EC Cruel Universe, Volume 2 (EC Cruel Universe)

At the star-lined edges of infinity, EC Comics’ Eisner Award–nominated science-fiction smash returns to draw more worlds into the maw of its gravitational vortex! Whether future or past, Earth or a distant world, no man can outrun the infinite singularity within us all: FEAR! Join our next doomed expedition into the cold, unforgiving galaxies beyond our own as nihilistic navigators Cecil Castellucci (High Strangeness), Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine), Melissa Flores (Biker Mice from Mars), Sarah Gailey (Eat the Rich), Ryan Haddock (The Brothers Flick), J. Holtham (The Horizon Experiment), Rian Hughes (The Black Locomotive), Ann Nocenti (Daredevil), Greg Pak (Planet Hulk), and Dave Wielgosz (Batman: The Brave and the Bold) join sadistically stellar artists Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Kano (Gotham Central), Sami Kivelä (Abbott), Brian Level (Poison Ivy), Andrea Mutti (Rebels), Anna Readman (2000 AD), Claire Roe (Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special), Riley Rossmo (Batman: Black & White), and David Rubín (Black Hammer) to splice the immortal EC Comics genome into a new breed of parasitic extraterrestrial tales . . . with an endless appetite for pain! Beyond space, beyond oblivion . . . there is something vast, unsympathetic, and envious that yearns to consume us all in this CRUEL UNIVERSE! Let’s make it work for it, shall we? Collects Cruel Universe (Vol. 2) #1–4.

Chris Condon is the low-down dirty scoundrel behind the ongoing Image Comic series That Texas Blood and its acclaimed Wild West spinoff, The Enfield Gang Massacre, both with artist Jacob Phillips. He waded deep into bayou waters to adapt Barry Gifford's Night People for Oni Press and has not been the same since.

Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award-winning, internationally published writer of fiction and nonfiction. Their nonfiction has been published by Mashable and the Boston Globe, and they are a regular contributor for Tor.com and Barnes & Noble. Their most recent fiction credits include Fireside Fiction, Tor.com, and The Atlantic. Their debut novella, River of Teeth, was published in 2017 via Tor.com and was a 2018 Hugo and Nebula award finalist. Their adult novel debut, Magic For Liars, was published by Tor Books in June 2019. Their Young Adult novel debut, When We Were Magic, was published by Simon Pulse in Spring 2020. You can find links to their work at www.sarahgailey.com; find them on social media @gaileyfrey.

Ryan Haddock is the writer and co-creator of the award-winning graphic novel The Brothers Flick: The Impossible Doors. He has wanted to write stories since he was six years old. Sometimes the stories have pictures, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they’re in books, and sometimes they just live in his head. He tries to put the good ones in books. A former gifted kid and a frequent sufferer of imposter syndrome, Ryan lives with his family in a charming mid-sized city known for a jingle about a train.

J. Holtham is an American screenwriter, best known for his work on TV shows such as Cloak and Dagger, Jessica Jones, and Supergirl. He recently broke into Marvel Comics with Bishop- War College, and is bringing back fan favorite nineties character, Night Thrasher, for his first solo series in 30 years.

Rian Hughes is a graphic designer, illustrator, writer, typographer and sometime comic book writer and artist who has worked extensively for the British and American publishing, music, advertising and comic book industries. He has written and drawn comics for 2000AD and Batman: Black and White, and designed logos for James Bond, X-Men, Superman, Hed Kandi and The Avengers, collected in the Eisner-nominated book Logo a Gogo (Korero Press, 2018). He has published two novels, XX (Picador, Overlook Press, 2020) and The Black Locomotive (Picador, 2021). Recent books include Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s, the latest in the Custom Lettering trilogy, the all-ages wordless graphic novel I Am A Number (Top Shelf), Soho Dives, Soho Divas (Image) which collects his burlesque drawings, and Cult-Ure: Ideas Can Be Dangerous (Fiell) in which he sets out his memetics manifesto. He has a collection of Thunderbirds memorabilia, a fridge full of vodka, and a stack of easy listening albums which he plays very quietly.

Ann Nocenti is a journalist, writer, editor and filmmaker. She wrote Ruby Falls (2020) with artist Flavia Biondi and The Seeds (2021) with artist David Aja, both graphic novels for Berger Books/Dark Horse. She also wrote Daredevil, edited X-Men, and created the characters Longshot, Typhoid, Spiral, Mojo, Blackheart, and many more. She was the script editor of The Fifth Night, a screenplay reading series, and the editor of Scenario, a screenwriting magazine. Her series about teaching in Haiti, Goudou Goudou, can be found at http://hilobrow.com/tag/goudou-goudou. She continues to work on museums, most recently Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes, a traveling exhibition launched at MoPOP in Seattle.

