First Look: CRUEL KINGDOM #2 – Oni and EC Comics Cast a Terrifying Spell with Chris Condon, David Lapham, Andrea Mutti & More in February!
Plus: Your First Look Inside Steve Niles & Andrea Mutti’s “Hammer of Witches” – In Stores February 5th!
COVER A BY ADAM POLLINA
PORTLAND, OR (January 10th, 2025) – ONCE UPON A TIME…BLOOD WILL BE SPILLED! Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is thrilled to present a terrifying look at the next shocking year of EC Comics with your first look inside CRUEL KINGDOM #2!
Enter the lost aeon of brave knights, foreboding wizards, and gloriously skull-crushing brutality as EC Comics' first-ever dark fantasy title unleashes its next full-throated battle cry of all-out terror with spellbinding writers Cameron Chittock (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Stranger Things), Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine) and Steve Niles (30 Days Of Night) alongside enchanting artists PJ Holden (2000 AD), Andrea Mutti (Rebels), and David Lapham(Stray Bullets)! Lo, this is no ordinary storybook – this is CRUEL KINGDOM!
CRUEL KINGDOM, the first dark fantasy anthology series from EC, features a variety of spellbinding tales from some of the most talented – and twisted – names in comics, including Eisner Award-winning master of horror Steve Niles (Criminal Macabre) and skull-splitting artist Andrea Mutti (Rebels) as EC gives us a front row seat for the signature sporting event of the 18th century – the witch trial – in “Hammer of Witches”:
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 "HAMMER OF WITCHES" | INTERIOR ART BY ANDREA MUTTI
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 "HAMMER OF WITCHES" | INTERIOR ART BY ANDREA MUTTI
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 "HAMMER OF WITCHES" | INTERIOR ART BY ANDREA MUTTI
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 "HAMMER OF WITCHES" | INTERIOR ART BY ANDREA MUTTI
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 "HAMMER OF WITCHES" | INTERIOR ART BY ANDREA MUTTI
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 "HAMMER OF WITCHES" | INTERIOR ART BY ANDREA MUTTI
From the restless imaginations that spawned EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS and CRUEL UNIVERSE, cast your gaze upon CRUEL KINGDOM and despair! Featuring covers from Adam Pollina (X-Force), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), and Rian Hughes (The Multiversity), readers can descend into darkness when CRUEL KINGDOM #2 arrives in shops on February 5th!
CRUEL KINGDOM #2 (of 4)
WRITTEN BY CHRIS CONDON, CAMERON CHITTOCK, & STEVE NILES
ART BY ANDREA MUTTI, P.J. HOLDEN, & DAVID LAPHAM
COVER A BY ADAM POLLINA
COVER B BY TOM FOWLER & BILL CRABTREE
HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
ON SALE FEBRUARY 5th | $4.99 | 40 PGS. | FC
FOC: 01/13/25
COVER A BY ADAM POLLINA
COVER B BY TOM FOWLER WITH BILL CRABTREE
HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
About EC Comics
As the birthplace of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MAD MAGAZINE, WEIRD SCIENCE, and more of the most influential and celebrated comic series ever published, EC Comics has cemented itself as one of the central nerves of American pop culture with a legacy that spans more than seven decades. From 1944 to 1956, EC – established as "Educational Comics" by founder M.C. Gaines and later rebranded "Entertaining Comics" under the leadership of Publisher & Editor William M. Gaines – led a creative renaissance for the comics industry that, for the first time, elevated the once-derided comics medium into the echelons of English literature and high art. Heralded as "one of the great explosions of vox-pop literature" by Time Magazine and "fiercely honest, politically adversarial, [and] visually masterful" by The Comics Journal, EC's line of comics books - which collectively sold more than 10 million copies annually at their peak – entertained and informed in equal measure, using brilliantly crafted tales of horror, science fiction, satire, and battlefield conflict to critique and subvert America's dark impulses toward violence, racism, inequity, environmental destruction, and war.
Forcibly shuttered by the Comics Code Authority – a pro-censorship group specifically tasked with eradicating EC's illuminating influence from the American comic book industry – in 1956, EC's unique brand of subversive storytelling lived on through the continued success of MAD Magazine, which would fuel American counterculture through the death of Publisher William M. Gaines in 1992. EC's titles and stories have been adapted in a number of media – including the long-running HBO's long-running TALES FROM THE CRYPT franchise of television series and feature films – and continue to be celebrated by multiple generations of comic creators, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians as a seminal influence.
Today, EC Comics' canon of classic stories can continuously be found in print through new editions at Dark Horse Comics, TASCHEN, Fantagraphics, and IDW Publishing. In 2024, EC announced a new partnership with multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher Oni Press to produce the first all-new EC Comics titles in nearly 70 years.