By Drew Dietsch
| Published
Growing up, I fell in love with movies and shows that were directly inspired by the infamous EC Comics of the 1940s and 1950s. Creepshow is my favorite Halloween-approved horror movie of all time, and I have many fond memories of laughing with my dad as we watched episodes of Tales from the Crypt. I even tracked down the Amicus anthology movies when I was a teenager.
But, I never actually grew up reading the EC Comics these movies and shows paid loving homage to or even used as source material. It wasn’t until my adulthood that I was able to peruse issues of The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, Shock SuspenStories, and many others. I never fell too deep into those comics, but I am here to sing the praises of the EC Comics relaunch that is showing how you should revive a classic concept.
The Spirit Is Alive, But These Aren’t Old Ghosts
The EC Comics brand was revived by Oni Press in 2024. Instead of relying on EC’s recognizable titles or reusing the same host characters from Tales from the Crypt and its companion comics, the brilliant decision was made to come up with new titles and new host characters.
Instead of Tales from the Crypt with The Crypt-Keeper, the first title would be Epitaphs from the Abyss and the horror host for this banner would be The Grave-Digger. As the comic goes on, we are introduced to other fresh fiends ready to be emcees: The Tormentor and The Grim Inquisitor.
What I love about this decision is it actually makes an artistic argument for a new riff on these properties. So much of reboot culture ends up feeling like a hollow shell of the thing it wants to recapture. With the EC Comics horror relaunch, the head creatives behind these comics have tapped into the right way to approach a new take on an old idea.
Make Something New Out Of Something Old
The entire EC Comics brand relaunch made the decision to create new titles for a variety of anthology comics. As such, it also means they aren’t beholden to any previous concepts from the EC Comics library. Though their titles like Cruel Universe and Cruel Kingdom are spiritual successors to old EC titles like Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, this new era is allowed to forge its own distinct identity.
And here’s the best kicker of them all: it’s leading to some narrative fun with the horror titles. At the end of Epitaphs from the Abyss #12 (which has an awesome shark story for you Dangerous Animals fans), the Grave-Digger has been buried alive by The Tormentor and The Grim Inquisitor! Oh, he’s still kicking around, but that led to the end of Epitaphs from the Abyss and the beginning of Catacomb of Torment. I bet you can guess which character is taking over hosting duties for that one.
Anthology horror is my favorite genre in all of fiction and it’s refreshing to see the EC Comics horror spirit alive again without having to reanimate the corpses of the past. I wish more reboots could put together a dish like these comics instead of the reheated leftovers we get.
