Nothing can stop all-new tales of tension & torment this October in EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #4 and CRUEL UNIVERSE #3.

The press release follows:

Media Release -- YOU'VE READ THE HEADLINES! NOW PAY THE PRICE! This October, there will be HELL to pay as the return of EC Comics at Oni Press continues its unrelenting assault on comic shops everywhere – just in time for Halloween – with the latest installments of the two hit series demanded by discerning comic fans everywhere in EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #4 and CRUEL UNIVERSE #3!

First, on October 2nd, the world's most existentially devastating comic magazine plumbs new depths in CRUEL UNIVERSE #3 as the otherworldly talents of Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun) and Davíd Rubín (Sherlock Frankenstein), J. Holtham (Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale) and Kano (Gotham Central), and Zac Thompson (Cemetery Kids Don't Die) and Dan McDaid (If You Find This…) begin a manned expedition to the extremes of human existence and imagine the terrifying possibilities of what to expect when the best of intentions meet the cold, hard reality of our worst instincts. The world and everything you hold dear within it may be doomed to the cold touch of entropy . . . BUT AT LEAST YOU CAN KEEP THIS COMIC AS A SOUVENIR!

Featuring covers by Eisner Award winner Greg Smallwood (The Human Target) and Eisner Award winner Dave Johnson (Superman: Red Son), give yourself over to science fiction that stings in CRUEL UNIVERSE #3 – on sale October 2nd!

Then, on October 16th, every tombstone tells a tale in EPITAPHS OF THE ABYSS #4 – the next unrelenting issue of EC's flagship horror title! Fueled by the vengeful spirit of the legendary EC Comics, we proudly present all-new tales of the macabre and merciless from some of the top talents with a penchant for dragging you down to the bottom stair of despair!

This month: Live hard, die fast creators J. Holtham (The Horizon Experiment) and Raúl Allén (Dune, Secret Weapons), Amy Roy (The Lonely Store) and Claire Roe (Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special), and Jay Stephens (Dwellings) and David Lapham (Stray Bullets) welcome you back into the cold grasp of the ABYSS—there's no need to RSVP, and timeshares are available!

You know the drill, comic guys and gals . . . so let's VROOM, VROOM when EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #4 – featuring covers by Eisner Award nominee Lee Bermejo (A Vicious Circle, Joker), and Eisner Award nominee James Stokoe (Godzilla: The Half-Century War) – comes calling for vengeance on October 16th!

SEE YOU SOON!

CRUEL UNIVERSE #3 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY CULLEN BUNN, J. HOLTHAM, ZAC THOMPSON & BEN H. WINTERS
ART BY KANO, DAN McDAID, DAVID RUBÍN, CARSON THORNE
COVER A BY GREG SMALLWOOD
COVER B BY DAVE JOHNSON
HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY DAVE JOHNSON
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
ON SALE OCTOBER 2nd, 2024 | $4.99 | 32 PGS | FC
IOC: 8/29/2024
FOC: 9/9/2024






EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #4 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY J. HOLTHAM, JAY STEPHENS & AMY ROY
ART BY CLAIRE ROE, RAÚL ALLÉN & DAVID LAPHAM
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY JAMES STOKOE
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY JAMES STOKOE
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
ON SALE OCTOBER 16th, 2024 | $4.99 | 32 PGS | FC
IOC: 8/29/2024
FOC: 9/23/2024






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.