Epitaphs From The Abyss #1 | EC Comics Triumphant Return With A-List Talent Courtesy Of Oni Comics 

Oh man Family Values really freaked me out it's so realistic and disturbingly plausible

Don't know about that title, 'Epitaphs From The Abyss.' It's a bit clunky. The classic EC Comics titles were short and catchy one or two syllable words, 'The Haunt of Fear, 'The Vault of Horror,' Tales From The Crypt,' not 'The Catacombs of Lamentation' or 'Testimonials From Oblivion.' I feel it needs something snappier and pulpier like 'The Tomb Of Dread' or 'Lore Of The Damned.'

I'm gonna apologize upfront for the rant, but after that first issue I'm still all the way on the fence. I know its only one book into a multi-line imprint, but I just didn't see how this clearly distinguished itself from any of the multiple other horror anthology books recently or currently on the stands aside from the EC logo on the cover and the digitized Leroy lettering font. Honestly, I think the recent Creepshow books almost do a little better job homaging the original EC format, where each individual story is bookended by host The Creep, where - outside a host appearance the intro page - and no slight to the individual artists or writers, these stories just feel like they could be dropped into literally any horror anthology book. Maybe I'm just mismanaging my expectations (and I most likely am), but as a devotee of the original Pre Code books, this landed with a pretty unremarkable thud to me. The double-edged sword of directly cashing in on the near mythical EC legacy also invites direct, if unfair, comparisons to some of the best comics ever made. I really hope they can pull together a better cohesion as the line moves forward.

I couldn't have been more disappointed in this release. It's almost like the writers and artists had never read a real EC Comic. The art lacked, the writing lacked, the politics was distracting, even the 'twist endings' failed to impress. I think the only thing I didn't completely hate was the cover that I got. But everything else was really lacking in the EC tradition.

This was such a let down. In fact it's an insult to the classic EC horror of yesteryear. It's a sad state of affairs in modern comics nowadays.