SCARRY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

FROM THE RETURN OF EC COMICS TO SCREAM!, THIS YEAR'S HALLOWEEN OFFERS UP HORROR COMICS FOR ALL THE AGES

- STEPHEN JEWELL

ONE FROM THE VAULTS With bestselling titles like Tales From The Crypt and The Vault Of Fear, EC Comics established the template for horror comics before the ensuing moral panic about its often luridly violent content led to the cancellation of almost its entire line in 1956. Now, nearly 70 years later, it's been revived as an imprint at Oni Press, beginning with two anthologies, the sci-fi focused Cruel Universe and the more traditional horror of Epitaphs From The Abyss.

"Our society today grapples with many of the same issues that EC challenged head on," says Oni publisher and president Hunter Gorinson. "Everything from resurgent fascism and environmental destruction to inequality run amok and old-fashioned war and greed. With an artful attitude and a wry smile, it seemed like an opportune moment to resurrect EC, and for its confrontational spirit to rise from the grave and terrorise a whole new century." Contributors to the first few issues of Epitaphs From The Abyss and Cruel Universe include Brian Azzarello, Jason Aaron, Klaus Janson, Charlie Adlard and David Lapham.

"I've focused on trying to capture the feel of a classic EC tale while transposing that to a story that would work for today," says writer Christopher Condon.

"In Epitaphs 1, Peter Krause and I tell a story about our modern politics and specifically a heated social issue abortion. In Cruel Universe 1, Jonathan Case and I look at a strange phenomenon that's grown out of our advances in technology and medicine - billionaires wanting to live forever. The key is to find something that is vital to our day and age, boil its most horrifying elements down and funnel it through the patented EC sieve."