Eclipso #23
Eclipso #23 — titled 'La Veuve Noire' — represents a snapshot of how French publisher Arédit-Artima served as the primary pipeline for American superhero comics to Francophone readers throughout the early 1970s, a period when such material had almost no other legal French-language outlet. By packaging Marvel characters in digest form under the broad 'Eclipso' banner, Arédit-Artima introduced characters like Black Widow to an audience that had no direct access to the original American editions. The series also stands as a document of the French comics regulatory environment: Arédit carried the 'bandes dessinées pour adultes' label specifically to sidestep the strict 1949 youth-press censorship law, which shaped what could be distributed and how.
In "La veuve noire," Stephen Strange’s momentary lapse in vigilance traps him in the Nightmare World, where the malevolent entity Nightmare holds him captive—boasting of his boredom and anticipation for new prey. With no spell to cast, Strange calls upon the never-sleeping Gulgol, only to reveal that his true power lies in outwitting Nightmare through a subtle, spellless hypnotic trick. Written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, illustrated by Steve Ditko with inks by George Roussos, this issue delivers a tense, cerebral showdown in a hauntingly surreal realm.
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The Eclipso Comics Pocket series launched in April 1968 as one of the first Arédit-Artima titles devoted entirely to American comics material, following the earlier hybrid pocket digests that used US stories only as page-fillers. The publisher, originally Artima, had been acquired by Presses de la Cité around 1962 and rebranded Arédit, continuing under both names through 1987; Janine Keirsbilk served as directrice de publication across this period of the series. Issues were produced in a 13 × 19 cm digest format, 164 pages, printed in black and white on newsprint, with American stories reframed and re-lettered in French — a standard production approach across all Comics Pocket titles of the era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published October 1972 by Arédit-Artima as issue #23 in the long-running Eclipso Comics Pocket series (1968–1983), which ultimately reached at least 84 issues.
- Cover-titled 'La Veuve Noire' — the French translation of Black Widow — making this the title-feature issue spotlighting Natasha Romanoff's Marvel adventures in a French-language digest for the first time under that banner title.
- Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) was created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964) in American comics; this issue brought her stories to the Arédit digest readership.
- Format: digest-sized (approximately 5" × 7"), 164 pages, black-and-white, printed on newsprint — consistent with all Comics Pocket editions of the period.
- The series carried the publisher's designation 'bandes dessinées pour adultes' (comics for adults) on its covers, an editorial device Arédit used to operate outside the scope of France's 1949 youth-press censorship law.
- Adjacent issues confirm that the Eclipso series reprinted Marvel material with stories reframed and re-lettered in French, often condensing multiple original American issues into a single continuous French narrative.
- The Eclipso Comics Pocket series was among the first Arédit titles dedicated entirely to American superhero comics, having launched in April 1968 alongside Spectre (April 1967) as a pioneer of that format for the publisher.
- The series mixed both DC and Marvel source material across its run; by 1972, issues were drawing heavily from Marvel properties including Sub-Mariner, Thor, and — with #23 — Black Widow.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Strange Tales #122 (1964), The Avengers #6 (1964), Pocket Chiller Library #42
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