Oni Press has revealed covers for EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2 from Lee Bermejo, Adam Pollina, Jay Stephens & Rian Hughes.

The press release follows:

Media Release -- THIS SUMMER, THE MOST NOTORIOUS NAME IN TERROR IS BACK FROM THE GRAVE . . . AND FUELED BY VENGEANCE! Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, is proud to announce EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2 – the second shock-fueled installment of the all-new horror series resurrecting the eternal legacy of EC Comics with brand-new tales of terror and torment from the most depraved talents comics has to offer!



On August 21st, EC Comics proudly presents another epitaph that's good until the last balloon pops! In our next terrifying festival of fright from the most infamous and influential comic book publisher of all time, prepare yourself for three ALL-NEW tales of depraved intention and traumatic tension in the immortal EC tradition—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, Daredevil) and Jorge Fornes (Rorschach, Danger Street)!

THREE UNRELENTING NAIL-BITERS FROM FIVE MASTERS OF THE COMICS TRADE . . . You'd have to CRAZY to miss this issue—or DEAD!

"As a kid I discovered the short story format from writers like Ray Bradbury and O. Henry," said 2024 Eisner Hall of Fame nominee Klaus Janson. "As a teen, I was introduced to EC Comics and fell in love. Now, as an adult, I get to combine the two with the help of writer Matt Kindt to make the dream of doing an EC story come true!. We push the boundaries just a bit further for a modern audience and I couldn't be happier!"

"Being asked to contribute a story to these new EC books is a dream come true," said multiple Eisner Award nominee Tyler Crook, who will helm his EPITAPHS tale as both writer and artist. "Like a lot of my peers, I am obsessed with the classic EC horror stories and have learned a lot about storytelling and cartooning by pouring over old reprints. I just hope that I've been able to make something that is half as good as the stories that I grew up with!"

"What an honor to get to craft a new story in the gloriously twisted tradition of EC Comics," said writer Jason Aaron. "My frightful little ditty is very much a tale of modern horror, starring one of today's most potent tools of misery and human suffering. But told in the same gleefully wicked style as the EC classics of yesteryear. Brace yourselves, all you freaks and fiends. EC is back."

Corrupted even further by the malign influence of cover artists Lee Bermejo (Batman: Damned, A Vicious Circleycle), Adam Pollina (X-Force, Rise of Apocalypse), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), and Rian Hughes (The Multiversity), EC Comics' terrifying return barrels forward with fearsome velocity on August 21st, only in EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2!

But first . . . EC Comics enters the 21st century with a jugular-pounding, 40-page horror milestone on July 24th in EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 – featuring four self-contained exercises in adrenaline from Brian Azzarello (Batman: Damned) and Vlad Legostaev (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Chris Condon (That Texas Blood) and Peter Krause (Irredeemable), J. Holtham (Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale) and Jorge Fornés (Batman), and Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn, Grim) and Phil Hester (Green Arrow), and more deadly surprises — including the first glimpse of EC's new cast of horror hosts...!

And then . . . Two short weeks later on August 7th, bizarre tales of time and space enter our dimensional plane on CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 – featuring 40, all-new pages of destructive wonder with cosmic implications from the irradiated imaginations of Hugo Award nominee Corinna Bechko (Invisible Republic, The Space Between), rising star Chris Condon (That Texas Blood), Eisner Award nominee Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Mind MGMT), and Edgar Award winner Ben H. Winters (CBS' Tracker, The Last Policeman).

IN 2024, EC COMICS LIVES AGAIN! MISS IT AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY BRIAN AZZARELLO, CHRIS CONDON, J. HOLTHAM & STEPHANIE PHILLIPS
ART BY JORGE FORNES, PHIL HESTER, PETER KRAUSE & VLAD LEGOSTAEV
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY ANDREA SORRENTINO WITH DAVE STEWART
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY ANDREA SORRENTINO WITH RIAN HUGHES
EC ARCHIVE VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
HORROR HOST VARIANT (1:100) BY DUSTIN WEAVER
GOLD FOIL VARIANT BY LEE BERMEJO
SILVER FOIL VARIANT BY ANDREA SORRENTINO WITH DAVE STEWART
BLANK COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
$4.99 (STANDARD) | $7.99 (FOIL) | 40 PAGES | FULL COLOR | ON SALE JULY 24, 2024
IOC: 05/30/2024
FOC: 07/01/2024

CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY CORINNA BECHKO, CHRIS CONDON, MATT KINDT & BEN H. WINTERS
ART BY JONATHAN CASE, KANO, ARTYOM TOPILIN & CAITLIN YARKSY
COVER A BY GREG SMALLWOOD
COVER B BY J.H. WILLIAMS III
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY J.H. WILLIAMS III
SPA FON! VARIANT (1:100) BY TOM FOWLER
FOIL COVER (SILVER) BY GREG SMALLWOOD
FOIL COVER (GOLD) BY J.H. WILLIAMS III
BLANK COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
ON SALE AUGUST 7TH | $4.99 (STANDARD) | $7.99 (FOIL) | 40 PGS | FC
IOC: 06/27/2024
FOC: 07/15/2024

EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY JASON AARON, MATT KINDT, TYLER CROOK
ART BY KLAUS JANSON, JORGE FORNES
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY ADAM POLLINA
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY ADAM POLLINA
EC ARCHIVE VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
$4.99 (STANDARD) |$ 7.99 (FOIL) | 40 PAGES | FULL COLOR | ON SALE AUGUST 21st, 2024
IOC: 06/27/2024
FOC: 07/29/2024






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.