BEWARE! Tony Moore’s Explosive Story in EC Comics’ OUTLAW SHOWDOWN Will Lead You Into a Hellish Coal Mine With No Escape!
There is No Rest for the Dead in “Fire in the Hole” by Tony Moore
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
PORTLAND, OR (October 21, 2025) A STORY SO EXPLOSIVE THAT IT WILL HAUNT YOU UNTIL YOU PASS ON! - Oni Press, the multiple Eisner- and Harvey Award–winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, and William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., present to you, fine reader, a first look at “Fire in the Hole” from the upcoming OUTLAW SHOWDOWN #1, on sale October 22. Written and illustrated by the legendary Tony Moore (The Walking Dead, Battle Pope) “Fire in the Hole” relishes in betrayal, death, and dismemberment that you will never be able to unsee. So, if you’re brave enough to look on, do so with caution because . . .
“Fire in the Hole” may not be suitable for the eyes of the weak or considered cowardly!
As the sun settles high above this bone-dry stretch of mesa, wipe the blood from your boot heels and place your wagers as Oni Press and EC Comics raise their pistols . . . to pump six cylinders of hot lead and cold hearts into OUTLAW SHOWDOWN—EC’S FIRST GIANT-SIZED, 56-PAGE SPECIAL celebrating REVENGE and RETRIBUTION on the lawless frontiers of the Old West! Gunfighters, scoundrels, butchers, and bandits—they’ll all join us here to draw down on fate itself as coffin-bound creators John Arcudi (B.P.R.D.), Christopher Cantwell (Out of Alcatraz), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Tony Moore (The Walking Dead), and Ann Nocenti (Daredevil) rain hellfire and fury from the holsters on their hip.
Plus, also featured as an extra-added bonus: A newly remastered and authentically restored tale of Old West retribution and recoil from the EC vaults by comics masters Harvey Kurtzman (Two-Fisted Tales) and Jack Davis (Tales from the Crypt)!
SOME COMIC BOOK COMPANIES ASK YOU TO CHOOSE: DEATH OR GLORY? AT EC COMICS, WE SAY . . . WHY NOT BOTH?! And we will continue to tempt your fate by telling you to CHOOSE A COVER THAT MAKES YOU RIDE INTO A BLAZE OF GLORY! Pick your poison with covers by Lee Bermejo (Joker), Ladrönn (Cable), Tony Moore, Shawn McManus (Fables), and Rian Hughes (The Multiversity).
For more updates on Oni Press, visit them on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram.
EC OUTLAW SHOWDOWN #1
WRITTEN BY JOHN ARCUDI, CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL, TONY MOORE, AND ANN NOCENTI
ART BY SEBASTIÁN CABROL, DAVID LAPHAM, DAN McDAID, AND TONY MOORE
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY TONY MOORE
COVER C BY LADRÖNN
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY SHAWN McMANUS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TONY MOORE
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
BLANK SKETCH VARIANT AVAILABLE
ON SALE OCTOBER 22th, 2025 | $8.99 | 56 PAGES | FC
IOC: 8/30/2025
FOC: 9/29/2025
INTERIOR ART BY TONY MOORE
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY TONY MOORE
COVER C BY LADRÖNN
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY SHAWN McMANUS
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY RIAN HUGHES
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TONY MOORE
BLANK SKETCH VARIANT
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 and 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 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 seventy years.