GASP! Oni Press Announces NO SECOND PRINTINGS For EC Comics’ EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 and CRUEL UNIVERSE #1
Plus: The First Interior Art Revealed for the All-New Titles from the Most Notorious Name in Terror – From Jonathan Case, Tyler Crook, Phil Hester, Kano, Jorge Fornés & More!
PORTLAND, OR (May 30th, 2024) –In advance of initial orders for this summer's relentless resurrection of EC Comics – due this week for EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 in advance of the double-sized, 40-page debut's July 24th street date – Oni Press is advising retailers and comic shop customers that EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 and the first issue of its science-fiction companion title, CRUEL UNIVERSE #1, will be limited to FIRST PRINTINGS ONLY with no second or subsequent printings to follow.
In tandem with this policy, Oni will be producing a sizable overprint for both issues in order to ensure adequate supply to meet retailer re-orders for both titles as the infamous and influential EC Comics line returns to shelves with its first new stories in nearly 70 years.
"The full-blooded revival of EC Comics at Oni Press is already registering as one of the year's biggest events for comic shops, and it's our mission to bring as many fans and readers into stores for the launch of EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 on July 24th as possible," said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. "To that end, we've been arming retailers with a battery of tools – double-sized first issues, wide-ranging returnability across our first three issues, and a raft of in-store promo materials – with even more yet to come. In the weeks ahead, we'll begin to reveal the terrors and delights that await within the pages of the EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS and CRUEL UNIVERSE, as brought to life by one of the most razor-sharp rosters of dangerously minded comics talent working in the industry today. These are high-impact comics that fully embody EC's bold and bloody legacy – miss them or forever suffer the consequences!"
In addition, Oni reaffirms its previous announcement that all non-incentive A cover and B covers for the first three issues of both series – spanning EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1-3 and CRUEL UNIVERSE #1-3 – are returnable with no qualification for all orders placed through both Diamond Comic Distributors and Lunar Distribution.
In addition, Oni is proud to present the very first look ahead at the very first interior artwork from EC's star-studded, jugular-pumping return from a glorious cast of "all-slaughter" comics talents primed to reaffirm the power and potency of EC's trademark styles in horror and science fiction in the weeks ahead:
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 Cover A by Lee Bermejo On Sale July 24th
THE MOST NOTORIOUS NAME IN TERROR IS BACK – WITH A VENGEANCE! From the publisher that drove Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, and many more into the depraved hearts of an unsuspecting world, the immortal EC COMICS returns . . . with its first ALL-NEW series in nearly 70 years!
In our first extra-sized, 40-page dose of fear, witness shocking tales of torment and tension in the undying EC tradition-as wrenched from the grave by the vile intentions of acclaimed writers Brian Azzarello (Batman: Damned, 100 Bullets), Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, Night People), J. Holtham (Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale), and Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn, Grim) and realized into bloody reality by "all-slaughter" artists Jorge Fornes (Rorschach, Danger Street), Phil Hester (Family Tree), Peter Krause (Irredeemable), and more!
What the Comics Code Authority couldn't kill has only made it stronger . . . EC COMICS LIVES AGAIN IN EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS!
Featuring:
"INTRODUCTION" by Dustin Weaver
"US VS. US" by Brian Azzarello & Vlad Legostaev
"KILLER SPEC" by J. Holtham & Jorge Fornés
"FAMILY VALUES" by Stephanie Phillips & Phil Hester
"SENATOR, SENATOR" by Chris Condon & Peter Krause
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 – Interior Art by Jorge Fornés
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 – Interior Art by Phil Hester
CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 Cover A by Greg Smallwood On Sale August 7th
Compelled to OBLIVION, driven to ENTROPY, all life in our cosmos can only end in one place: COMPLETE ANNIHILATION! For the first time in 70 years, the limitless fury of EC Comics rages back to life to shred the very fabric of the universe itself-and wrench bizarre tales of time and space into our dimensional plane!
Our guides across this double-sized, 40-page introduction to a cosmic maelstrom of strange extraterrestrial entities, malevolent scientists, and terrifying technological catastrophes? Learn to fear the void with the irradiated imaginations of Hugo Award nominee Corinna Bechko (Invisible Republic), rising star Chris Condon (That Texas Blood), Eisner Award nominee Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Mind MGMT), and Edgar Award winner Ben H. Winters (The Last Policeman) as they collide with the wondrously destructive visions of artists Jonathan Case (Green River Killer), Kano (Immortal Iron Fist), Artyom Topilin (I Hate This Place), and Caitlin Yarsky (Black Hammer: Reborn)!
The unpredictable return of EC Comics continues here with the quantum comics event of the millennium! Galaxies will collapse. Space-time will be distorted. And your very will to exist, too, shall be broken . . . Just remember: it's all in the name of SCIENCE!
Featuring:
"THE CHAMPION" by Matt Kindt & Kano
"SOLO SHIFT" by Corinna Bechko & Caitlin Yarsky
"DRINK UP!" by Chris Condon & Jonathan Case
"PRICELESS" by Ben H. Winters & Artyom Topilin
CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 – Interior Art by Kano
CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 – Interior Art by Jonathan Case
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2 Cover A by Lee Bermejo On Sale August 21st
EC COMICS PROUDLY PRESENTS . . . ANOTHER EPITAPH THAT'S GOOD UNTIL THE BALLOON POPS!
In this month's terrifying festival of fright: Three ALL-NEW tales of depraved intention and traumatic tension-culled from the fingertips of death-addled writers Jason Aaron (Thor, Southern Bastards), Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Mind MGMT), and writer/artist Tyler Crook (Harrow County), and forever wedded to the bloodstained brushstrokes of artists Klaus Janson (The Dark Knight Returns) and Jorge Fornes (Batman)!
THREE UNRELENTING NAIL-BITERS FROM FIVE MASTERS OF THE COMICS TRADE . . . You'd have to CRAZY to miss this-or DEAD!
Featuring:
"SOUNDS AND HAPTICS" by Jason Aaron & Jorge Fornes
"GRAY GREEN MEMORIES" by Tyler Crook
"PATTERN RECOGNITION" by Matt Kindt & Klaus Jason
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2 – Interior Art by Tyler Crook with Michelle Madsen
About Oni Press
Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, Ezra Clayton Daniels' Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.
The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.
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.