Oni Press Is Bringing EC Comics Back From The Dead
A 70-year death is enough to turn into a simple hiatus, right?
EC Comics, full name Entertaining Comics, was one of the star comic publishers of the 1950s, with its influential horror and science fiction titles. However, that star burned fast and bright, as the level of horror and progressivism (what some would call “wokeness” today) was so high it not only ran into scrutiny and backlash, but McCarthyist censorship rolled in with Comics Code Authority regulations. All that had them packing up most titles by 1956 and focusing all the energy on a compliant and probably familiar magazine: Mad. Now, the brand is returning after 68 years thanks to Oni Press.
The publisher perhaps best known for Scott Pilgrim and also just announced its acquisition of the Adventure Time comics license, has partnered with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., the rights holders of the EC line, to produce all-new stories for release starting this summer. EC’s most famous affected titles included the horror anthology Tales From the Crypt (the very same that inspired the live-action 7-season 93-episode HBO series and in turn the 3-season animated series Tales from the Cryptkeeper), Weird Science, and the war comic Two-Fisted Tales. However, they’re being kept back for the time being, as the relaunch kicks off with two lines: Epitaphs From the Abyss, a horror title debuting in July, and sci-fi-centric Cruel Universe in August. To do it right, they’ve enlisted a full roster of A-list creators to help steer the resurrection, under the direction of Oni’s newly-installed editor-in-chief Sierra Hahn.
The writers involved include Jason Aaron (Thor), Brian Azzarello (Batman: Broken City), Rodney Barnes (My Wife and Kids, Everybody Hates Chris), Christopher Cantwell (Namor and Moon Knight titles and is not the neo-Nazi), Chris Condon (That Texas Blood), Matt Kindt (Sweet Tooth), while the enlisted artists are Kano (Immortal Iron Fist), Peter Krause (The Power of Shazam!), Leomacs (Rogues), Malachi Ward (Black Hammer: The End), and Dustin Weaver (Avengers). More on both fronts will, or at least are expected to be named in the several months between now and July.
“EC Comics is one of the most artistically important and culturally significant publishers of all time,” Hunter Gorinson, Oni’s publisher boasts. “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.” He continued “We’re challenging ourselves to evolve EC’s relentless energy and fearless sensibilities in ways never before attempted. These are intense comics for our intense times.”
Meanwhile, Corey Mifsud, executive director of William M. Gaines Agent promises “This is not an exercise in nostalgia. These are comics meant to get people talking and to keep them up at night.” As for Mad, it ended up under the same corporate umbrella as DC Comics after a series of sales in the 1960s and early ‘70s, finally being folded into it in the 1990s, and ultimately decimated by WarnerMedia-era restructuring and layoffs by the end of 2019, formatted going forward with sprinkles of fresh content among mostly reprints.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter