EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS by various creators (Oni-Lion Forge Press/EC Comics, July 2024) I'm excited enough for the return of EC Comics to write the first individual and lengthy comics review of this year. Why? Because of the door into pop culture that opened for me when I first read them. My early comics-reading experience was limited to Disney comics and Bugs Bunny comics. Sometime after turning 8 years old in 1960, I discovered super-hero titles via DC's Justice League of America and Hawkman (in Showcase Comics) and became enthralled with the format when Marvel debuted The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, and Avengers in the early '60's.
Sometime after my 9th birthday, I was browsing the paperback spinner rack in my local drugstore (back then, the place to find comics were drugstores and supermarkets) and picked up a reprint of EC Comics (in black and white) from Ballantine Books (50 cents). This was my very first introduction to horror comics, and I was hooked. I picked up every Ballantine EC paperback reprint I could find. Later, through a friend I was introduced to Creepy and Eerie magazines. Not being able to find any other horror comics at that time, I began investigating the offerings at the local Walden Books at the shopping mall - - where I became excited by H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert E. Howard. So, I credit EC Comics with opening that door for me as well as my eyes.
EC (Educational Comics, and later re-named as Entertaining Comics) published comics for nearly ten years, until censorship pressures inn 1956 forced them into discontinuing all its' titles and transforming humor comic Mad into black-and-white Mad Magazine. In its' heyday EC was known not just for mature and often graphic stories of horror, war, science-fiction, fantasy, crime and other genres (Tales From The Crypt the most popular) but also because the stories were often socially conscious and contained underlying messages regarding racism, anti-war sentiment, nuclear danger, and environmentalism.
I don't know if the new EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS and its' soon-to-be-released sister title, CRUEL UNIVERSE, will follow the same path but what I've seen so far brings back those fond EC memories - - so this has the same flavor. Fans of the original comics (now available in several paperback and hardcover reprints) as well as curious new readers definitely need to check this out. I'm excited by the debut of several horror comics anthology titles lately, and expect EPITAPHS, etc. to bring this to a new audience.
After some initial disappointment when the interior art didn't exactly match the amazing illustrations that I had seen in advance preview articles, I dug into the stories and was more than satisfied. I realize now that most of the preview art I viewed were the many variant covers (wish I could afford to have them all).
The debut issue features four new stories plus a creepy new horror host, The Grave-Digger, who in Tales From The Crypt tradition introduces the stories and adds several puns and lots of alliteration: "Greetings, stranger . . . If you have found yourself here, it can only mean one thing - - you share my fiendish fascination with the forbidden and a predilection for the perverse."
Issue #1 kicks off with "Killer Spec" by J. Holtham and Jorge Fornes, as jealousy and envy overcome Dylan, a struggling writer with a conceited opinion of himself, when his roomate Steve's first effort at a novel is better than anything he's ever produced. Don't lose your head over it, Dylan! I knew where this was going before I turned the next page, also anticipating a twist ending. The twist is there, but just a little more than expected and so satisfying. A change in narration, and just enough blood and gore to entice readers to keep going.
When Laura Smoltz, a pro-choice Republican conservative senator, abandons her core beliefs and votes for stricter laws curbing women's rights Marguerite decides to investigate and find out how and why it happened. Her editor reluctantly agrees to fund her exploration, exclaiming "good luck cracking the code on what makes politicians such miserable human beings." Does she crack it? If you're apt to get sucked into conspiracy theories, please don't read this story. The final panel has a message, and it's a gut punch.
A nasty home invasion is at the center of "Family Values" by Stephanie Phillips and Phil Hester. A father is forced by a rifle-bearing quartet to either shoot himself, his wife or one of his children. If he doesn't make a choice, everybody dies. Is the Richards family a classic American model or just a dysfunctional group? I did not see that last page coming, and love how this ended.
There's an even nastier home invasion in "Us vs. Us" by Brian Azzarello and Vlad Legostaev. Would you submit to an unwanted procedure if it would keep the infected monsters away from you?
There's more extra social commentary in these stories beyond the expected in "Senator, Senator" but I don't want to spoil your fun by sharing where it happens: social media, gambling, greed, anti-vaxxers and more receive a few jabs in the ribs.
This is just what I was hoping for. My appetite is sated, for now. FOUR STARS.
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