PORTLAND, OR (January 14, 2026) – ROSES ARE RED, CORPSES ARE BLUE, AND SOON YOU’LL BE TOO! 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 present an eye-piercingly perilous preview of TORTURED HEARTS #1 – EC Comics’ newest giant-sized special presenting 56 pages of rage-fueled romance – with a first look at “The Spark” by real-life husband and wife Tini Howard (Excalibur) and Blake Howard (Vampire: The Masquerade), alongside astounding artist Arjuna Susini (Lamentation)!
“”Blake and I have been making scary stories together as long as we’ve been in love, so EC’s TORTURED HEARTS was the perfect place for us,” says co-writer Tini Howard. “Our story is about passion, the spark, and the fun and frightening ways couples keep things spicy. After all, the lovers who slay together, stay together!”
“I’m so thrilled to welcome the great Tini Howard and Blake Howard to the EC fold, in their debut story “The Spark”!” says editor Allyson Gronowitz. “This story provides an explosive answer to the age-old question of: how do you reignite the passion in a decaying romance… the EC way? You’ll wish you never found out!”
Did your heart ever break so hard that it felt like Cupid himself had plunged his sharp little arrow into your ribcage, only to leave a sucking chest wound for all the world to see? No?! Well, are you free on the second Wednesday in February?! In the unrelenting tradition of EC Comics,here’s one for all of you lovesick lunatics, rancid romantics, and forlorn fatalities as Oni Press proudly presents our next giant-sized special full of soft whispers and death rattles from hot-blooded writers Jordie Bellaire (Redlands), Tini Howard (Excalibur) & Blake Howard (Vampire: The Masquerade), Ann Nocenti (Daredevil), and Amy Roy (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss), alongside candy-coated artists Sebastián Cabrol (Hulk: Maestro), Fabiana Mascolo (Cyberpunk 2077), Dan McDaid (EC’s Outlaw Showdown), and Arjuna Susini (Lamentation)!
Plus, as an extra-added bonus: Another newly restored and authentically remastered classic from the EC vaults by legendary fiends William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein, and Reed Crandall!
Eat your heart out – but make sure to save some for the rest of us! This Valentine’s Day, Oni Press and EC Comics is gifting you a box of poison chocolates and cyanide-laced champagne in TORTURED HEARTS #1 – featuring a slate of salacious covers that will make your eyes linger a second too long from Dustin Weaver (Avengers), Miguel Mercado (X-Men), Tom Fowler (Refrigerator Full of Heads), Shawn McManus (Fables), and Patricia Martín (EC’s Blood Type)! Warm your heart to the boiling point – only in comic shops on February 11th!
EC TORTURED HEARTS #1 (ONE-SHOT)
WRITTEN BY JORDIE BELLAIRE, TINI HOWARD & BLAKE HOWARD, ANN NOCENTI, AMY ROY & MORE
ART BY SEBASTIÁN CABROL, FABIANA MASCOLO, DAN McDAID, ARJUNA SUSINI & MORE
COVER A BY DUSTIN WEAVER
COVER B BY MIGUEL MERCADO
COVER C BY TOM FOWLER
EC HOMAGE VARIANT (1:10) BY SHAWN McMANUS
B&W ARTIST EDITION VARIANT (1:20) BY TOM FOWLER
ARCHIVE EDITION VARIANT (1:50) BY PATRICIA MARTÍN
ON SALE FEBRUARY 11th, 2026 | $8.99 | 56 PAGES | FC
IOC: 12/27/2025
FOC: 1/19/2026
About Oni Press
THE LOUDEST THING IN COLOR SINCE ’97. For nearly 30 years, Oni Press has carved a distinctive path as one of the world’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels, including Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, Jay Stephens’ Dwellings, Ezra Clayton Daniels’ Upgrade Soul, LySandra Vuong’s Covenant, 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 roster of periodical comics for globally recognized properties including Adventure Time, Biker Mice from Mars, Choose Your Own Adventure, Cult of the Lamb, EC Comics, Murder Drones, Rick and Morty, and more.
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 and 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 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 seventy years.
