Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Oni Press | Tagged: Cruel Universe, ec comics

Oni's EC Line Adds Torment & Cruel Universe II For 2025 Summer Of Fear

Oni Press' EC Comics line adds Torment and Cruel Universe II to their 2025 Summer Of Fear publishing plans

Launching last summer as one of the many publishing successes of 2024, Oni Press' resurrected EC Comics line has quickly developed a sizable cult following so much so that the third biggest Oregon comics publisher declaring at February's ComicsPRO conference that new EC titles like Epitaphs from the Abyss and Cruel Universe were the best-selling line of single issue series in the company's almost 30-year history.

Now we have all the details of how they're building the second act for "the most notorious name in terror" with the Summer of Fear – an all-new line-up of three "killer" new titles beginning in June with the previously announced Blood Type #1 by Corinna Bechko and Andrea Sorrentino with covers by Miguel Mercado:

Out Of The Pages Of Epitaphs From The Abyss…a Monstrous New EC Comics Milestone Begins! From Hugo Award-nominated writer Corinna Bechko (EC's Cruel Universe, Green Lantern: Earth One) and Eisner Award-winning artist Andrea Sorrentino (Gideon Falls, Bone Orchard), THE FANGS ARE COMING OUT as EC's own blood-splattered, bon vivant vampire rises from her first appearance in EC Comics' bestselling, blockbuster anthology…and into the history-marking, first-ever standalone horror series from the most notorious name in terror! WHEN YOU'RE A VAMPIRE, EVERYBODY SUCKS…SOONER OR LATER! Meet Ada, an immortal vampire whose misdeeds have landed her on the doorstep of an idyllic tropical resort… An island paradise teeming with wealthy tourists and superstitious locals-an ample food supply for the thirsty vamp looking to get away from it all!  But as Ada stalks the boundaries of her new hunting ground, she'll soon become embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse by moonlight . . . as an older, wiser, and entirely different kind of predator reveals its own carnal hunger for greed and power. Who will survive when a brand-new kind of BLOOD TYPE declares war on a cunning bloodsucker with nothing left to lose…and what will be left of them?!

Then, in July, Oni picks up where their first EC horror series, Epitaphs from the Abyss, left off after its planned (and already extended) 12-issue conclusion with Catacomb of Torment #1 – a new ongoing horror anthology, this one led by the second new EC horror host, The Tormentorwith stories by Matt Kindt, David Lapham, Marguerite Bennett, John Arcudi, and more and covers by Jorge Fornés:

Behold: A Bloody New Ongoing Series! Out of the ashes of EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, we usher THE TORMENTOR – a new horror host with an insatiable interest in human anatomy – into the shadow-strewn halls of EC Comics history for our next monthly horror anthology! Hold onto your head (if it's still attached)…because no one escapes THE CATACOMB OF TORMENT! For Her Royal Travesty of Pain's first request: Master storytellers John Arcudi (B.P.R.D.), Marguerite Bennett (Batwoman), Matt Kindt (BRZRKR), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Dan McDaid (Shazam!), and more each take turns manning the rack and turning the red-hot irons for three all-new and blisteringly brutal tales of mayhem and malice in the undying EC tradition! Plus, as an added bonus: A surprise classic from the EC vaults, painstakingly remastered and newly restored to its original coloring. The critics are already saying, "This is literal torture" and "Please make it stop!" Pick up this fearful 40-PAGE FIRST ISSUE – and the Tormentor might just consider letting them go!

Notably, Catacomb of Torment's first issue will also continue cartoonist Jay Stephens – writer/artist of Oni's series Dwellings – series of EC homage covers with a major new installment … This time honoring arguably the most infamous comic book cover ever created — Johnny Craig's cover for EC's Crime SuspenStories #22, which famously inspired the anti-comics Senate hearings of the mid-1950s and led to formation of the Comics Code Authority.

And, finally, concluding the Summer of Fear rollout, Oni's EC science-fiction title returns with Cruel Universe 2 #1 –– now a 12-issue maxi-series featuring covers by Lee Bermejo, and Greg Smallwood writing and drawing a story for the first issue:

At The Star-Lined Edge Of Infinity, EC Comics' Sci-fi Smash-Hit Returns To Draw More Worlds Into The Maw Of Its Gravitational Vortex With An All-New And Unrelenting 12-Issue Maxi-series! Whether future or past, Earth or a distant world, no man can outrun the infinite singularity within us all: FEAR! Join this doomed expedition into the cold, unforgiving galaxies beyond our own as nihilistic navigators J. Holtham (EC's Epitaphs from the Abyss), Kano (Immortal Iron Fist), Anne Nocenti (Daredevil), David Rubín (Sherlock Frankenstein), and Greg Smallwood (The Human Target) smash the laws of science . . . and splice the immortal EC Comics genome into a new breed of parasitic extraterrestrial tales with an endless appetite for pain! Plus, as an added bonus: A nerve-rending, science-fiction classic from the EC vaults, painstakingly remastered and newly restored to its original coloring! BEYOND SPACE, BEYOND OBLIVION… There is something vast, unsympathetic, and envious that yearns to consume us all in this CRUEL UNIVERSE! Let's make it work for it, shall we?

Can Oni top last summer's EC feeding frenzy with these three new titles? We'll get a good indication on Free Comic Book Day when the company's Blood Type #0 FCDB Special drops in stores across local comic shops in North America. In the meantime, look ahead at the first six pages of Blood Type #1, on sale the 11th of June…

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