First Look: Read “The Champion” by Matt Kindt & Kano Before EC Comics Bites into Free Comic Book Day with BLOOD TYPE #0!

Featuring Three of EC’s Best & Bloodiest of the Year with Creators Corinna Bechko & Jonathan Case, Matt Kindt & Kano, and Chris Condon & Charlie Adlard and More – In Comic Shops Everywhere for FCDB 2025 on May 3rd!

PORTLAND, OR (May 1, 2025)– Ahead of Free Comic Book Day on May 3rd, EC Comics and Oni Press are thrilled to present “The Champion” from Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Mind MGMT) & Kano (Gotham Central) from EC CRUEL UNIVERSE #1 before it appears in Oni’s star-studded offering Free Comic Book Day 2025: BLOOD TYPE #0 – in participating stores everywhere on Saturday, May 3rd! ! This exclusive FCBD releases features encore presentations of some of this year’s most shocking, fan-favorite EC Comics stories from EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, CRUEL UNIVERSE and CRUEL KINGDOM, with an all-new cover by Eisner Award nominee Tyler Crook (Harrow County, Out of Alcatraz) – and an exclusive look ahead at this summer’s sinister wave of horrifying new EC Comics titles!

THE SUMMER OF FEAR starts here with a special re-introduction to the perilous first appearance EC’s blood-thirsty, bon vivant vampire from EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #3 … before she rises from the grave and stakes her claim to EC’s landmark, first-ever serialized horror series this June in BLOOD TYPE #1 (of 4) 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)!

THEN: THE SUMMER OF FEAR descends to terrifying new depths in CATACOMB OF TORMENT #1 – the first issue of A BLOODY NEW ONGOING SERIES! Out of the ashes of EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS, join us to usher THE TORMENTOR – a new horror host with an insatiable interest in human anatomy – into EC Comics infamy with our next monthly horror anthology! For Her Royal Travesty of Pain’s first request: Master storytellers John Arcudi (B.P.R.D.), Marguerite Bennett (Batwoman), Matt Kindt (BRZRKR), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Dan McDaid (Shazam!), and more each take turns manning the rack and turning the red-hot irons for three all-new and blisteringly brutal tales of mayhem and malice in the undying EC tradition!

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S GORE! THE SUMMER OF FEAR reaches to the star-lined edge of infinity as EC’s sci-fi smash-hit returns with AN ALL-NEW, UNRELENTING MAXI-SERIES in CRUEL UNIVERSE 2 #1! Join this doomed expedition into the cold, unforgiving galaxies beyond our own as nihilistic navigators J. Holtham (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss), Kano (Immortal Iron Fist), Anne Nocenti (Daredevil), David Rubín (Sherlock Frankenstein), and more smash the laws of science . . . and splice the immortal EC Comics genome into a new breed of parasitic extraterrestrial tales with an endless appetite for pain!

The second shocking year of EC’s unholy resurrection is almost upon us … and critics are already saying, “This is literal torture” and “Please make it stop!” This Free Comic Book Day, pick up BLOOD TYPE #0 at a local comic book retailer you … and we just might consider letting them go!

EC BLOOD TYPE #0

WRITTEN BY CORINNA BECHKO, CHRIS CONDON, & MATT KINDT

ART BY CHARLIE ADLARD, JONATHAN CASE, & KANO

COVER BY TYLER CROOK

IN STORES MAY 3rd, 2025 | FREE | 32 PGS. | FC

EC BLOOD TYPE #1 (of 4)

WRITTEN BY CORINNA BECHKO

ART BY ANDREA SORRENTINO

COVER A BY MIGUEL MERCADO

COVER B BY ANDREA SORRENTINO

FOIL VARIANT ($8.99) BY MIGUEL MERCADO

EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY ALBERT MONTEYS