These days, many classic comics publishers are making a comeback. Gold Key relaunched in 2023 with a Kickstarter campaign for Boris Karloff’s Gold Key Mysteries #1 and in 2024 EC comics through Oni Press, whose stories have greatly influenced every comic that has preceded it (for better or worse), also rejoined the fold.Â
After a nearly 70-year absence, many questions hover around this fabled line of comics’ return. Will the books rehash the old style or be more modern with the EC logo simply slapped on? Will the stories push boundaries to the degree they did in the 1950s? Will they address the less savory parts of EC’s history?
EC’s first installment in their new dark fantasy anthology series, Cruel Kingdom, addresses all these questions and more in delightfully refreshing ways. The creative teams, featuring some of comics’ best like Greg Pak, Al Ewing, Andrea Mutti, and Charlie Adlard, took a middle-of-the-road approach. They borrowed elements that made EC’s books unique and meshed them with modern sensibilities and aesthetics to craft an anthology that will excite old and new fans. Â
Poetically, the stories mimic this theme of old and new mingling. In the first two tales, it’s quite literal, as the worlds of science fiction and fantasy collide. In Greg Pak, Leomacs, and Iñaki Azpiazu’s Blood of the Robo King, a village on the brink of destruction releases a robotic savior to thwart what could be their darkest hour, but things only escalate. It’s gory, thought-provoking, and visually stunning.Â
Al Ewing & Kano’s Friendly Visitors sees another village, headed by a magical woman called Stormeye, making contact with visitors from outer space. They offer protection with their new technology, but at a price. This one felt particularly like a classic EC story in the art. Kano uses the classic monotone backgrounds but with an updated color palette. Many comics opt for gradients or patterns in their minimalist backgrounds, so this was a welcome surprise. The ending is what any old fan would expect; shocking, but with Ewing’s love of cosmic questions permeating it.
The penultimate story, Chris Condon and Charlie Adlard’s Death and Pickaxes, explores Cruel Kingdom’s themes through the lens of old love vs. new love via an adaption of Snow White. It begins at the end of the classic fairy tale: the princess is kissed by the prince and awoken from her slumber so they plan to ride off into their happily ever after. However, in this tale, the last remaining dwarf feels cheated. He devoted years to protecting this princess, so he sees her awakening as abandoning him. The only choice then is to get revenge. Everything about this one, from the dwarf’s inner dialogue to Adlard’s choice of camera angles, was heartbreaking and by far my favorite of the bunch. Fair warning: there is an implied suicide in this and readers sensitive to that should take note.
What all of these stories demonstrate, through different means, is how the past and present can be a conversation. Styles and flavors from different eras can be wedded to current tastes as long as it is done with care and a love for the craft of comics. I think Cruel Kingdom is an excellent example of how that can be done superbly.
The lettering is the best example. It’s evident that Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith are thoughtful craftsmen who have studied the EC catalog, finding what made those books sing while throwing out what didn’t work. Personally, one of my least favorite parts of old EC comics was the giant blocks of narration that crowded the top of each panel and cramped the art. Each story has narration (it’s almost a requirement to recreate EC’s style), but it’s not nearly as dense as the past and Starkings and Smith smartly opted to use caption boxes that follow the flow of the art. Because of this, Cruel Kingdom is a smooth read.
With the first three stories setting up a knock-out book, the final story, The Demon’s Face, doesn’t quite stick the landing. The story isn’t as thoughtful or subversive as the others. It plays with an Arthurian sword-in-a-stone narrative, but doesn’t have a strong message or characters to bring it beyond adaptation. Mutti’s line art is great and it was fun to see his work without his signature watercolors. Atiyeh’s coloring is moody and colors meld and gorgeously fade into one another, but something seems missing from this comic as a whole; a certain je ne sais quoi to give everything more personality. It’s a disappointing ending to an otherwise fantastic book.Â
Cruel Kingdom has me excited for the next chapter of EC. As a history buff, it’s great to see old ideas get a new coat of paint and create something that is both a love letter and a step forward. I highly recommend EC’s first foray into dark fantasy and I feel it’s in capable hands at Oni Press.
WHAT DO I READ NEXT?
If you like the writing:
Mech Cadet Yu by Greg Pak & Takeshi Miyazawa
We Only Find Them When They’re Dead by Al Ewing & Simone Di Meo
That Texas Blood by Chris Condon & Jacob Phillips
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If you like the art:
Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill & Leomacs
Maniac of New York by Elliot Kalan & Andrea Mutti
Damn Them All by Si Spurrier & Charlie Adlard
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ABOUT THE CREATORS
Greg Pak (@GregPak.Net) – Writer
Al Ewing (@Al-Ewing.Bsky.Social) - Writer
Chris Condon (@ChristophCondon.Bsky.Social) - Writer
Ben H. Winters - Writer
Leomacs (@Leomacs) - Artist
Kano - Artist
Charlie Adlard (@Charlie_Adlard) - Artist
Andrea Mutti (@AndreaMutti9) - Artist
Iñaki Azpiazu (@InakiAzpiazu.Bsky.Social) - Colorist
Michael Atiyeh (@MAtiyehColors) - Colorist
Richard Starkings (@RichardStarkings.Bsky.Social) - Letterer
Comicraft’s Tyler Smith (@Tyler_S3) - Letterer
HOW DO I BUY IT?
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