#horror – #PressRelease – #horrorcomics – @OniPress – #BloodType1 –
EC’s Summer of Fear Starts Here with Ec’s First Standalone, Serialized Horror Series – Torn from The Pages of The Chart-Topping Anthology Epitaphs from The Abyss
From The Press Release:
PORTLAND, OR (February 19, 2025) OUT OF THE PAGES OF EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS . . . A MONSTROUS NEW EC COMICS MILESTONE BEGINS THIS JUNE! In advance of this year’s annual ComicsPRO Comic Book Industry Meeting in Glendale, CA, Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comic books and graphic novels since 1997 – and William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. are proud to announce that the next chapter in the blockbuster resurrection of the immortal EC Comics will be written this June in BLOOD TYPE #1 – the FIRST ISSUE of A TERRIFYING NEW KIND OF HORROR SERIES from Hugo Award-nominated writer Corinna Bechko (Cruel Universe, Green Lantern: Earth One) and Eisner Award-winning artist Andrea Sorrentino (Gideon Falls, Old Man Logan)! Rising from the pages of her first appearance in last fall’s EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3, EC’s own blood-splattered, bon vivant vampire will be making history as the first character to claw her way out of an iconic EC Comics short story . . . and into the first-ever standalone, serialized horror series from the most notorious name in terror!
“Since day one, it’s always been our intention to push the boundaries of the revitalized EC Comics line at Oni Press into new and unexpected territory. First came our fleet of new anthology series – beginning with EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS and CRUEL UNIVERSE – which shattered our own already-high expectations to become Oni’s best-selling new series in more than a decade,” said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. “Now, with BLOOD TYPE #1, we’re gearing up for something even more radical: the first-ever continuation of EC Comics anthology short, picking up the thread of how one lone vampire lost at sea will soon wash ashore on a tropical isle, where she is not the only creature with a taste for flesh and blood. Trenaciously twisted and hilariously brutal in the true EC manner, Corinna’s cleverly killer instincts are a perfect accent for the macabre art of Andrea Sorrentino – one of the best horror artists anywhere today. You’d have to be dead already to justify missing this book!”
WHEN YOU’RE A VAMPIRE, EVERYBODY SUCKS . . . SOONER OR LATER! Meet Ada, an immortal vampire whose misdeeds have landed her on the doorstep of an idyllic Caribbean resort. . . . An island paradise teeming with wealthy tourists and superstitious locals—an ample food supply for the thirsty vamp looking to get away from it all! But as Ada stalks the boundaries of her new hunting ground, she’ll soon become embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse by moonlight . . . as an older, wiser, and entirely different kind of predator reveals its own carnal hunger for greed and power. Who will survive when a brand-new kind of BLOOD TYPE declares war on a cunning bloodsucker with nothing left to lose . . . and what will be left of them?!
Picking up in the immediate aftermath of Ada’s first appearance in the titular short story “Blood Type” from EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3, BLOOD TYPE is intended to be the first in a new slate of semi-regular EC Comics limited series that will spotlight and continue a select few of the razor-sharp short stories introduced in the pages of EC’s monthly anthology titles – be they horror, science fiction, fantasy, or more. Before BLOOD TYPE #1 arrives in comic shops everywhere this June, readers can rediscover the killer short that first launched Ada into infamy inside the pages of EC PRESENTS BLOOD TYPE #0 – Oni’s 2025 Free Comic Book Day release by Bechko and artist Jonathan Case (Green River Killer), alongside other fan-favorite shorts from EC”s first year at Oni Press by creators Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine), Kano (Gotham Central), and Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Mind MGMT) with an all-new cover by Eisner Award nominee Tyler Crook (Out of Alcatraz, Harrow County).
“Horror has just always been where I’ve felt most at home, something Andrea and I have in common,” said writer Corinna Bechko “With BLOOD TYPE we’ve cooked up a wicked tale that expands on a character I fell in love with as soon as I put her on the page. Does she love me back? Not a chance, and that’s her charm. She’s a vampire, but that doesn’t mean she sparkles or is ready for romance. She is, however, ready to take over a tropical paradise.”
“I think horror is just my thing,” said artist Andrea Sorrentino. “I’ve worked on many different things like superheroes and sci-fi in my career, but when it’s up to horror, this is where I feel at home …The opportunity to connect with the deepest fears of the reader through some imagery is a great and satisfying challenge. This is why when I’ve been asked if I was up to collaborate with EC Comics (one of the greatest of the comic horror producers) for two short stories first and then the launch of this exciting new limited series, it has been an honor for me. I can’t wait to join Corinna Bechko and my long time collaborator Dave Stewart on colors for this new, amazing project. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait for readers to put their eyes on what we are doing here!”
As a revolutionary new entry in the EC Comics canon, BLOOD TYPE #1 will lead off a new wave of gloriously bloody new wave EC series at Oni Press across Summer 2025. Stay tuned for more news on EC’s upcoming SUMMER OF FEAR in the weeks ahead as BLOOD TYPE prepares to bite deep!
“I can’t wait for folks to read BLOOD TYPE,” said Bechko. “EC Comics are more relevant now than ever and I hope we’ve honored that tradition while doing something brand new with this longer tale. Won’t you join us for the scariest vacation of your life?”
Featuring covers by Miguel Mercado (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Andrea Sorrentino (Bone Orchard), Albert Monteys (Universe!), and Naomi Franq (Black Hammer: Barbalien), BLOOD TYPE #1 seeps into comic shops everywhere on June 18th.
For more updates on Oni Press, visit them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and X.
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 Sheets trilogy, 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.
About EC Comics
As the birthplace of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MAD MAGAZINE, WEIRD SCIENCE, and more of the most influential and celebrated comic series ever published, EC Comics has cemented itself as one of the central nerves of American pop culture with a legacy that spans more than seven decades. From 1944 to 1956, EC – established as “Educational Comics” by founder M.C. Gaines and later rebranded “Entertaining Comics” under the leadership of Publisher & Editor William M. Gaines – led a creative renaissance for the comics industry that, for the first time, elevated the once-derided comics medium into the echelons of English literature and high art. Heralded as “one of the great explosions of vox-pop literature” by Time Magazine and “fiercely honest, politically adversarial, [and] visually masterful” by The Comics Journal, EC’s line of comics books – which collectively sold more than 10 million copies annually at their peak – entertained and informed in equal measure, using brilliantly crafted tales of horror, science fiction, satire, and battlefield conflict to critique and subvert America’s dark impulses toward violence, racism, inequity, environmental destruction, and war.
Forcibly shuttered by the Comics Code Authority – a pro-censorship group specifically tasked with eradicating EC’s illuminating influence from the American comic book industry – in 1956, EC’s unique brand of subversive storytelling lived on through the continued success of MAD Magazine, which would fuel American counterculture through the death of Publisher William M. Gaines in 1992. EC’s titles and stories have been adapted in a number of media – including the long-running HBO’s long-running TALES FROM THE CRYPT franchise of television series and feature films – and continue to be celebrated by multiple generations of comic creators, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians as a seminal influence.
Today, EC Comics’ canon of classic stories can continuously be found in print through new editions at Dark Horse Comics, TASCHEN, Fantagraphics, and IDW Publishing. In 2024, EC announced a new partnership with multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher Oni Press to produce the first all-new EC Comics titles in nearly 70 years.