Oni Press is launching new EC Comics starting July 24th with Epitaphs from the Abyss, and today they’ve revealed there will be not one, but three horror hosts introduced! The all-new masters of menace are The Grave-Digger, The Tormentor, and The Grim Inquisitor!
Making their first full appearance on the Epitaphs from the Abyss #1 Horror Host Variant cover by artist Dustin Weaver (Avengers, Paklis), Weaver’s work on and character designs for EC’s new torturous trio will be featured throughout the double-sized, 40-page issue arriving in comic shops worldwide on July 24th . . . and continue through multiple new EC horror series yet-to-be-revealed in the future.
“Usually a big part of designing characters is costuming, but in looking back at the original Tales From the Crypt comics, it’s clear that the most important and defining features of the horror hosts are their ghoulish faces,” said Dustin Weaver. “It’s all about the faces, and with these modern host designs I wanted to carry on that tradition. Making sure the faces were suitably fiendish, properly cruel, and the right amount of unseemly was key, but there’s also an effort here to go a step further and bring some more thought and characterization to their costuming and physicality as well. Ultimately, it’s just such a treat to draw characters so unabashedly wicked.”
Check out the hosts below!
For more on this news, read the press release below.
PORTLAND OR, (June 25, 2024) – JUST AS EVERY COFFIN NEEDS A CORPSE, SO TOO DOES EVERY STORY NEED A STORYTELLER! FORTUNATELY, THIS TERRIFYING TRIO HAS YOU HANDLED ON ALL COUNTS . . . Just one month away from the long-awaited resurrection of the infamous and influential EC Comics in the pages of EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1, Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to unveil the first look at EC’s all-new, never-before-seen, dead-and-not-getting-better-anytime-soon trio of horror hosts . . . Meet EC’s all-new masters of menace: The Grave-Digger, The Tormentor, and The Grim Inquisitor!
Making their first full appearance on the EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 Horror Host Variant cover by acclaimed artist Dustin Weaver (Avengers, Paklis), Weaver’s work on and character designs for EC’s new torturous trio will be featured throughout the double-sized, 40-page issue arriving in comic shops worldwide on July 24th . . . and continue through multiple new EC horror series yet-to-be-revealed in the future.
“Usually a big part of designing characters is costuming, but in looking back at the original Tales From the Crypt comics, it’s clear that the most important and defining features of the horror hosts are their ghoulish faces,” said Dustin Weaver. “It’s all about the faces, and with these modern host designs I wanted to carry on that tradition. Making sure the faces were suitably fiendish, properly cruel, and the right amount of unseemly was key, but there’s also an effort here to go a step further and bring some more thought and characterization to their costuming and physicality as well. Ultimately, it’s just such a treat to draw characters so unabashedly wicked.”
“Crafted from the dead center of depravity and delight, these new horror hosts are primed and ready to assume their roles as storytellers,” said Corey Mifsud, Executive Director of William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. “All three characters honor the creepily comical spirit of EC, but contribute uniquely twisted points of views that will surely keep the reader up at night!”
The Grave-Digger
Design by Dustin Weaver
IN HIS CEMETERY, EVERY TOMBSTONE TELLS A TALE! As the central host of the upcoming EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS series from EC Comics and Oni Press, The Grave-Digger’s charming visage will soon regale readers far and wide with the tales of murderous intent and ill fortune that earned his cemetery’s denizens their places six feet deep.
The Tormentor
Design by Dustin Weaver
INTRODUCING HER ROYAL TRAVESTY OF PAIN! A one-eyed butcheress with a penchant for playful flaying and audacious amputation, there is no weapon of opportunity or implement of torture too grisly to escape The Tormentor’s notice. But she still holds a fondness for “the classics” – like her red-hot poker and rusty pruning shears!
The Grim Inquisitor
Design by Dustin Weaver
THE DEACON OF DOOM! THE VICEROY OF THE VICE! THE PRINCIPAL OF PUNISHMENT … OR SO HE’D LIKE YOU TO THINK! A mad monk with a fanatic’s eye for keeping his secret sect’s surprisingly extensive bureaucracy of terror running like clockwork, The Grim Inquisitor fears no man . . . except The Supreme Inquisitor, who demands extremely exacting results from his right-hand man and deputy master of obscure occult rites.
THINK YOU’VE SEEN ALL THAT HORROR HAS TO OFFER? THINK AGAIN! From the publisher that drove Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, and many more into the depraved hearts of an unsuspecting world, the immortal EC COMICS returns . . . with its first ALL-NEW series in nearly 70 years on July 24th – only in EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1!
In our first extra-sized, 40-page dose of fear, witness shocking tales of torment and tension in the undying EC tradition as wrenched from the grave by the vile intentions of acclaimed writers Brian Azzarello (Batman: Damned, 100 Bullets), Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, Night People), J. Holtham (Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale), and Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn, Grim) and realized into bloody reality by “all-slaughter” artists Jorge Fornes (Rorschach, Danger Street), Phil Hester (Family Tree), Peter Krause (Irredeemable), and Vlad Legostaev (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)!
What the Comics Code Authority couldn’t kill has only made it stronger . . . EC COMICS LIVES AGAIN IN EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 – featuring a razor-sharp gallery of covers inspired by the eternal artistry of the EC’s infernal legacy by Lee Bermejo (Batman: Damned, A Vicious Circle), Andrea Sorrentino (Gideon Falls, Batman: The Imposter) with Dave Stewart (Hellboy), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), Rian Hughes (The Multiversity), and Dustin Weaver (S.H.I.E.L.D.)!
EC Comics – and three new unflinchingly undead horror hosts – enters the 21st century with a jugular-pounding, 40-page horror milestone on July 24th, only in EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1!
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY BRIAN AZZARELLO, CHRIS CONDON, J. HOLTHAM & STEPHANIE PHILLIPS
ART BY JORGE FORNES, PHIL HESTER, PETER KRAUSE & VLAD LEGOSTAEV
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY ANDREA SORRENTINO WITH DAVE STEWART
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
HORROR HOST VARIANT (1:100) BY DUSTIN WEAVER
FOIL COVER (GOLD) BY LEE BERMEJO
FOIL COVER (SILVER) BY ANDREA SORRENTINO WITH DAVE STEWART
BLANK COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
ON SALE JULY 24TH | $4.99 (STANDARD) | $7.99 (FOIL) | 40 PGS | FC
FOC: 07/01/2024
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #2 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY JASON AARON, TYLER CROOK, & MATT KINDT
ART BY TYLER CROOK, KLAUS JANSON, & JORGE FORNES
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY ADAM POLLINA
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY ADAM POLLINA
EC ARCHIVE VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
ON SALE AUGUST 21ST, 2024 | $4.99 (STANDARD) |$ 7.99 (FOIL) | 32 PAGES | FC
IOC: 6/27/2024
FOC: 7/29/2024
EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY CHRIS CONDON, CORINNA BECHKO & JAY STEPHENS
ART BY CHARLIE ADLARD, LEOMACS & JONATHAN CASE
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY TOM FOWLER
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTISTS EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
ON SALE SEPTEMBER 18TH | $4.99 | 32 PGS | FC
IOC: 7/25/2024
FOC: 8/26/2024
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