Psst! This is a review of EC Comics: Epitaphs from the Abyss #2! If you haven’t already read my review of EFTA #1 or you need a refresher on what EC Comics was, check it out here! https://www.patreon.com/posts/talkin-tomes-ec-156493523
ISSUE #2:
The Cover:
A birthday clown is caught off guard when a horde of demonic, sharp-fanged children rush towards him! I’m not sure if this is another Lee Bermejo, but it looks as well-painted as the first issue’s cover. However, as nice as it looks, I’m not really a fan of this one. I dislike children and I dislike clowns—not in a coulrophobic sense, but in a “they’re ugly and annoying” one. (Note: I use “demonic” instead of “zombie,” since the kids look more like Deadites than shamblers. Refer to their red eyes, sharp teeth, and scrunched-up faces.)
The Intro:
The Grave-Digger reveals that the kids are his “brood,” although I don’t see the family resemblance. A dead, bloody body is laying on the ground, which the Grave-digger explains with…
Story 1: “Pattern Recognition” • Written by Matt Kindt, Art by Klaus Janson, Colored by Michelle Madsen
Johnny, a no-good thug, runs a Clockwork Orange-esqe gang dedicated to maiming and robbing anybody unfortunate enough to cross paths with them. One of Johnny’s disciples has an unnatural obsession with him, describing “Johnny isn’t a god. But if there is one… I’d like to think this is what he looks like…” (43). One night, the disciple gets knocked down to the ground during a scuffle and lands head-first onto a rusty nail. After that, he describes everything becoming “so much clearer” (46). The disciple’s mental state, which was already in a rough place, starts to rapidly devolve as he begins to talk about Johnny’s criminalistic worldview in religious terms. He becomes set on “freeing Johnny’s ideas,” ending the story by driving a nail through the leader’s head as he sleeps.
The story was sub-par to me, but the colors in this one were great! They’re very pop-art-y, contrasting background and foreground pallets with juxtaposing warm tones vs. cool tones.
As much as I thought the story was “meh,” it did go in a place I wasn’t expecting it to. The line “If his ideas can spread… then the movement will grow. We’re effecting change, one person at a time” led me to believe that the story was going to play on Stockholm Syndrome—the disciple would kidnap people, torture them until they saw things “Johnny’s way” and joined the exponentially-growing gang. But nope, it ended on a very parallel note that fits more into the “ironic” spirit of EC.
Story 2: “Gray Green Memories” • Written and Art by Tyler Crook, Colored by Michelle Madsen
A zombie stands in an abandoned grocery store, blankly staring at a shelf with a hint of confusion on her gaunt, partially decomposed face. A second-person narration wonders, “How long have you been standing there? A day? A month? A year? It feels like you have always been here. But that’s not right, is it?” (51). With a close up of what she’s staring at—a can of baby food—we piece together that the zombie was once a mother. Several panels flash back to silently fill in the gaps of her story while the narration continues—her and a flurry of other shoppers running away from the pursuing undead, a picture of a man and a child in a tossed-out wallet, and her finally getting bit. However, the reminiscing ends when the woman hears a “nails on a chalkboard” noise and the virus takes her over once more. She finds the source of it—a mother and a daughter talking—and lunges at them, only to get blasted away with a shotgun. Her now-decapitated head is laying on the ground, staring at the baby food once more — “How long… how long have you been lying there? A day? A month? A year? It feels like you’ve always been here, but that’s not right, is it? You came here to get something… important.” (56).
This is easily my favorite story from this volume. Not only does it get brownie points for being about zombies, but it’s also something that fascinates me as much as it scares the hell out of me: a human conscience trapped in a zombie body.
It’s something touched on in the original Dawn of the Dead:
Francine: They're still here.
Stephen: They're after us. They know we're still in here.
Peter: They're after the place. They don't know why; they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here.
Francine Parker: What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Stephen: Some kind of instinct. Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.
It’s also why George Romero killed off Roger later in the movie—as much fun as Left4Dead 2 is, killing zombies is supposed to be heavy, you’re killing another (almost) human being, regardless of any sort of virus that’s taken over their mind.
Great reasoning for why Roger had to die narratively: https://boxd.it/1qOK6r
“Being dismembered as an immortal being” is a completely unrealistic-yet-recurring fear of mine. It’s a worse fate than Hell—being cut up into pieces that are tossed away and forgotten about, forced to live in a “I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream” scenario forever.
See me capitalize on these fears via Delores’ plan for Captain “Sawbones” Sawyer Cain in Boarding Party’s “Hell or High Water!”
Story 3: “Sounds and Haptics” • Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Jorge Fornés, Colored by Michelle Madsen (Damn, Michelle again!)
Rex Maxwell wakes up in a hospital, groggy and unaware of how much shit he’s in. He’s chained to his bed, his phone beckoning for attention but just out of reach. Two of his fingers are missing, and a homely nurse informs him that the wounds have become infected—his operations must begin immediately. As the surgery happens off-screen, Rex tries to recall what had recently happened until that point: going out for a drive, getting a notification, and—oh, yeah—getting into a high-speed collision while distracted. He survived, but nobody in the other car did—that is, nobody but the nurse. With her whole family dead and Rex’s attention solely on his ever-important phone, the nurse knocks him out. Presently, Rex awakens from his surgery and stumbles around the hospital, drawn to the constant pinging of his phone. He tries to pick it up, but discovers that his hands have been cut into stumps. Seeking revenge, the nurse smashes his phone and informs him that they’ve still “got a lot more work to do” (65). The story ends with Rex lying on a hospital bed, covered in blood, missing several appendages (including his nose, arms, and legs), and still tortured by the constant pinging noise.
I really enjoyed this one, too! While I didn’t love it the same way I loved “Gray Green Memories,” I still thought that it was creepy, had a good message, and satisfied my bloodlust—all the signs of a good EC Comics story!
Pardon my early-onset-boomerism, but I enjoyed the way this touched on cell phone addiction—particularly when it comes to social media. Even after getting rid of it all from my phone (except for Discord, which is always set to silent), I still feel like I spend a grotesque amount of time on those apps/sites, even though I know I’m relatively offline compared to most people.
Read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport if you’re interested in reducing the amount of time you spend plugged in! (Of course, don’t fully unplug, since you wouldn’t be able to subscribe to this Patreon!)
Epitaphs from the Abyss Issue #2 quickly picks up steam, starting off on a “meh” story before locking in for the remainder of its pages. I didn’t care for the Grave-digger’s antics this time around nor the cover, but the actual stories were better than those found in Epitaphs #1. Next time we'll cover #3, which features one of my favorite stories in the series and one that really... SUCKS! (Note: That pun will be a lot funnier when you see what the story's about.)
[This review was originally posted on 5/9/2026 via my Patreon. Subscribe for just $1.50 a month and get early access to not only my book/movie/TV/album reviews, but to my artwork, comics, and creative writing, too!]
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