BEHOLD! Oni’s CRUEL KINGDOM #1

Conjures the Immortal EC Comics Library in Startling Variant Cover by Tom Fowler

Plus: Go Inside EC’s Next Horrendous Hit with Sneak Previews from Leomacs & Charlie Adlard

LIBRARY EDITION VARIANT (1:100) BY TOM FOWLER WITH NICK FILARDI

PORTLAND, OR (November 25, 2024) — THESE TOMES OF TERROR CERTAINLY HAVE AN APPETITE!Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to reveal the stunningly secretive 1:100 “Library Variant” cover for January’s CRUEL KINGDOM #1, featuring the voraciously violent titles of EC past come to life from master artist Tom Fowler (MAD Magazine, Refrigerator Full of Heads)

Fowler is the latest to join an all-star cast of visionary talents in the next, history-making entry in EC’s resurrection at Oni Press with CRUEL KINGDOM #1 – EC’s first-ever dark-fantasy anthology conjuring tales of magic, myth, and murder from forbidden realms long before our own!

On January 8th, behold the bloody and barbarous age of wizards, knights, and dragons as reimagined in the immutable EC manner as master scribes Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine, That Texas Blood), Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk), Greg Pak(Darth Vader) and Ben H. Winters (Cruel Universe) couple their forces with iron-wrought artists Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Kano(Cruel Universe), Leomacs(Ghostlore), and Andrea Mutti(Rebels), to forge a terrifying new vision of death, life, and adventure “Once Upon a Time..”

For the first time, gaze inside this 40-page compendium of sadistic sorcery with an advance look ahead at what terrors await as EC Comics splices high fantasy and unholy horrors together in CRUEL KINGDOM #1:

CRUEL KINGDOM #1 INTERIOR ART BY LEOMACS

“Since the beginning of EC’s resurrection at Oni Press, we’ve always aimed to extend the patented and powerful EC formula into new and unexpected arenas. First came our first-ever foray into holiday tales with SHIVER SUSPENSTORIES… But CRUEL KINGDOM is our biggest and boldest swerve yet as EC turns its dark gaze toward the golden spires of high fantasy – with its many fairies, witches, and sword-wielding warriors – for the very first time,” said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. “Picking up exactly where its predecessor CRUEL UNIVERSE is leaving off with its final issue in December, these are delectably dark and deadly inversions of the genre conventions you know and love – where wizards wield curses instead of grant wishes, and every knight harbors a dark secret instead of a valiant heart.”

From the twisted minds that spawned EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, CRUEL UNIVERSE, and SHIVER SUSPENSTORIES, steel thyself for 40 pages of fatal fantasy in one cursed tome of comic book enchantment on January 8th, only in CRUEL KINGDOM #1 – featuring legendary covers by Adam Pollina (X-Force), Liam Sharp (Starhenge), Jay Stephens(Dwellings), Rian Hughes (The Multiversity), and Tom Fowler (Mad Magazine)!

So it has been foretold: Where once CRUEL UNIVERSE beckoned, now CRUEL KINGDOM shall reign! The next must-read EC Comics milestone arrives in comic shops everywhere on January 8th in CRUEL KINGDOM #1!

CRUEL KINGDOM #1 INTERIOR ART BY CHARLIE ADLARD

CRUEL KINGDOM #1 (of 4)

WRITTEN BY CHRIS CONDON, AL EWING, GREG PAK & BEN H. WINTERS

ART BY CHARLIE ADLARD, KANO, LEOMACS & ANDREA MUTTI

COVER A BY ADAM POLLINA

COVER B BY LIAM SHARP

COVER C (GOLD FOIL) BY ADAM POLLINA

COVER D (SILVER FOIL) BY LIAM SHARP

HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS

B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY ADAM POLLINA

ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES

LIBRARY VARIANT (1:100) BY TOM FOWLER WITH NICK FILARDI

BLANK SKETCH COVER ALSO AVAILABLE

ON SALE JANUARY 8th | $4.99 (STANDARD) $7.99 (FOIL) | 40 PGS. | FC

IOD: 12/01/2024

FOC: 12/02/2024

COVER A BY ADAM POLLINA

COVER B BY LIAM SHARP

HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS

B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT BY ADAM POLLINA

ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES

LIBRARY EDITION VARIANT (1:100) BY TOM FOWLER WITH NICK FILARDI

About Oni Press

Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, Ezra Clayton Daniels’ Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheetstrilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.

The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.

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