Experience the Void with veteran talents such as Stephanie Phillips & Riley Rossmo in this first look at CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 (OF 5).

The press release follows:

Media Release -- Following the spontaneously combustive success of EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 and CRUEL UNIVERSE #1, the next cold, unforgiving chapter in EC Comics' unrelenting resurrection at Oni Press continues! Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey-Award winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, is proud to unveil the first look inside CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 with a sneak preview of "Ray Gun" – the new anxiety-inducing dose of science fiction from Eisner Award-winning writer Christopher Cantwell (Thanos) and Eisner Award-winning artist David Lapham (Stray Bullets) – arriving in stores September 4th!

On September 4th, 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!)

Now is the time to discover by why the return of EC Comics at Oni Press in CRUEL UNIVERSE is one of the year's most acclaimed comics events:

"*****... A grand triumph for Oni Press and a treat to us fans of science fiction... [CRUEL UNIVERSE] sets a new standard for modern comics with classic themes." – Capes & Tights

"I dare you to read this and not gasp by the end... Twists, turns, and tantalizing sci-fi storytelling await you in CRUEL UNIVERSE." – AiPT!

"***** ... [CRUEL UNIVERSE] goes above and beyond expectation to deliver...tales of terror that feel both timeless and incredibly contemporary." – ComicBook.com

"Fun, shocking, and contains moments of poignancy that made the original EC titles so dangerous and popular... The possibilities are endless." – Monkeys Fighting Robots

"*****... Uniformly amazing... The new Golden Age starts here!" – Kaboooom!

Looking into the cosmos and dare it to look back when CRUEL UNIVERSE #2 dawns on our unforgiving world on September 4th – featuring covers by Greg Smallwood (The Human Target), Riley Rossmo (The Moon is Following Us), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), and Rian Hughes (The Multiversity)!












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.