RISE! Superstar Creators Charlie Adlard, Christopher Cantwell, Javier Fernandez, David Lapham, Riley Rossmo & More Join EC COMICS Vengeful Resurrection at Oni Press in September!
Oni’s EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 and CRUEL UNIVERSE Come Packed with Terror, Talent, and All-New Stories from Comics’ Most Vile Visionaries!
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
PORTLAND, OR (June 6th, 2024) – EC COMICS IS BACK FROM THE GRAVE … AND NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT’S COMING NEXT! Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey-Award winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to reveal the all-new cast of vile visionaries at the helm of September 2024’s two gargantuan releases pumping new blood into the iconic legacy of the immortal EC Comics: EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 and CRUEL UNIVERSE #2!
In anticipation of September’s frightful festivities, book your therapy appointment NOW because Oni’s hugely anticipated, dangerously demented new line of EC titles is assembling one of the most staggering cast of comics talent anywhere on the shelves today with new tales of ill intent from Corinna Bechko (Green Lantern: Earth One), Chris Condon (That Texas Blood), Jonathan Case (Green River Killer), Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn, Grim), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), and Ben H. Winters (CBS’ Tracker) – plus the official EC debuts of Charlie Adlard(The Walking Dead), Christopher Cantwell (Thanos), Javier Fernandez (Wolverine), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), and Leomacs (Rogues, Ghostlore)!
Plus: New covers of staggering artistic audacity from EC masterminds Lee Bermejo (Batman: Damned) and Greg Smallwood (Human Target), alongside new contributions from Tom Fowler (Refrigerator Full of Heads), Riley Rossmo (Cowboy Ninja Viking), and Rian Hughes (The Multiversity)!
WARNING: Do not put these issues directly into your long box—they could leak blood onto your other comics!
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 COVER B BY TOM FOWLER
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 Written by CHRIS CONDON, CORINNA BECHKO & JAY STEPHENS. Art by CHARLIE ADLARD, LEOMACS & JONATHAN CASE Cover A by LEE BERMEJO Cover B by TOM FOWLER EC 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
EVERY TOMBSTONE TELLS TELLS A TALE . . . THESE ARE YOUR EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS!
In your next infamous ish from the immortal EC Comics, all-new stories of fatalistic spectacle—
told with wanton disregard for moral standards or public decency—from six ax-wielding masters of splatter de spectacular: rising star Chris Condon (That Texas Blood) and Eisner Award nominee Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead); Hugo Award nominee Corinna Bechko (Green Lantern: Earth One) and Eisner Award winner Jonathan Case (Green River Killer); and Emmy Award winner Jay Stephens (Dwellings) and the maniacal Leomacs (Rogues)!
IN STORES SEPTEMBER 18th, 2024
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 COVER A BY GREG SMALLWOOD
CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 COVER B BY RILEY ROSSMO
CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 Written by CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL, CHRIS CONDON, STEPHANIE PHILLIPS & BEN H. WINTERS Art by JAVIER FERNANDEZ, DAVID LAPHAM, LEOMACS & RILEY ROSSMO Cover A by GREG SMALLWOOD Cover B by RILEY ROSSMO EC Homage Variant (1:10) by JAY STEPHENS B&W Artist Edition Variant (1:20) by RILEY ROSSMO Archive Edition Variant (1:50) by RIAN HUGHES
You were an explorer who challenged the farthest reaches of existence. Until your technology inevitably failed you and you found yourself trapped in the endless void of space, drifting aimlessly amongst the nebulae, with only one question rattling through your tiny, dying, all-too-human brain: What if the horrors of this reality are too great to comprehend? What if they were NEVER supposed to be explored at all? GOOD THING YOU STILL HAVE THIS COMIC TO KEEP YOU COMPANY, SPACEMAN!
Test the boundaries of our cold and unforgiving CRUEL UNIVERSE with four bizarre tales of time and space by eight modern masters of the science-fiction form: Christopher Cantwell (Thanos,Iron Man) and David Lapham (Stray Bullets); Chris Condon (That Texas Blood) and Javier Rodriguez (Amazing Spider-Man); Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn, Grim) and Riley Rossmo (Wesley Dodds: The Sandman); and a very special surprise from Ben H. Winters (CBS’ Tracker) and Leomacs (Rogues). . . . At last, EC Comics dares you to look into the void and ponder what fate awaits us all! (Hint: It’s OBLIVION!)
IN STORES SEPTEMBER 4th, 2024
CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY RILEY ROSSMO
CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
YOU THINK YOU ARE READY, BUT YOU ARE NOT! THERE’S NO PLACE TO HIDE – THE RISE OF EC COMICS WILL SOON BE UPON SOON UPON US!
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.