Synopsis
2025 Eisner Award Nominee - Best Anthology
2025 Ringo Award Nominee - Best Anthology
Compelled to OBLIVION, driven to ENTROPY, all life in our cosmos can only end in one place: COMPLETE ANNIHILATION! For the first time in 70 years, the limitless fury of EC Comics rages back to life to shred the very fabric of the universe itself—and wrench bizarre tales of time and space into our dimensional plane!
Our guides across this riveting introduction to a cosmic maelstrom of strange extraterrestrial entities, malevolent scientists, and terrifying technological catastrophe? Learn to fear the void with the irradiated imaginations of writers Corinna Bechko (Invisible Republic, The Space Between), Christopher Cantwell (Thanos), Chris Condon (That Texas Blood), Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Mind MGMT), Stephanie Phillips (Phoenix), Ben H. Winters (The Last Policeman), and more as they collide with the wondrously destructive visions of artists Jonathan Case (Green River Killer), Kano (Gotham Central), David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Alison Sampson (Department of Truth), Artyom Topilin (I Hate This Place), Caitlin Yarsky (Black Hammer: Reborn) and many more!
The unpredictable return of EC Comics continues here with the quantum comics event of the millennium! Galaxies will collapse. Space-time will be distorted. And your very will to exist, too, shall be broken. . . . Just remember: It's all in the name of SCIENCE!
Collecting Cruel Universe #1–5.
About the Author
Corinna Bechko is a Hugo- and Eisner-nominated New York Times bestselling author. Her work includes Invisible Republic, Star Wars: Legacy, Savage Hulk, Angel, Once Upon a Time, Court of the Dead, Green Lantern: Earth One, and The Expanse. Corinna lives in Los Angeles, where she works with dinosaurs and rescues parrots.
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.
Matt Kindt is a Harvey Award–winning and New York Times bestselling writer and artist of comics and graphic novels. His work includes MIND MGMT, BRZRKR (with Keanu Reeves), Bang!, Eniac, Revolver, 3 Story, Super Spy, 2 Sisters, and Pistolwhip. He has been nominated for four Eisner Awards and three Harvey Awards (and won once). His work has been published in French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The author lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife and Dept H. collaborator, the colorist and artist Sharlene Kindt.
Stephanie Phillips is an American writer known for comics and graphic novels such as Harley Quinn, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Sensational Wonder Woman, and The Butcher of Paris. Her stories and comics have appeared with DC Comics, AfterShock Comics, Dark Horse, Oni Press, Top Cow/Image Comics, Heavy Metal, and more. Stephanie also holds a PhD in English.
Cullen Bunn is the writer of comic books such The Sixth Gun, Shadow Roads, The Damned, and Helheim for Oni Press. He has also written titles including Harrow County (Dark Horse), Uncanny X-Men, and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (Marvel). Cullen claims to have worked as an alien autopsy specialist, rodeo clown, pro wrestling manager, and sasquatch wrangler. He has fought for his life against mountain lions and performed on stage as the world’s youngest hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime and he'll tell you all about it.
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.
Zac Thompson is a multidisciplinary writer from Prince Edward Island, Canada. He is best known for his work at Marvel Comics, including the eco-horror title Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage Land and showrunning the Age of X-Man event. He has also written characters like Batman and Swamp Thing at DC Comics. In 2017, Zac released his critically acclaimed debut graphic novel, The Dregs. His 2018 follow up, Come Into Me, was named one of the Best 100 Horror Comics of All Time by Paste magazine. In 2021, his science-fiction horror series I Breathed A Body was called one of the best comics of the year by SYFY. In 2022, Thompson's original screenplay The Replacer was selected for production financing from Telefilm Canada. Zac has also written stories for Vice, Huff Post, IGN, Seraphim Films, Image Comics, and many other publications. When Zac's not out foraging for mushrooms or cycling, you can find him at the cinema or walking his dog, Astra.
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.
Dan McDaid is a comics writer and artist based in Scotland. He started out writing and drawing adventures for the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who Magazine, and he has since gone on to well-received runs on properties as diverse as Big Trouble in Little China, Judge Dredd, and Firefly. Following acclaimed work on TKO’s pulp blockbuster The Fearsome Dr. Fang, McDaid drew the swashbuckling horror Sea Dogs for Joe Hill's Hill House imprint and DC Comics. His most recent project is the self-penned title, sci-fi mystery DEGA published by Oni Press.
Caitlin Yarsky is a comic book artist based in Portland, Oregon. Her first two series were Sean Lewis’ Coyotes and Bliss at Image Comics. She was the main artist for Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer Reborn series at Dark Horse, drew a DC one-shot called Olympus: Rebirth with Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad, and has since drawn Catwoman and back-ups for Shazam (with variant covers from different publishers in between). She is currently working for DC and has started writing and drawing her own series.