Dave Wielgosz is an Eisner Award-nominated comic creator and writer located in Los Angeles. He grew up in Holyoke, Massachusetts, known as the Paper City, and doesn't remember a time in his life when comics weren't a part of it. His writing credits include Man-Bat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White & Green, Hello Darkness, Batman: The Brave & the Bold, and Superman: Man of Tomorrow.

Charlie Adlard was born August 1966 in the town of Shrewsbury, England and, having moved away to study film and video at art college, eventually moved back and still resides there today. Before moving back to Shrewsbury, he spent a brief stint in London, finding out that the BA he’d earned at art college was pretty useless in getting a job in the film industry, and, after failing to set the world alight playing the drums in a rock band, eventually settled on the “third” option—which was comics. An option he finally realized should have been number one right from the beginning. After spending two years back in Shrewsbury working on a portfolio, he eventually found his first work on the Judge Dredd Megazine in 1992 and hasn’t looked back since.

Kano is the pseudonym of Spanish comic book artist Jose Ángel Cano López. Kano began his career at the age of 13, editing Spanish-language comics fanzines. At 15, he was already doing layouts and design work for Planeta-DeAgostini. Kano is a founding member of the Spanish magazine about comics, Krazy Comics, as well as the Phoenix Studio, which provided design, illustration, and publishing services and was eventually merged with Camaleón Ediciones, a publishing house that Kano worked for in his early days. He has worked for both DC and Marvel Comics. He worked on a long run of Action Comics, including the “Emperor Joker” storyline, as well as Gotham Central and Swamp Thing. He worked on Daredevil, Iron Fist, Man Thing, and Beta Ray Bill Godhunter for Marvel, as well as others.

Sami Kivelä is a comic book artist from Finland. You may recognize him from titles such as Deer Editor (Mad Cave), Abbott (BOOM! Studios), Undone By Blood (Aftershock), Machine Gun Wizards (Dark Horse) as well as Beautiful Canvas and Everfrost (Black Mask). When Sami is not hunched over his drawing table or reading comics, he enjoys traveling, listening to metal music, and watching TV with his wife.

Andrea Mutti began drawing comics in his native Italy during the early 1990s collaborating with various European publishers on such series as DNAction (Xenia Edizioni), Lazarus Ledd and Nathan Never (both for Star Comics). In 2001, he landed in the U.S. market drawing acclaimed series such as The Executor and DMZ for DC/Vertigo, various Iron Man series for Marvel and G.I. Joe Origins for IDW, Top Cow, Image, Dark Horse, Vault, Humanoids, Dynamite, MadCave, The Lab, among many others.

Anna Readman is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Leeds, UK. She graduated from Leeds Arts University with a degree in Illustration in 2020 and has since produced work for various companies and publishers including 2000 AD, Z2 Comics and Northern Monk. In November 2023 she won the Observer/Faber Graphic Short Story Prize with her 4-page comic “Dancing Queen.”

Claire Roe is an artist from Scotland. Her works include her creator-owned title Foul Brood, IDW's The Hollywood Special, Marvel Comics' Nebula, Captain Marvel Snapshots, Darkhold: Wasp, DC's Batgirl & the Birds of Prey, Poison Ivy: Uncovered, Poison Ivy Marasmius, and Boom! Studios' Bury the Lede and We(l)come Back.

Riley Rossmo is an illustrator and creator currently making comics and character designs. He started illustrating in 2004 where he mostly worked in advertising, editorial illustration, and character design. His first comic series, Proof, from Image, came out in 2007. Since then he’s made comics with Image Comics (Cowboy Ninja Viking, Green Wake, Bedlam, Rasputin), Marvel (Daken The Dark, Wolverine) and currently DC Comics (Batman, Batman/Shadow, Constantine the Hellblazer, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter).

David Rubín is a Spanish cartoonist born in Ourense, Galicia. He’s the visionary creator behind The Hero, co-creator and illustrator on Ether with Matt Kindt, Cosmic Detective with Matt Kindt and Jeff Lemire, Battling Boy: The Rise of Aurora West with Paul Pope and J.T. Petty, Rumble with John Arcudi, the Eisner-nominated Beowulf graphic novel with Santiago García, and Grand Hotel Abyss with Marcos Prior, among others. David lives in a town close to Madrid, Spain, with his family and a dog.