The famous and infamous EC Comics — known for horror classics like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror — is being revived by Oni Press in an alliance with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. Oni Press Publisher Hunter Gorinson spoke to Cemetery Dance about the publisher’s new lineup with Epitaphs from the Abyss (July 2024) and Cruel Universe (August 2024), how Oni is bringing EC Comics into the 21st century, and what other comics they have that would interest Cemetery Dance readers.
(Interview conducted by Danica Davidson)
CEMETERY DANCE: How are you reviving EC Comics?
HUNTER GORINSON: So we are bringing EC Comics into the 21st century. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t both hugely, hugely exciting and incredibly daunting. There are few things that are more sacred in the annals of comic book history than the EC legacy. We are not trying to do the retro nostalgia version of this. I think if this was any other comic book publisher, you would definitely be getting Tales from the Crypt #1 with a bunch of stories set in 1955. We have specifically set out not to do that because we think the original EC canon is canon. It’s perfect. There’s 40-plus perfect issues of Tales from the Crypt out there that you can go read and should read. We wouldn’t want to impugn that legacy.
But also, at the same time, the EC legacy is one of those things that’s been truncated before its time because of what happened with the Comics Code Authority. We never got to see what EC would have become in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, let alone the 21st century.
So our vision for this is to take the power and tone and intensity of what made EC Comics great, that very special storytelling formula they put together, and bring it into the year 2024, with the first of what will hopefully become several new titles. The first is Epitaphs from the Abyss, our first horror anthology, beginning in July. And then Cruel Universe, our science fiction anthology, beginning in August.
What can you tell us about Epitaphs from the Abyss?
If you’re an EC Comics aficionado, you know it’s not a paint-by-numbers recreation of what you would have seen in Tales from the Crypt or Vault of Horror or Haunt of Fear. If you know anything about the original EC line, they kind of had the horror titles and then they also had the crime titles, Crime SuspenStories, as well as Shock SuspenStories where terrible things happen to terrible people. Oftentimes they were supernatural in Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, etcetera. In Crime SuspenStories, and specifically in Shock SuspenStories, it was often people who were the greatest antagonist of all.
We do have supernatural stories. Obviously they’re going to happen in Epitaphs. But there’s still a strong current of shock running through there. So you might get a reanimated corpse, you might get someone who is just dedicated to causing as much wanton destruction to their loved ones or their community as possible. But at the core of it — what I think makes EC special, the theme that we’re trying to recapture — is EC specifically was kind of the first time in American pop culture when the villains weren’t monsters. They weren’t Dracula and the Wolfman and Frankenstein’s monster or ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etcetera. In that original EC canon, it’s like they introduced the notion that the worst thing that could happen to you might not be supernatural. It might be the ill-intent that your neighbor next door is harboring. Like, not what lurks behind the Haunted Mansion, but what lurks behind the picket fence. We’re experiencing so much anxiety and sometimes outright terror in American society right now. We’re plumbing those depths with Epitaphs from the Abyss. So one foot in the old EC formula, but another foot in today’s social anxieties for sure.
There’s a power, tone, and intensity to the original EC library that we just are missing from comics these days. EC really took the creative guardrails off with creators in many ways for the first time, both in terms of content, and in terms of their artistic liberties. We’re trying to get back to that place as quickly as possible. If we’d talked about doing this 20 years ago in the year 2001, there was a common sense then that we had reached the end of history, that we are on the cusp of achieving a perfect 21st century near-utopia if not utopia. Things like nuclear war and the climate crisis and political instability — those were going to be 20th century phenomena. As we have quickly found out, none of those things are true, and the cruel irony of it all is that many of the same things that William Gaines and his contemporaries and EC were dealing with in 1952 are right back in the headlines today and perhaps even more so, amped up to a whole new degree for the 21st century. The EC storytelling mechanism is giving us a vehicle to deal with all of that.
And what can you tell us about Cruel Universe?
Cruel Universe is one that I think is going to take people by surprise. It’s a science fiction anthology. It still has the dark imagery, of course, that all EC stories have, and that twist or comeuppance that comes at the end, through a science fiction lens. That being said, the very first story in the very first issue is by writer Matt Kindt, who a lot of folks know from creating BRZRKR with Keanu Reeves. He has also done many, many creator-owned books, including Mind MGMT at Dark Horse and a bunch of other fantastic work over the years. This is a story that fits that mandate: it is wrenching, it has a devastating twist, but it also made every single person at Oni who’s read it cry. So that may not be what your first initial impression is when you see science fiction stories, but they’re using the genre of science fiction to explore the full range of human experience.
How are you finding talent for the comics?
I gotta tell you, I’ve had few more pleasurable experiences in my time working in comics than being able to call up high-profile creators who I’ve worked with previously — or I’ve always wanted to work with — and saying, “Here’s a phone call you didn’t think you’d get today. Would you like to write a new EC comic?” And then watching their eyes light up as they think about it. These stories haven’t been made in 70 years.
Also, the challenge for ourselves is EC obviously had one of the best stables for artistic talent of all time, everyone from Wally Wood to Frank Frazetta to Johnny Craig. How do we cast artists in the year 2024 who can stand in that shadow, not replicate what was done, but carry the tradition forward with their own distinct artistic styles that fit into these genres? And also, tell a story that’s punchy and memorable and shocking in 6, 8, or 10 pages? Doing that is, in my opinion, sometimes harder than doing a full six-issue arc of a story. I’m very fortunate to say we’ve brought along some hyper-talented newcomers, some longtime industry favorites, and even some full-on comic book legends. Like, we have Klaus Janson contributing a story.
Is there anything else going on at Oni Press that would be of interest to Cemetery Dance readers?
We have a lot of both horror and mystery titles in the mix at any given time. I should definitely give a shoutout to two books in particular. One is the Hobtown Mystery Stories, which is by two very talented Canadian creators, Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes. They’re really cool, moody, small town mystery stories, not super far removed from the vibe of Twin Peaks, but with a very specific 21st century update, with absolutely masterful control of comic book pacing. They dole out these stories of crime and subterfuge and mystery in a small Canadian town. We’ve been publishing the first volume of The Case of the Missing Men, which was a very critically acclaimed self-published black-and-white book several years ago. We’re publishing it for the first time in color and there’s a whole series of these coming. We have five volumes currently planned.
And then I will also give a shoutout to Jay Stephens’ Dwellings, which is one of our biggest books of the past year. Jay is also contributing as both a writer and a cover artist to the EC line, but this is a super poppy, visually masterful graphic novel about a small town, also coincidentally in rural Canada — what’s up with rural Canada? — but it’s drawn in the style of a 1960s Harvey comic, Wendy the Good Witch or Casper the Friendly Ghost or Richie Rich, but has incredibly mature, sophisticated levels of subterfuge, torture, violence, demonology, possession. So it’s like a genre mashup. It’s one of our best-selling books of 2024.
Also, I will tease to watch our announcements in San Diego [Comic-Con].
