SoraRabbit Short Hop 033: Return to the Burrow of Fright
It’s spooky season once again, and as usual, I have a few darker posts lined up to help get you in the Halloweeny type of mood. First up is a look at the spiritual successor to Tales From The Crypt! Yes, EC is making comics again. I previously delved into EC’s horror comics rom the 1950s a few years back for a Halloween post.
In that post, I covered my history with the comics and their effect on me, so I won’t rehash it all here. I’ll just say that I loved what I could find of the originals comics and I’m slowly getting a collection together to compliment my random single issue reprints. When I learned the line was finally being properly relaunched, I was thrilled. So let’s talk about it!
First, a small content warning. There’s nothing too terrible in this post, but everyone’s comfort levels are different. There are depictions of murder, monsters, blood, suicide, torture, domestic violence, politics, premature burial, a beheading, and clowns. If any of that makes you uncomfortable, please reconsider reading.
Cover. (Credit: EC Comics. Art: Lee Bermejo)
Epitaphs From the Abyss ran for 12 issues from 2024 to 2025. It was published by EC Comics, an imprint of Oni Press. These are the first horror comics released under the branding of EC Comics in 69 years.
Originally intended to be a five-issue limited series, the reaction was so positive that they expanded it to 12 issues. I only learned that in my research, however. I started picking these up last year with Issue 1 and set them aside, intending on reading one year’s worth for this post once Halloween approached. I didn’t realize until I sat down to start reading that I had all of them!
Our new host. (Credit: EC Comics. Art and writing: Dustin Weaver)
One of the enduring features of the EC line are the various hosts that introduce the stories. In the Original Tales From the Crypt (and its sister titles) we had the Crypt-Keeper, the Vault-Keeper, and the Old Witch. They were known collectively as the GhouLunatics. None of them return here. We have a new host named the Grave-Digger. Like the hosts that preceded him, he’s addicted to horror-themed puns and is quite morbid with a dark sense of humor. He is also very cheerful, almost gleefully so. Rather than introduce every story, each issue starts with a full-page spread that briefly covers each story in the issue. Occasionally the hosts will reappear at some of the beginnings and endings as well. (Yes, there are still more than one host. More on that later.)
I thought it was interesting that they didn’t revive the Tales From the Crypt title and bring back the old GhouLunatics. At first I wondered if there was a rights issue… those are pretty common with old properties like this, so who knows who currently owns the name of the original comics and hosts. In the backmatter of the first issue, however, it was insisted that the change was made to show that these were reimaginings, not copies of the original comics. They’re meant to be homages, updating the EC comics for modern day readers. They are what EC would be putting out, had they not been forced into an early retirement. Having read every issue, I can certainly see that. Still, I think there could have been some reference in there… some sort of tie between Grave-Digger and the Crypt-Keeper. Or even just headstones with the old host’s names on them. Oh well.
Is this how you get ahead? (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: J Holtham. Art: Jorge Fornes)
I’ll cover the first issue briefly here with my thoughts on each story. While each subsequent issue has three stories, the first issue has four.
The first story is called “Killer Spec”. This story involves a writer named Dylan who thinks he’s a genius and that everyone is beneath him. His roommate Steve, on a lark, writes a script that is way better than anything Dylan can write. To prevent someone from being recognized as better than him, Dylan kills Steve and plans to steal his script. Of course, this being an EC story, Steve comes back from the dead and kills Dylan. He then mails Dylan’s severed head along with the script in to a publisher. The editor is shown screaming at finding the head but then reading the script, smiling. The implication is that they assumed this was a publicity stunt and it got the attention the script needed.
Oh my. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Chris Condon. Art: Peter Krause)
The second story is “Senator, Senator”. Marguerite is a reporter investigating conservative Senator Smoltz, who, after winning the election, seems to have flipped on her pro-choice policies. When she confronts the Senator with her former beliefs, the woman gets a splitting headache and is rushed away by her security detail. Marguerite follows her to a building where scientists give the Senator an emergency lobotomy. A scientist explains that when a conservative has an independent thought, it must be plucked out. He comes at Marguerite with a scalpel and the story ends.
Dramatic. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Stephanie Phillips. Art: Phil Hester)
The third story is called “Family Values”. Scott Richards is given a gun and his family is tied up in their basement by mysterious armed home invaders wearing masks. A timer is running and he has to choose one member of his family to die or they’ll all be killed. The family bickers over who should be killed, airing their bitter resentments. His wife keeps telling him the choice is obvious, implying he should choose himself to protect the rest of the family. Scott, at first, doesn’t think he can make any choice at all. The timer runs out and he realizes he can choose, but we don’t get to see who he picked. The scene cuts to a man watching the whole thing on a public livestream. This is a dark betting pool that has claimed several families already, with people betting on who will be chosen. The man tells his wife that he won the bet and we see masked men with guns outside his house. His family is next.