Jonathan Case is a cartoonist from the great Pacific Northwest. His 2015 graphic novel, The New Deal (author/artist, Dark Horse), was a nominee for the Reuben, Harvey, and Oregon Book awards for best graphic album. In 2012, he won an Eisner Award for Green River Killer, A True Detective Story (Dark Horse). His other books include Dear Creature (author/artist, Dark Horse), Batman ’66 (artist, DC), Superman: American Alien (artist, DC), and Over the Garden Wall: Distillatoria and Over the Garden Wall: Circus Friends (author, BOOM!).
Artyom Trakhanov is a Siberian comic artist and video game illustrator living in Belgrade. He has worked on Undertow (Image Comics), Turncoat (Boom! Studios), The 7 Deadly Sins (TKO Presents) and First Knife (Image Comics).
Javier Ferna´ndez is a comic book artist from Granada, Spain, known for his interior art and covers for DC Comics as well as the #1 bestselling book of 2021 — King Spawn. His first professional job was in 2010, working on titles for Kickstart Comics. In 2011, he began working with Marvel Comics on Captain America. He also worked on a series of Magneto issues in 2014. Since 2011, Javier has been a regular on many successful DC Comics titles, such as Nightwing, Detective Comics, Teen Titans, Justice League, Green Arrow, and many more.In 2021, Javier began working as lead artist on King Spawn, one of Todd McFarlane’s expanded Spawn Universe titles, published by Image Comics. Currently, he continues working on upcoming issues of this modern classic, where his sequential storytelling is beyond compare. He also has recently created some amazing covers for Predator, New Mutants, and a short story about Spiderman in the bestseller Marvel Zombies: Black, White & Blood.
David Lapham began his career in the comic industry at the age of 20, working at Valiant Comics learning his craft illustrating and helping to create many original titles, including Shadowman, Harbinger, and Rai. He left Valiant to work at Defiant Comics, where he cocreated Warriors of Plasm with Jim Shooter. David turned his back on the superhero genre in 1995 to cofound the independent publishing company El Capitan Books, which began publishing David's comic series Stray Bullets. Lapham has won Eisner Awards for his work on Stray Bullets and Murder Me Dead.
Leomacs is an Italian comic book artist based in Rome, Italy. In Italy, Leomacs has worked extensively for Sergio Bonelli Editore drawing Tex and Dylan Dog. For DC Comics, he has recently collaborated on Lucifer and the seven-part Hill House Comics thriller Basketful of Heads written by Joe Hill. He has drawn the French graphic novel The Invisible Mountain, written by Pierre Makyo and Frédéric Richaud, published by Delcourt. Leomacs and Riccardo La Bella collaborated on the graphic novel Apprendre à maîtriser son destin, Mémoire Vive written by Pierre Makyo for Glénat édition. Leomacs has collaborated as a storyboard artist with Colingwood & Co. for the animated series Horrid Henry. He has also realized storyboards and animated sequences for the film Nessuno mi troverá directed by Egidio Eronico.
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, in 1977. 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.
Alison Sampson is an award winning London-based artist, drawing comics and illustrations in the fields of horror (Hellboy, Winnebago Graveyard, the 2023 Eisner nominated Department of Truth, Werewolf by Night), fantasy (Sleeping Beauties Vols. 1 & 2), science fiction (The Blue Tarantula), and adventure (Hit-Girl: India),and more. Recent writing credits (also drawing) are the Tori Amos anthology, Little Earthquakes, which received four Eisner nominations in 2023, Iron Maiden/Z2, and for Trina Robbins's upcoming Won't Back Down benefit anthology for Planned Parenthood.
Matt Bors is an Eisner-winning comics editor and two time Pulitzer Prize Finalist in cartooning. He is currently writing the upcoming Toxic Avenger comic book along with Justice Warriors, a dystopian satire created with artist Ben Clarkson from Ahoy Comics. In 2013, he founded The Nib, which published 6,000 comics, three books, and 15 issues of an award-winning print magazine. In 2017 he was the Executive Producer and head writer for two seasons of The Nib animation produced by Topic with Augenblick Studios. Bors’ comics have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, Village Voice, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. He also drew the graphic novel War Is Boring, written by David Axe, and edits comics for In These Times magazine.
Christopher Cantwell is an American writer, producer, and director who has worked in television, film, and comic books. He is best known as one of the two co-creators of the TV series Halt and Catch Fire, for which he also served as a producer, showrunner, screenwriter, and director.
Ben H. Winters is the New York Times–bestselling, Edgar Award–winning, and Philip K. Dick Award–winning author of Big Time, The Quiet Boy, Golden State, Underground Airlines, the Last Policeman trilogy, and the mash-up novel Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Ben has also worked extensively in television. He is the creator of the smash-hit CBS show Tracker and has served as a writer/producer on the FX cult hit Legion, as well as Manhunt on Apple TV+. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, three kids, and one large dog.
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