BEHOLD! Oni’s CRUEL KINGDOM #1 Conjures the Immortal EC Comics Library in Startling Variant Cover by Tom Fowler

THESE TOMES OF TERROR CERTAINLY HAVE AN APPETITE! Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to reveal the stunningly secretive 1:100 “Library Variant” cover for January’s CRUEL KINGDOM #1, featuring the voraciously violent titles of EC past come to life from master artist Tom Fowler (MAD Magazine, Refrigerator Full of Heads)

Fowler is the latest to join an all-star cast of visionary talents in the next, 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, myth, and murder from forbidden realms long before our own!

On January 8th, behold the bloody and barbarous age of wizards, knights, and dragons as reimagined in the immutable EC manner as master scribes Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine, That Texas Blood), Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk), Greg Pak (Darth Vader) and Ben H. Winters (Cruel Universe) couple their forces with iron-wrought artists Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Kano (Cruel Universe), Leomacs (Ghostlore), and Andrea Mutti (Rebels), to forge a terrifying new vision of death, life, and adventure “Once Upon a Time..”

For the first time, gaze inside this 40-page compendium of sadistic sorcery with an advance look ahead at what terrors await as EC Comics splices high fantasy and unholy horrors together in CRUEL KINGDOM #1:

“Since the beginning of EC’s resurrection at Oni Press, we’ve always aimed to extend the patented and powerful EC formula into new and unexpected arenas. First came our first-ever foray into holiday tales with SHIVER SUSPENSTORIES… But CRUEL KINGDOM is our biggest and boldest swerve yet as EC turns its dark gaze toward the golden spires of high fantasy – with its many fairies, witches, and sword-wielding warriors – for the very first time,” said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. “Picking up exactly where its predecessor CRUEL UNIVERSE is leaving off with its final issue in December, these are delectably dark and deadly inversions of the genre conventions you know and love – where wizards wield curses instead of grant wishes, and every knight harbors a dark secret instead of a valiant heart.”

From the twisted minds that spawned EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, CRUEL UNIVERSE, and SHIVER SUSPENSTORIES, steel thyself for 40 pages of fatal fantasy in one cursed tome of comic book enchantment on January 8th, only in CRUEL KINGDOM #1 – featuring legendary covers by Adam Pollina (X-Force), Liam Sharp (Starhenge), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), Rian Hughes (The Multiversity), and Tom Fowler (Mad Magazine)!

So it has been foretold: Where once CRUEL UNIVERSE beckoned, now CRUEL KINGDOM shall reign! The next must-read EC Comics milestone arrives in comic shops everywhere on January 8th in CRUEL KINGDOM #1!

Author Profile

Al Mega

I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!