First Look: Feel Your Brain Matter Boil in EC Comics’ Cruel Universe 2 #2 – On Sale in September!
Cross the threshold into cosmic terror as Oni Press presents the next synapse-shredding chapter of EC’s Eisner Award-nominated sci-fi supernova with creators Chris Condon, Melissa Flores, Sami Kivelä, Claire Roe, Riley Rossmo & Dave Wielgosz!
COVER A BY DANIEL GETE
PORTLAND, OR (AUGUST 7, 2025) – EMBRACE OBVILION AS YOUR PHYSICAL BODY SACRIFICES ITSELF … ALL IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE! Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, and William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. are proud to reveal a first look at the story “Ham Radio” by Melissa Flores (Power Rangers Prime) and Claire Roe (Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special) from CRUEL UNIVERSE 2 #2 (of 12) – the next installment of the Eisner Award-nominated science-fiction anthology series featuring a stellar group of creators forcing readers beyond the brink of reality itself!
For millennia, mankind has earned to explore the stars. Foolish humans—that was your first mistake! Like a stray space capsule that’s unexpectedly escaped our solar system and is now cursed to rocket forward at ever-escalating velocities that will slowly reduce its crew to a slick film of goo, EC Comics proudly presents a new roster of callously cosmic tales positively oozing with pain, paranoia, and the pent-up regret of human ambition! To copilot this doomed survey of the stars, join writers Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine), Melissa Flores (Power Rangers Prime), and Dave Wielgosz (Batman: The Brave and the Bold) as they execute the logarithmic calculations that could save our explorers . . . only for the danger-defying artists Sami Kivelä (Abbott), Claire Roe (Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special), and Riley Rossmo (Harley Quinn) to bear witness to inescapable galactic calamity of their all-too-human hubris. Whoops!
Yes, human, it has been foretold in our data tablets: You will gaze in slackjawed wonder as CRUEL UNIVERSE 2 #2 (of 12) crosses the vacuum of space to deliver new allotments of optical ingenuity in the form of comic book covers by Lee Bermejo (Joker), Tom Fowler (Epitaphs from the Abyss), Albert Monteys (Slaughterhouse-Five), and Malachi Ward (Black Hammer: The End) to begin a eons-long rein of EC Comics-inspired cosmic terror! You wanted to live life as a sentient being … Now pay the price in CRUEL UNIVERSE 2 #2 (of 12) – on sale September 3rd!
Plus: Also on sale in September from Oni Press and EC Comics – There’s no rest for the wicked as CATACOMB OF TORMENT #3 presents three tales of fear and frightful persecution fresher than the bludgeoned corpses in your quiet neighbor’s basement! Join our brutally beloved host, the Tormentor, to visit violently vivid vivisections upon our artfully agonizing creators Valeria Burzo (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss), Ryan Haddock (The Brothers Flick), J. Holtham (Hulu’s A Handmaid’s Tale), Sami Kivelä (Abbott), Christopher Mitten (Hellboy & The B.P.R.D.) and Joanne Starer (Fire & Ice) as EC’s brand-new and all-out brutal horror anthology continues its experiments in human anatomy!
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EC CRUEL UNIVERSE 2 #2 (of 12)
WRITTEN BY CHRIS CONDON, MELISSA FLORES & DAVE WIELGOSZ
ART BY SAMI KIVELÄ, CLAIRE ROE & RILEY ROSSMO
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY TOM FOWLER
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY ALBERT MONTEYS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY MALACHI WARD
ON SALE SEPTEMBER 3rd, 2025 | $4.99 | 32 PGS. | FC
IOC: 7/26/2025
FOC: 8/11/2025
CATACOMB OF TORMENT #3
WRITTEN BY J. HOLTHAM, JOANNE STARER, & RYAN HADDOCK
ART BY VALERIA BURZO, SAMI KIVELÄ, & CHRISTOPHER MITTEN
COVER A BY MARK BUCKINGHAM
COVER B BY BJÖRN BARENDS
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY BJÖRN BARENDS
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY PATRICIA MARTÍN
ON SALE SEPTEMBER 17th, 2025 | $4.99 | 32 PGS. | FC
IOC: 7/26/2025
FOC: 9/17/2025
COVER A BY LEE BERMEJO
COVER B BY TOM FOWLER
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY ALBERT MONTEYS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY MALACHI WARD
CRUEL UNIVERSE 2 #2 INTERIOR ART FOR “HAM RADIO” BY CLAIRE ROE, WRITTEN BY MELISSA FLORES