After resurrecting EC Comics with Epitaphs from the Abyss and Merciless Universe, Oni Press will proceed to increase the eerie universe of EC Comics on January eighth with the primary concern of Merciless Kingdom, a brand new frightful fantasy anthology sequence that brings the basic EC Comics model of horror into the traditional instances of swords, sorcery, and darkish magic.
Forward of the primary concern’s anticipated launch, we have been supplied with an unique preview of unlettered pages from author Chris Condon and artist Charlie Adlard’s “Loss of life & Pickaxes,” a narrative that provides a terrifying twist to a basic Brothers Grimm fairy story.
Beneath, you’ll be able to take a look at our unique early have a look at “Loss of life & Pickaxes” in addition to the duvet artwork for Merciless Kingdom #1 (together with the “Library Variant” cowl by Tom Fowler with Nick Filardi), and we even have an unique quote from Chris Condon about teaming up with Charlie Adlard to create a scary model of Snow White:
We even have the official press launch with extra particulars on Merciless Kingdom #1:
Press Launch: PORTLAND, OR (November 26, 2024) – THESE TOMES OF TERROR CERTAINLY HAVE AN APPETITE! Oni Press – the a number of Eisner and Harvey Award-winning writer of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to disclose the stunningly secretive 1:100 “Library Variant” cowl for January’s CRUEL KINGDOM #1, that includes the voraciously violent titles of EC previous come to life from grasp artist Tom Fowler (MAD Journal, Fridge Filled with Heads)
Fowler is the most recent to affix an all-star forged of visionary abilities within the subsequent, history-making entry in EC’s resurrection at Oni Press with CRUEL KINGDOM #1 – EC’s first-ever dark-fantasy anthology conjuring tales of magic, fable, and homicide from forbidden realms lengthy earlier than our personal!
On January eighth, behold the bloody and barbarous age of wizards, knights, and dragons as reimagined within the immutable EC method as grasp scribes Chris Condon (Final Wolverine, That Texas Blood), Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk), and Greg Pak (Darth Vader) couple their forces with iron-wrought artists Charlie Adlard (The Strolling Useless), Kano (Merciless Universe), and Leomacs (Ghostlore), and Charlie Adlard (The Strolling Useless) to forge a terrifying new imaginative and prescient of dying, life, and journey “As soon as Upon a Time..”
For the primary time, gaze inside this 40-page compendium of sadistic sorcery with an advance look forward at what terrors await as EC Comics splices excessive fantasy and unholy horrors collectively in CRUEL KINGDOM #1:
“Because the starting of EC’s resurrection at Oni Press, we’ve all the time aimed to increase the patented and highly effective EC components into new and surprising arenas. First got here our first-ever foray into vacation tales with SHIVER SUSPENSTORIES… However CRUEL KINGDOM is our greatest and boldest swerve but as EC turns its darkish gaze towards the golden spires of excessive fantasy – with its many fairies, witches, and sword-wielding warriors – for the very first time,” mentioned Oni Press President & Writer Hunter Gorinson. “Choosing up precisely the place its predecessor CRUEL UNIVERSE is leaving off with its remaining concern in December, these are delectably darkish and lethal inversions of the style conventions you understand and love – the place wizards wield curses as a substitute of grant needs, and each knight harbors a darkish secret as a substitute of a valiant coronary heart.”
From the twisted minds that spawned EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, CRUEL UNIVERSE, and SHIVER SUSPENSTORIES, metal thyself for 40 pages of deadly fantasy in a single cursed tome of comedian e book enchantment on January eighth, solely in CRUEL KINGDOM #1 – that includes legendary covers by Adam Pollina (X-Power), Liam Sharp (Starhenge), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), Rian Hughes (The Multiversity), and Tom Fowler (Mad Journal)!
So it has been foretold: The place as soon as CRUEL UNIVERSE beckoned, now CRUEL KINGDOM shall reign! The following must-read EC Comics milestone arrives in comedian outlets in all places on January eighth in CRUEL KINGDOM #1!
CRUEL KINGDOM #1 (of 4)
WRITTEN BY AL EWING, CHRIS CONDON & GREG PAK
ART BY KANO, LEOMACS & CHARLIE ADLARD
COVER A BY ADAM POLLINA
COVER B BY LIAM SHARP
COVER C (GOLD FOIL) BY ADAM POLLINA
COVER D (SILVER FOIL) BY LIAM SHARP
HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY ADAM POLLINA
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT RIAN (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
LIBRARY VARIANT (1:100) BY TOM FOWLER WITH NICK FILARDI
BLANK SKETCH COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
ON SALE JANUARY eighth | $4.99 | 40 PGS. | FC
IOD: 12/01/2024
FOC: 12/02/2024
About Oni Press
Based in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year historical past as one of many trade’s most revered and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comedian books and graphic novels with titles together with Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, Okay. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, Ezra Clayton Daniels’ Improve Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and plenty of lots of extra. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning unbiased comedian e book writer based by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of many largest, unbiased libraries of comics content material anyplace in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified world media firm, Polarity.
The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes greater than 60 unique and licensed graphic novels yearly, along with an in depth checklist of periodical comics.
About EC Comics
Because the birthplace of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MAD MAGAZINE, WEIRD SCIENCE, and extra of essentially the most influential and celebrated comedian sequence ever revealed, EC Comics has cemented itself as one of many central nerves of American popular culture with a legacy that spans greater than seven a long time. From 1944 to 1956, EC – established as “Academic Comics” by founder M.C. Gaines and later rebranded “Entertaining Comics” beneath the management of Writer & Editor William M. Gaines – led a inventive renaissance for the comics trade that, for the primary time, elevated the once-derided comics medium into the echelons of English literature and excessive artwork. Heralded as “one of many nice explosions of vox-pop literature” by Time Journal and “fiercely sincere, politically adversarial, [and] visually masterful” by The Comics Journal, EC’s line of comics books – which collectively offered greater than 10 million copies yearly at their peak – entertained and knowledgeable in equal measure, utilizing brilliantly crafted tales of horror, science fiction, satire, and battlefield battle to critique and subvert America’s darkish impulses towards violence, racism, inequity, environmental destruction, and battle.
Forcibly shuttered by the Comics Code Authority – a pro-censorship group particularly tasked with eradicating EC’s illuminating affect from the American comedian e book trade – in 1956, EC’s distinctive model of subversive storytelling lived on via the continued success of MAD Journal, which might gasoline American counterculture via the dying of Writer William M. Gaines in 1992. EC’s titles and tales have been tailored in plenty of media – together with the long-running HBO’s long-running TALES FROM THE CRYPT franchise of tv sequence and have movies – and proceed to be celebrated by a number of generations of comedian creators, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians as a seminal affect.
At the moment, EC Comics’ canon of basic tales can constantly be present in print via new editions at Darkish Horse Comics, TASCHEN, Fantagraphics, and IDW Publishing. In 2024, EC introduced a brand new partnership with a number of Eisner and Harvey Award-winning writer Oni Press to supply the primary all-new EC Comics titles in practically 70 years.
