Whenever something gets brought back from the dead, a bit of history comes along with it. It’s inescapable, especially when it concerns the return of something monumental. The new EC Horror revival falls under this category.
Being such an integral part of comics history as a whole, EC’s new lease on life necessitates a bit of discussion on what it once meant and what it can still mean today. We’re talking about a series of books that were blamed for inspiring juvenile delinquency and psychosexual perversion in the 1940s and 1950s, all of which led to their censorship and the subsequent creation of the Comics Code Authority (an association that pushed for self-regulated content in the industry).
Well, it’s 2024 and many of the fears of yesterday are still around and going harder than they’ve had in a while. EC will feel right at home.
The Beat corresponded with three of the creators helping shape this new age of EC Horror: Matt Kindt, Corinna Bechkoand Chris Condon. They discuss what the classic horror titles that came from it mean to them and how they hope to further the brand’s legacy on titles such as Epitaphs of the Abyss and Cruel Universe.
Those attending San Diego Comic Con this year they are in for a treat as Oni Press has teamed up with the store Revenge Of for a night of signings, vegan food, and tattoos on Tuesday, July 23rd from 9pm-11pm. It’ll take place at the store’s LA location. Bechko will be in attendance along with fellow creators J. Holtham and Ben Winters. The event is free with RSVP.
Without further ado, the interview.
RICARDO SERRANO: It’s difficult to dive into comics and not have at least a brush with EC Horror. Be it a shocking cover or a particularly thick story, what’s your experience with EC horror been like and how has it colored your approach to this new line of comics?
CHRIS CONDON: EC Comics has been a part of my life since I was a kid. I was always drawn to the dark stuff, if my work in That Texas Blood is any indication. I always loved the HBO adaptations with that wonderfully puppeted Crypt Keeper, which led directly to me discovering the original comics from the 1950s. All of that had a direct influence on my approach to new EC stories because I had a reverence for the originals. I wanted to pay tribute to them without mimicking them, to bring the EC-style into the 21st century while still capturing the essence of what made EC so unique.
CORINNA BECHKO: I have read a lot of EC Horror in the past, but always for enjoyment. It was a real pleasure to have an excuse to dive back into it and really savor the stories and art while looking at it with a more critical eye. When approaching the new line I tried to start with the feeling that the originals give you, then think about how that feeling translates to the world today. Turns out the world might not have changed all that much after all.
MATT KINDT: I grew up reading it – in the 90s, Gemstone was re-printing all of the EC books in single issues – like they had been published originally and they were released every month so that was how I started reading them. I just picked them up new as they came out. And the reprints were great – included the text pieces in between – everything. And I was struck by how timeless they were. The art was amazing and the stories held up – they were actually better than a lot of what was coming out in 1990. What was great is that you got a really dense full story in 8-10 pages. I loved that format of storytelling. One of my earlier books – Super Spy is 250 pages worth of 8-page spy stories. There’s a direct line from EC comics to Super Spy. I love trying to get an entire story and character and idea into that small amount of space. It’s really its own kind of art form and I fell in love with it. So in a lot of ways, working on an EC 8 page story proper is like coming home. Full circle. EC had a huge ripple effect on comic creators. We all carry some bit or piece of that work with us. We end up bending it and twisting it into our own thing, so coming to EC now – it’s kind of fun – to see where I took it and then reverse-engineering it to write something that feels like a “true” EC story. It’s a different and very specifically unique flavor of storytelling and it’s been fun to try to capture that.
SERRANO: EC pushed a lot of buttons when it came out. Which ones do you think it has to push today to live up to the EC legacy?
CONDOM: You’re absolutely right. The EC of the past literally led to a panic that resulted in congressional hearings–how’s that for pushing buttons? I think that we live in a polarized time, a post-pandemic world where violence and real-life trauma haunts our lives and minute-to-minute news cycle. The job of an EC Comic in today’s culture is to crawl under the skin of our readers and find the right pressure points. We want people to squirm, recoil, and, in the end, laugh.
