EC CRUEL UNIVERSE (2025) (2025)

AT THE STAR-LINED EDGES OF INFINITY, EC COMICS' SCI-FI SMASH HIT RETURNS TO DRAW MORE WORLDS INTO THE MAW OF ITS GRAVITATIONAL VORTEX WITH AN ALL-NEW AND UNRELENTING 12-ISSUE MAXI-SERIES! Whether future or past, Earth or a distant world, no man can outrun the infinite singularity within us all: FEAR! Join this doomed expedition into the cold, unforgiving galaxies beyond our own as nihilistic navigators Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), J. Holtham (EC's Epitaphs from the Abyss), Kano (Immortal Iron Fist), Ann Nocenti (Daredevil), David Rubín (Sherlock Frankenstein), and Greg Pak (Planet Hulk) smash the laws of science . . . and splice the immortal EC Comics genome into a new breed of parasitic extraterrestrial tales with an endless appetite for pain! Plus, as an added bonus: A nerve-rending science-fiction classic from the EC vaults, painstakingly remastered and newly restored to its original coloring! BEYOND SPACE, BEYOND OBLIVION. . . . There is something vast, unsympathetic, and envious that yearns to consume us all in this CRUEL UNIVERSE! Let's make it work for it, shall we?

For millennia, mankind has yearned to explore the stars. Foolish humans-that was your first mistake! Like a stray space capsule that's unexpectedly escaped our solar system and is now cursed to rocket forward at ever-escalating velocities that will slowly reduce its crew to a slick film of goo, EC Comics proudly presents a new roster of callously cosmic tales positively oozing with pain, paranoia, and the pent-up regret of human ambition! To copilot this doomed survey of the stars, join writers Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine), Melissa Flores (Power Rangers Prime), and Dave Wielgosz (Batman: The Brave and the Bold) as they execute the logarithmic calculations that could save our explorers . . . only for the danger-defying artists Sami Kivelä (Abbott), Claire Roe (EC's Epitaphs from the Abyss), and Riley Rossmo (Harley Quinn) to bear witness to inescapable galactic calamity of their all-too-human hubris. Whoops!

Corporate greed, human desperation, technological despair! Such postulations all are but tiny specks swallowed by the unforgiving void of CRUEL UNIVERSE!EC’s Eisner Award–nominated sci-fi horror anthology continues its deep dive into futuristic depravity and darkness with three new tales from writers Cecil Castellucci (Shade the Changing Girl), Sarah Gailey (Eat the Rich, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and, in his EC writing debut, Eisner Award nominee Rian Hughes (Batman: Black and White). Illustrating their dark visions are Kano (EC’s Cruel Universe), UK comics sensation Anna Readman (2000 AD), and Claire Roe (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss)!Witness as these stellar creative teams probe deep into the dark void of space—and the human soul—in what’s sure to be another stark installment of the Eisner-nominated series!

Feeling content and at peace with the state of the cosmos? WRONG! Don’t worry, Cruel Universe 2 is here to dispel that tragically optimistic fantasy! We’ve trapped—er, we mean tapped—writers Cecil Castellucci (Girl on Film), Ryan Haddock (EC’s Catacomb of Torment), and J. Holtham (Hulu’s A Handmaid’s Tale) to remind you of your life’s limited span, and to assure you that hubris and gullibility are two sides of the humanity coin. In case you’re not convinced—or can’t read—artists Brian Level (Night People), Andrea Mutti (EC’s Cruel Kingdom), and Claire Roe (The Hollywood Special) are on hand to imprint horrifying visuals into your eyestalks.

IN THIS CRUEL UNIVERSE, PERCEPTION IS REALITY . . . AND REALITY IS PAIN! Join petrifying pioneers Corinna Bechko (EC’s Blood Type), Ryan Haddock (The Brothers Flick), and EC newcomer Andrew Wheeler (Another Castle) as they probe the far reaches of space for any pinprick of hope . . . anything? Anyone out there? Nope? Artists Kano (Action Comics), Andrea Mutti (EC’s Cruel Kingdom), and more heed the call to bring the latest batch of technological terrors to the page. Will a stranded pilot find salvation? Will a terminally ill tech bro live on in prosperity? Will a scientist’s quest for renewable resources result in prosperity for all? Probably not, but you’ll have to pick up a copy of Cruel Universe 2 #5 to find out for sure!