What a confusing message. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Brian Azzarello. Art: Vlad Legostaev)
The fourth and final story of the issue with “Us vs Us”. A man and woman set a house on fire and are accosted by twisted monsters who the woman identifies as “vaxers”. The normal-looking couple are refusing to take a vaccine that would save their lives, but also apparently turn them into twisted cannibalistic monsters? The man suddenly falls with the illness and the woman asks what happens after they die. The monsters tell her that they’ll eat her. The end.
I did get a chuckle out of this. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Brian Azzarello. Art: Vlad Legostaev)
Thoughts: My initial impressions after reading this first issue were positive. The stories are updated to modern times, but still have the same feel as the stories from the 50s. “Killer Spec” was cliché but entertaining. It was also relatable. Who hasn’t let their jealousy and fear of failure lead them to a mistake? Hopefully not one you have to bury in your backyard, but still. I like that it went that one extra step beyond the expected twist ending. “Senator, Senator” was a bit flat and could have gone further. I have little to say about that one.
“Family Values” was pretty well done, but could have benefited from a few extra pages to get more in depth with the family’s issues and the father’s gradual choice to pull the trigger. It followed some familiar story beats but was genuinely thought-provoking. Who would make the right choice in this sort of no-win situation? And what would the right choice be? Clearly it would be for the father to choose to turn the gun on himself to spare those he loves, but how many of us could take that step? And regardless of what you chose, how could you live with yourself? For that matter, do any of them actually get out of that basement alive? There’s a lot to unpack here and it’s this sort of internal discourse the stories can leave that make them good ones.
“Us vs Us”, aside from making me laugh with the vaxxer/anti-vaxxer angle, left me confused as to what it was trying to say. The anti-vaxxers looked normal but died standing up for their beliefs. And they didn’t really explain why they were burning down a house that they thought was empty, unless it was some form of protest. The vaxxers were monsters with a taste for human flesh to go along with their immunity to the unnamed disease. I don’t really get the message unless it was just meant to be a subversion of expectations. Well, it certainly did that, so it wasn’t all bad. Just perplexing. If it was trying to make a point, it was lost in the twist.
All in all, the art was solid, the writing tight, and the issue as a whole was a great start to the series. It left me wanting more and looking forward to the next issue.
Another new friend. (Credit: EC Comics. Art and writing: Dustin Weaver)
As the series goes on, we meet more new characters. This colorful character is the Tormentor, who tortures people in the Catacombs of Torment. Like with the previous GhouLunatics, there is a bit of a rivalry among hosts, as each wants to be the center of attention.
The third host. (Credit: EC Comics. Art and writing: Dustin Weaver)
The third host is the Grim Inquisitor, a needlessly verbose cretin who annoys the others with his long-winded speeches. His realm has not yet been given a name. He refers to Grave-Digger as “brother” but it’s unclear if he means in a familial sense or more as an associate.
The host intrudes on the story. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Jeff Jensen. Art: Sami Kivela)
In some rare cases, the host actually inserts themselves into the story. As with the screenshot above, from a story called “Feed the Right Wolf”, where the titular werewolf brings his discarded human skin to Grave-Digger’s cemetery to bury it.
Another cover. (Credit: EC Comics. Art: Adam Pollina, Dan Jackson)
One way that the series echoes the original is in the covers. The old EC comics were known for having controversial, dynamic, eye-catching covers unlike anything other companies were releasing. While times have changed and less is shocking these days, the covers of Epitaphs certainly do bring those old covers to mind. The cover I got for Issue 2 (shown above) seems to reference the infamous “eye-stabbing” cover that helped lead to the Comics Code and the premature death of horror comics in general. How far we have come!
So that gives an overview of the series and the stories in the first issue. There are many other stories across the run of Epitaphs. Among the other tales are stories of racism, alcoholism, insanity, a haunted house, a haunted clown painting, and much more. There are stories of murder, revenge, insanity, hope, justice, and hopelessness. We get stories of a zombie haunted by her human memories, a gleeful vampire, and a gluttonous fast-food addicted werewolf. There are stories that reflect our modern times such as death by texting and driving, a content creator hunting an urban legend, an influencer who sells a dietary supplement that causes zombism. There’s a writer who kidnaps people to get ideas for his books, and a clever story about a woman using a corpse to commit a murder. (That doesn’t go well, as can be expected, since it was the corpse of a serial killer who targeted women while he was alive.) Those are just some of the stories.
Great page. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Amy Roy. Art: Claire Roe)
One of the stories that really stuck with me was “The Perfect Pearl” from Issue 4. This one started off as a sort of love story, where a woman and a man in an elevator have a meet cute. There’s clear two-way attraction going on and he fixes the pearl necklace her mother had given to her. They date and marry. As their marriage goes on, he becomes meaner and more critical, first suggesting she quit her job, pushing her to cater to his every whim, nit-picking her appearance and behavior, and demanding perfection in all things. She notices that when she makes him unhappy, her pearl necklace gets tighter. When she does things the way he wants, there are more pearls on it. He claims to know nothing about this, and in one panel we do see someone adding pearls to the string, along it’s not clear who is doing it.
