EC Catacomb of Torment #3 Preview

 

COVER A BY MARK BUCKINGHAM

There are always more comics I want to review than I can find time for. So I tend to be careful when committing to issues with multiple stories. (I'm terrible at summarizing. I have to discuss each one!) Still, I find my mind keeps pulling me back to EC CATACOMB OF TORMENT #2. The stories still call to me. Hopefully, I can make the time to share my thoughts with you on that issue!

Here's the info on the upcoming issue: 

First Look: EC Comics' Catacomb of Torment #3 Reveals That The Worst Terrors Come From Your Own Mind!

This September, “Intrusive Thoughts” by Writer Joanne Starer And Artist Christopher Mitten Will Have You Questioning Your Own Brain!

 

 

 

EC CATACOMB OF TORMENT #3

WRITTEN BY J. HOLTHAM, JOANNE STARER, & RYAN HADDOCK

ART BY VALERIA BURZO, SAMI KIVELÄ, & CHRISTOPHER MITTEN

COVER A BY MARK BUCKINGHAM

COVER B BY BJÖRN BARENDS

EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS

B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY BJÖRN BARENDS

ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY PATRICIA MARTÍN

ON SALE SEPTEMBER 17th, 2025 | $4.99 | 32 PGS. | FC

IOC: 7/26/2025

FOC: 9/17/2025

 

 

 

 

THERE’S NOTHING TO FEAR EXCEPT YOUR OWN THOUGHTS! Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, and William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. are proud to reveal a first look at the story "Intrusive Thoughts” by Joanne Starer (Fire and Ice) and Christopher Mitten (Detective Comics) from EC COMICS' CATACOMB OF TORMENT #3, which goes on sale on September 17th. WHEN WE SAY IT’S TIME TO “FEAST YOUR EYES” UPON A NEW CHAPTER OF EC COMICS’ BLOODY NEW HORROR SERIES, WE MEAN IT—LITERALLY! (Wait, you only brought two eyeballs? Not very polite!)

Breathe deep and realize: Yes, this is really happening as adamantly anti-anesthesia writers Ryan Haddock (The Brothers Flick), J. Holtham (Hulu’s A Handmaid’s Tale), and Joanne Starer (Fire & Ice) join our brutally beloved host, the Tormentor, to visit violently, vivid vivisections upon our agonizing artists Valeria Burzo (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss), Sami Kivelä (Abbott), and Christopher Mitten (Hellboy & The B.P.R.D.)! Hurry, these tales of fear and frightful persecution are fresher than the bludgeoned corpses in your quiet neighbor’s basement! Don’t keep the Tormentor waiting!

Tearing through your very soul on September 17th, CATACOMB OF TORMENT #3 contains horrifying covers by Mark Buckingham (Fantastic Four), Björn Barends (Ghost Rider), Jay Stephens (Dwellings), and Patricia Martín (Blood Type)!

Now, let's take a look inside:

 

 

 

 

 

Here are more cover options:

COVER B BY BJÖRN BARENDS

 

EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY JAY STEPHENS

 

B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY BJÖRN BARENDS

ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY PATRICIA MARTÍN

About Oni Press

Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, Ezra Clayton Daniels' Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.

The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.

About EC Comics

As the birthplace of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MAD MAGAZINE, WEIRD SCIENCE, and more of the most influential and celebrated comic series ever published, EC Comics has cemented itself as one of the central nerves of American pop culture with a legacy that spans more than seven decades. From 1944 to 1956, EC – established as "Educational Comics" by founder M.C. Gaines and later rebranded "Entertaining Comics" under the leadership of Publisher & Editor William M. Gaines – led a creative renaissance for the comics industry that, for the first time, elevated the once-derided comics medium into the echelons of English literature and high art. Heralded as "one of the great explosions of vox-pop literature" by Time Magazine and "fiercely honest, politically adversarial, [and] visually masterful" by The Comics Journal, EC's line of comics books - which collectively sold more than 10 million copies annually at their peak – entertained and informed in equal measure, using brilliantly crafted tales of horror, science fiction, satire, and battlefield conflict to critique and subvert America's dark impulses toward violence, racism, inequity, environmental destruction, and war. 

Forcibly shuttered by the Comics Code Authority – a pro-censorship group specifically tasked with eradicating EC's illuminating influence from the American comic book industry – in 1956, EC's unique brand of subversive storytelling lived on through the continued success of MAD Magazine, which would fuel American counterculture through the death of Publisher William M. Gaines in 1992. EC's titles and stories have been adapted in a number of media – including the long-running HBO's long-running TALES FROM THE CRYPT franchise of television series and feature films – and continue to be celebrated by multiple generations of comic creators, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians as a seminal influence. 

Today, EC Comics' canon of classic stories can continuously be found in print through new editions at Dark Horse Comics, TASCHEN, Fantagraphics, and IDW Publishing. In 2024, EC announced a new partnership with multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher Oni Press to produce the first all-new EC Comics titles in nearly 70 years. 

Thanks to Oni Press for sharing this preview with us.