels, and was designed as a competitor to the likes of Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal.

The format attracted an eclectic mix of contributors, from mainstream industry veterans such as Steve Englehart, Don McGregor, Steve Gerber and Gene Colan to underground comix figures including Howard Cruse, Rick Geary, Hunt Emerson and Harvey Pekar, as well as newcomers to the medium like Max Allan Collins and Charles Vess.

Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik's "Role Model" and "Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others" in Eclipse #2–3 directly addressed the hypocrisy of censorship.

Eclipse introduced several strips that would go on to appear elsewhere – Collins and Terry Beatty created hardboiled detective Ms. Tree for the first issue,[2] and would be ever-present in the magazine before receiving her own series from 1983; Englehart and Marshall Rogers's Coyote first appeared in the second issue, and would be collected in a graphic novel by Eclipse;[3] McGregor and Colan's Ragamuffins would be similarly collected; and B.C.

[1] It was replaced by the color anthology Eclipse Monthly, which ran from August 1983 to July 1984, and continued both The Masked Man and Trina Robbins' adaptation of Sax Rohmer's novel Dope.