At the end of the story, she wakes up early, gets dressed up in the green dress he says is unflattering, puts her hair up— also unflattering— gets his breakfast ready, and hangs herself with her pearl necklace.
Well done. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Amy Roy. Art: Claire Roe)
This was my favorite story out of all of them. It was very well-done and poignant. It had a great statement and fit perfectly within its allotted pages without padding or leaving anything out. The stories in Epitaphs could be up or down, but this one was just right.
Grave Digger is “fired”. (Credit: EC Comics. Art and writing: Dustin Weaver)
After the final story in Issue 12, we come to the Last Epitaph. Tormentor and the Grim Inquisitor visit Grave-Digger, hit him with a shovel, and bury him alive in his own cemetery. They do this so that Tormentor can take the spotlight, starting her own spin-off title. I loved this. It seems so much like something that would happen in the original titles, but also several steps removed from what EC would have done back in the 50s. They were always self-aware, self-referential, and meta before meta was a thing. This is the perfect evolution of that and leads nicely into the spin-off, Catacombs of Torment.
HONK. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Brendan Hay. Art: DJ Holden & John McCrea)
And so that was Epitaphs From the Abyss! I was a little disappointed that it was only 12 issues, but it’s better to have a dozen quality issues than extending it out to the point where they would be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Anthologies are often up and down in quality, and yes, there were a few stories here that seemed a tad lazy or not fleshed out enough. But overall, the quality was consistent throughout. There were enough gems to make the read worth it. Some of the stories really stuck with me, and I’m sure I’ll revisit this series multiple times in the years to come. This was written, drawn, and edited by fans of Tales From the Crypt and the like, and it really shows. This was a really fun series and I highly recommend it.
Spin off! (Credit: EC Comics. Art: Dave Stewart)
The new EC comics don’t end here. So far they have launched a second series, The Catacomb of Torment. Spinning off from a story in Epitaphs Issue 3, Blood Type is a miniseries that follows the further adventures of the sassy vampire Ada. Cruel Universe and Cruel Universe II continue in the footsteps of their 50’s sci fi anthologies. Cruel Kingdom covered stories in the fantasy genre. They’ve also had a couple of one-shots with suspense stories and cowboy stories, so it appears they’re not planning on stopping any time soon. I have bought and read the first four issues of Catacombs and all of Blood Type, and I do plan on checking out the others at some point. (Probably in digital collections. My comic boxes are mostly filled.) Catacombs is a worthy successor, but Blood Type was a bit confusing and padded. I’m assuming down the road, the Grim Inquisitor will get his own title as well. And the fact that they have released a Volume 2 of Cruel Universe leaves the door open for Epitaphs From the Abyss II.
Wrapping it up. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: Jim Seeley. Art: Charlie Adlard)
In closing, I really enjoyed Epitaphs From the Abyss and feel like they did a good job of recapturing the spirit of the original… the darkness, the subversiveness, the social commentary. You never knew what the next story would bring, and while sometimes the twist endings were obvious, at other times, they went the opposite direction that you might expect. It’s this mystery and surprise that gave the original EC horror comics their flavor.
Will the quality continue? Will the curse of EC bring about another Comics Code Authority? Is there a use for these sorts of pulpy anthology horror series in today’s entertainment landscape? Or is it strictly a nostalgic and indulgent cash grab? Ultimately, these questions are up for individual interpretation and opinion.
All I know is that I really enjoyed this series and I plan to continue getting at least the horror anthologies that come out in the future. I also plan to slowly keep grabbing up the digital reprints of the original three series so that I can finally read through them all. The EC horror line from the 50s helped to shape my taste in horror and influenced the sorts of horror tales I write myself. They formed the basis of what I expect from anthologies, and even contributed to my unashamed love of bad puns. This new series is created by people, like me, who read the originals at formative times of their lives. Seeing EC rising from the grave, seeing people who were as touched as I was by those old, pulpy, shlocky stories going on to create new ones of their own, it’s a beautiful thing. I think they did a great job bringing EC back from the dead and I thoroughly enjoyed this new iteration.
Hehe. (Credit: EC Comics. Writing: J Holtham. Art: Jorge Fornes)
Thank you for joining me as I looked at the triumphant resurrection of EC Comics! I had fun reading through these and sharing some of the stories with you. But “fear” now, I must be “ghouling”! Stay tuned for more seasonal fright coming soon. And until then, keep watching the shadows!
Bye! (Credit: EC Comics. Art and writing: Dustin Weaver)
