Many horror followers are conscious of EC Comics merely due to the corporate’s popularity. EC Comics not solely produced gut-churning content material whose affect can nonetheless be seen throughout completely different media however had been additionally on the entrance strains of censorship battles over what the illustrated web page can present. With EC Comics resting on such a excessive pedestal, any try to revitalize the property can appear daunting, however with the success of Creepshow, each the tv collection reboot and the brand new collected editions that includes at the moment’s prime comedian creators, Oni Press takes a stab at it (a joke the guide’s Grave-Digger would possibly approve) with EC Epitaphs from the Abyss, an anthology of comedian tales that includes a number of gifted comedian guide writers and artist whereas additionally evoking EC’s bloody, twisted magic.

Those that have watched or learn Creepshow or Tales from the Crypt needs to be fairly conversant in the guide’s format of a spooky host, presumably undead or a minimum of showing to decompose earlier than the readers’ eyes, talks on to the reader, makes just a few jokes that give new that means to gallow’s humor, and introduces tales that present humanity at their worst and paying for it with their lives. This comeuppance is normally delivered in a twist ending that usually leaves readers in some way each happy and horrified. Although this format is acquainted, the creators concerned do give all of the tales a contemporary twist.

The tales on this guide all happen in their very own self-contained universes. Lasting only some pages, they rapidly arrange the plot and battle and all finish with a ugly twist that hits the reader like a corkscrew to the attention. These tales additionally characteristic the writing abilities of a few of at the moment’s prime comedian writers. Some standouts that show the EC story construction blended with fashionable sensibilities embrace a cautionary story from Jason Aaron (Scalped and Thor: God of Thunder) that exhibits why you shouldn’t textual content and drive, together with an train in stress from Stephanie Phillips (Grim and Eight Limbs) that exhibits how tenuous household bonds might be.
In fact, a guide can’t actually evoke the sacred, bloody cow of EC Comics with out together with some very gory content material and the artists right here present a lot. Gorehounds shall be happy to notice that there are many examples of grisly dying and human our bodies coming aside in violent vogue. Leomacs, significantly in Jay Stephen’s story “A Hand In It,” illustrates with a hyper-realistic strategy that appears essentially the most like EC’s signature look whereas most of the different artists on this assortment have paintings that appears extra at residence in a DC’s Vertigo comedian, which is by no means a slight.

Critics would possibly name this assortment a futile try to recapture how EC Comics caught lighting in a bottle or just a blatant money seize, however librarians accountable for grownup graphic novel collections, significantly these with patrons who’re horror followers, ought to give this assortment a attempt. On the very least, the nostalgia this guide might create would possibly get those self same readers to discover different horror titles in your assortment.

EC Epitaphs from the Abyss 
ByBrian Azzarello, Chris Condon, J. Holtham & Stephanie Phillips
Artwork by Jorge Fornes, Phil Hester, Peter Krause, et al
Oni Press, 2025
ISBN: 9781637157534

NFNT Age Suggestion: Grownup (18+)