Now that Oni Press is taking on the EC Comics titles, the company is celebrating with an ongoing series of variant covers by Jay Stephens, who recreates classic EC Comics covers.
Slated to first debut on EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 in July and CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 in August, Stephens’ subset collection of “EC Homage” variant covers will continue into the future with a new distinct piece re-interpreting an all-time classic EC cover image across every new EC release from Oni Press. In addition to his ongoing work as with the “EC Homage” line of incentive covers, Stephens will also be prominently featured as a writer in several of Oni’s upcoming EC series, including EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, CRUEL UNIVERSE, and more yet to be announced.
“EC Comics were dead and buried long before I was born,” said Jay Stephens, ”But when Stephen King and Tobe Hooper’s Creepshow dropped in 1982, shivers ran up my spine that weren’t caused by the delightfully deranged shorts themselves. This… felt… familiar. Like I’d always been here amongst the walking corpses. In the old 1974 copy of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide I’d acquired from a yard sale, small black and white reproductions of EC horror and sci-fi covers littered the margins of the pages. Nothing more… just enough to KNOW. I didn’t have to wait TOO much longer for a better look… by the time 1990 rolled around, Tales from the Crypt was on TV and the Gladstone EC reprints were choking up my local comic shop shelves. The subversive… shocking… transgressive… banned… and burned-at-the-stake EC horror was back, and I was finally home. Now we get to do one better and dress this cadaver in some new flesh. What could be more fun?”