You’ve just landed on a barren, alien world . . . cold, remote, and devoid of any signs of life . . . except for the ominous, throbbing hum from the planetary core that drills a message straight into the synapses of your human nervous system: THE NEW ISSUE OF CRUEL UNIVERSE IS HERE! SURRENDER YOURSELF! OR BE ATOMIZED! In this galaxy or the next, you’d be a fool to miss EC Comics’ Eisner- and Ringo Award–nominated sensation as it hurtles forward with all-new tales of twisted science and terrifying tech! Join writers Corinna Bechko (EC’s Blood Type), Maria Ingrande Mora (Ranger Academy), and Greg Pak (Ronin Island) alongside artists Sebastian Cabrol (The Seasons Have Teeth), Fabiana Mascolo (Catwoman), and Kelly Williams (The Dead and the Damned) as they rewire the strands of EC’s immortal DNA into a new kind of inhuman monstrosity!

Warm flesh! Cold technology! As an astronaut, you have collided both together in an unwieldy alliance to survive the harsh vacuum of space. Now, as you wait to see whether all of your precious airlocks and heat shields will keep you from getting freeze-dried by the very cosmos you yearn to explore, never fear—there's an all-new issue of CRUEL UNIVERSE to help you keep calm! In the next installment of EC Comics' Eisner- and Ringo Award–nominated sensation: Stargazing writers Anthony Mauro (Salvation), Greg Pak (Planet Hulk), and Amy Roy (EC's Epitaphs from the Abyss) are transmitting live from the scene of an interstellar disaster, as coldly calculating artists Kano (Action Comics), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), and Malachi Ward (Black Hammer Reborn) record the distant pinpricks of light from their exploding space ships as they reach Earth hundreds of years later. Who said SCIENCE can't be entertaining?!

What’s that in the sky? A flaming meteor, hurtling toward Earth? An invading alien armada? No, it’s the latest issue of EC’s Eisner and Ringo Award–nominated science-fiction monstrosity . . . and no one will be spared!  In preparation for the imminent collapse of human society, give into your most deeply buried desires and distract yourself from the flaming ruin that awaits us all as the devious minds of writers Mike Carey (Hellblazer), Melissa Flores (Power Rangers Prime), and Jeff Jensen (Green River Killer) conjoin with apocalyptic artists Kano (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss), Lukas Ketner (Count Crowley), and more to bring our fast-devolving civilization to its much-deserved end.

Dear reader: Surrender your hopes and dreams to UTTER ANNIHILATION as the notorious EC Comics wrenches away the controls for a one-way collision with the nearest solar body!  Feel the burn as we turn the temperature up to ONE MILLION DEGREES with all-new talks of science-fiction subversion from corrosive cosmonauts Jeff Jensen (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss), Greg Pak (Planet Hulk), and Allen Wu (My Internet Friends), alongside fellow agents of artistic atomization Daniel Gete (Skin Police), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), and many more! Soon you will all discover just where the road to humanity’s hubris leads . . . and—spoiler alert—it all ends in FIRE!

Notice the shadow being cast upon your world . . . That could be a looming planet, ready to collide with the Earth . . . Or it could be the time for the next offering from EC Comics, only possible in this cold, dismal CRUEL UNIVERSE!  Consider your last rites and musings as you are filled with dread and foreboding from the ultramodern transmissions of Felipe Cunha (Little Black Book), Liam Johnson (Judge Dredd Megazine), Anthony Mauro (Skull Maskerade), Greg Pak (Planet Hulk), and more! It is the uncompromising way of the cosmos, but do find comfort in what Oni Press brings you before the final light is burned out. Only to be reborn with no memory of past pain and transgressions and ready for another dose of EC Comics! Eureka!

Dreading the total collapse of human society? Or perhaps the despotic rule of our unsympathetic android overlords? Don't bother worrying—because the apocalypse is already upon us in this CRUEL UNIVERSE!  Cling to the primal emptiness of the cosmic void as EC purveyors of pain Julio Anta (Frontera), Kishore Mohan (The Picture of Everything Else), Joshua Spiller (Dark Horses), and more hurtle us toward a singularity of savagery. And yet, as always, the heart of darkness within humanity promises to be more tragically terrifying than even the coldest, darkest, dying star in the galaxy . . . so don't miss out on the penultimate installment of the newest volume of Oni's Eisner Award–nominated anthology of technological torment!

Cold, dark, and grim, the second volume of Eisner Award–nominated ode to oblivion is preparing for the BIG CRUNCH that waits at the end of all things with a masterclass in scintillating science fiction told in the immortal EC Comics manner! At the apex of the gaping maw of the void that looms over our final issue (for now): Eisner Award–winning superstar Greg Smallwood (The Human Target, Moon Knight) writes and illustrates his first cataclysmic cosmic contribution to the CRUEL UNIVERSE canon! Then: Irradiated writers Melissa Flores (Power Rangers Prime) and Ann Nocenti (Daredevil) join atomically annihilated artists Daniel Gete (Skin Police) and Jordi Tarragona (Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps) to place their bets on heat death or big freeze as the galaxy prepares to collapse inward on itself. Here at EC Comics, we say . . . why not both?!