David Lapham Takes EC Comics Straight Into the Abyss This December

Somewhere in the great horror-comics afterlife, the Crypt-Keeper just spilled his coffee. EC Comics is handing David Lapham the keys to the basement, and anybody who knows Stray Bullets already understands that this is not the guy you ask to keep things tidy.

Oni Press and William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. are bringing Artists From the Abyss: David Lapham #1 to comic shops on December 30, putting the multiple Eisner Award-winning creator front and center in the next artist-focused EC Comics special. The 32-page, full-color issue will be completely ad-free, priced at $5.99, and built around Lapham’s nastiest contributions to EC’s revived line.

The concept behind Artists From the Abyss is catnip for old-school comic nerds who used to stare at penciler credits before they even read page one. Each one-shot spotlights a specific artist, collecting some of that creator’s strongest work from the new EC era while adding a brand-new story created specifically for the special.

Lapham’s issue brings together stories written by J. Holtham, Matt Kindt and Joe R. Lansdale, then adds a never-before-seen EC shocker illustrated by Lapham and co-written with Maria Lapham. That lineup is basically a horror-comics mixtape assembled by people who know exactly where the weird stuff is hidden behind the counter.

The series begins in November with Artists From the Abyss: Charlie Adlard #1, followed by Lapham in December and Sami Kivelä in January. Leomacs is also lined up for a future installment. Rather than treating the artist like the person who simply “draws the script,” the entire format is built around the visual storyteller, which feels appropriately EC considering how much of that publisher’s original legacy was defined by unforgettable artists.

Lapham is also providing the main cover, and man, EC did not ask him for subtle. The image takes the warm-and-fuzzy idea of a proud new family and mutates it into exactly the kind of grotesque visual gag that old EC fans live for. There is also a black-and-white Artist Edition variant at a 1:20 ratio, giving readers a closer look at Lapham’s raw line work without the color safety net.

That combination makes perfect sense for a book designed to celebrate the artist as much as the stories. Lapham’s work has always had a handmade tension to it. Faces can look calm while everything underneath the scene feels one bad decision away from disaster. Drop that energy into EC’s tradition of cruel twists, monsters and pitch-black punchlines, and this becomes one of those pairings that feels obvious the second somebody finally does it.

Since Oni Press revived EC with new material in 2024, the line has leaned hard into horror, science fiction and dark satire while deliberately connecting the new books to the visual DNA that made the original publisher legendary. Artists From the Abyss takes that philosophy and makes the artists themselves the event, which is a smart move in a medium where great visual storytelling can get buried under headline creator names.

Artists From the Abyss: David Lapham #1 goes on sale December 30, 2026 for $5.99. The issue runs 32 pages, full color, with no ads. David Lapham provides the art and Cover A, with writing by J. Holtham, Matt Kindt, Joe R. Lansdale, David Lapham and Maria Lapham.