BECHKO: If anything buttons might be even easier to push today than they were back then. That said, I think the basic tenets remain the same: punch up instead of down, shock with violence or gore but satisfy with just deserts, and always keep in mind that humans love drama but to make drama work we have to actually feel something about someone in the story. Hate and disgust count as feelings, but boredom doesn’t.
KINDT: EC books were so progressive back in the day. They still are. These new books are no different. I’ve read and written a few and what’s funny is that time you have passed. But humanity is still humanity. History repeats itself for a reason. We’re pushing the same buttons. The names and faces and circumstances might have changed a bit. But humanity and are better and worse impulses never change. There’s a dark justice that runs through the EC books – the guy that deserves to get it – usually gets it in the end – and in a horrible way. But that’s the superficial take on the books. I think there’s a deeper yearning for empathy that is most of the stories. And in mine particularly. A kind of horrible cautionary tale with a plea for empathy underneath it all.
SERRANO: In your scripts, how far did you want to push your collaborators to go for maximum horror?
CONDOM: I’m extremely fortunate to be collaborating with fantastic artists on all of my stories–Peter Krause, Javier Fernandez, Jonathan Caseand Charlie Adlard. We’re all comic readers, collectors, and above all, fans. So we know what we expect in an EC Comic and it’s our duty to deliver on that. I certainly was aware of that and infused my scripts with heaps of anxiety, loads of dread, and buckets of blood. My wonderfully devious collaborators took those scripts and brought them to horribly terrifying life.
BECHKO: When I’m writing comics I like to see it as a true collaboration. So I put in what the plot needs but leave it to my fellow creators on the project to interpret the look and feel as they see fit. Of course sometimes the plot calls for a lot of gore, so I do call that out. But I’ve learned that the real magic of making comics comes from allowing the process to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. When working with Jonathan Case this exceeded my wildest hopes and I am absolutely in love with the result.
KINDT: Horror is psychological. It’s easy to be gross and violent and disgusting. Grisly can be fun to do. But real horror is in the ideas. In the concept. Those kinds of ideas are easy for me to come up with because I think about them every day. I don’t worry about much – but I definitely imagine every worst-case scenario and play it out in my head. If I’m driving over a bridge I’m thinking about what the impact would be if I crashed off of it – and how I’d escape the car as it sinks into the river. I am the most morbid Walter Mitty. But I think in a weird way it serves as a kind of protection. If you’re always imagining the worst, real life isn’t usually all that bad. One of my stories was inspired by the cover art that was already complete – the man hammering a nail into a guy’s ear/head. That cover made my whole body tingle in a bad bad way. And it inspired a pretty fun (dark) story. So in some ways I think the artists have been pushing me to places I don’t necessarily enjoy going. But I’ll go there.
SERRANO: Have there been any surprises you’ve stumbled upon in the process of helping bring EC back to life? Any ideas or developments you didn’t expect to come across while coming up with your stories?
CONDOM: I never expected myself to write some of the stuff that I’ve written, specifically in trying to bring EC into our current cultural moment. I have Sierra Hahn and Hunter Gorinson to thank for that.
BECHKO: The one big surprise was how easily the stories have flowed. Turns out I’ve had a store of EC tales in my waiting brain for release for a very long time. I’m so happy they are finally seeing the light of day. Or the dark of night, as the case may be.
KINDT: Yeah. My first handful of story ideas – most of them weren’t quite right. But a few were. And talking with Hunter and Sierra it was interesting to me because they’d clearly been thinking about the EC “vibe/style” and what makes it all tick. I’m just a fan, really. But when they picked some ideas and told me why others weren’t quite right, it really showed me how far I’d come. I write certain kinds of stories and in a certain way. But I was definitely formed by EC storytelling. I’d wandered off into the wild of my own “style” and ideas so it was fun to have that editorial help – finding a path back to my earliest inspiration. Working with them and the family has been one of the greatest honors. I’m so happy to be part of it.
Stay tuned for more SDCC ’24 coverage desde The Beat.