If you were looking for edgier comics in the early 1950s, you probably picked up a few from EC Comics. The company published titles like “Weird Science,” “Two-Fisted Tales,” and the legendary “Tales From the Crypt.” Almost 70 years after the publisher went bust, Oni Press is partnering with rights holder William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. to launch all-new stories!
EC Comics is a tale of a publisher that was a bit too ahead of its time. Even though the company’s books sold well, its pension for shocking tales put its work at the epicenter of censorship and regulation with the Comics Code Authority. Publishing these sometimes more progressive stories during the McCarthy era also didn’t help much. This scrutiny eventually caused the company to falter, publishing its last comic in 1956. Except for “Mad” which owner Max Gaines turned into a parody magazine to avoid the issues his comics faced.
This July Oni plans to release the first horror comic from the new line, “Epitaphs From the Abyss, followed by the sci-fi title “Cruel Universe” in August. Both comics will keep the anthology format with an A-list creative team rotating in and out.
So far the writing staff includes Jason Aaron (“Thor”), Brian Azzarello (“100 Bullets”), Rodney Barnes (“Killadelphia”), Christopher Cantwell (“Halt and Catch Fire”), Chris Condon (“That Texas Blood”), Matt Kindt (“BRZRKR”), and more. Some of the artists involved are Kano (“Immortal Iron Fist”), Peter Krause (“Irredeemable”), Leomacs (“Rogues”), Malachi Ward (“Black Hammer: The End”), and Dustin Weaver (“Avengers”).
Designers include Rian Hughes (“The Multiversity”) and cover artists Lee Bermejo (“Batman: Damned”), Greg Smallwood (“The Human Target”), and J.H. Williams III (“Sandman: Overture”). It’s safe to say there is no shortage of talent involved in this revival.
“This is not an exercise in nostalgia,” Corey Mifsud, executive director of William M. Gaines Agent, said. “These are comics meant to get people talking and to keep them up at night.”
While EC Comics didn’t last long as a publisher, the mark to be left on pop culture is undeniable. Stephen King and George Romero’s 1982 film “Creepshow” is pretty much a love letter to these classic comics. In the 1990s the “Tales From The Crypt” comics were resurrected into a TV show by Richard Donner and Robert Zemeckis. Filmmakers John Carpenter, Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, and Steven Spielberg have also cited EC as an influence.
“EC Comics is one of the most artistically important and culturally significant publishers of all time,” Oni’s publisher Hunter Gorinson, said in an email. “In ways both artful and shocking, EC confronted the darkness lurking behind the thin facade of American society — a throughline of radically confrontational storytelling that we intend to both uphold and escalate with the first new EC tales in decades.”
“We’re challenging ourselves to evolve EC’s relentless energy and fearless sensibilities in ways never before attempted,” adds Gorinson. “These are intense comics for our intense times.”
And if that’s the case it looks like the rebellious spirit of the original EC Comics remains intact.
