Cruel Universe #1 (EC Comics, 2025)

What's better than pulp horror? Nothing but pulp sci-fi is definitely at least on par! 

“In A Strange Land” written by J. Holtham, and art by David Rubin.
“Catch & Kill” written by Ann Nocenti and art by Kano.
“The Fittest” written by Greg Pak and art by Charlie Adlard.
Originally published in Weird Fantasy #22, we have “Derelict Ship” written by William M. Gaines and Al Feldstein, art by Bernard Krigstein, and colors corrected by Inaki Azpiazu.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to First Issues Now, the weekly show
posted daily about only the newest first issues released by
insert comic company. Here this week, I'll be looking at
the comics released for the week of August sixth, twenty
twenty five. Oh yes, we've already covered the horrors off
youce comics. Now let's go to the other half of
the two most popular genres, science fiction with Cruel Universe

(00:23):
number one with four stories, So you know the drill.
Those creators are going to be credited when we talk
about those parts, although the letters for all of this
is done by Rick Starkings and comic crafts Tyler Smith.
So first is in a Strange Land, written by Jay Holtham,
art by David Rubin. Oh we kicked this one right
off with a bang, as a bunch of vagina faced

(00:45):
squid aliens from what looks to be the cover of
Bizarre Sex are observing humanity ready for their first contact.
Instead of going down with the tentacles all gooey and showing,
one of them goes into a pod so they can
get all bodies snatchered and get themselves a body. He
poofs down to Earth, so all the cops were supposed
to be helpful from many of our broadcasts, goes up
to them, gets beaten back, and then the crowd is

(01:07):
also very nasty, nearly killing him before he manages to
flee to his ship. Why is it because humans, especially
in the twenty twenties are hostile creatures? Or was it
because he shows the body of a black man? The
world may never know. The next story is Catch and Kill,
written by Ann Nacenti and art by Cano. I love
An Nasenti, so let's see how this goes. An online

(01:29):
influencer has a dolphin human translator and on a live
stream when she's gonna test it out and be all activisty,
the camera crew accidental plays some clips of dolphins being killed,
causing a panic, and then the dolphins what's the opposite
of free willie? They dive deep, deep, deep, all the
way into the ocean. Sadly, the camera cord also has
accidentally tingled with the dolphins, so the animal activists is Sadly,

(01:53):
the camera cord is also accidentally tingled with the dolphins,
and the animal activist is now hoised by her own petard.
All the while, the same sort of live chat feed
plays as you expect it. It's a lot more poignant
than the summary, I swear. Then we have The Fittest
written by Greg Pach art by Charlie Adlard. Okay, So

(02:14):
there's a deadly infestation on Earth, but luckily a bunch
of people got off planet. However, the captain or boss
of the ship is a dick, so when someone just coughs,
he throws them out the airlock. His crew goes to mutiny.
But the short of it is the ship explodes while
the boss lives, although the infestation starts showing up on him.
He may die, but another ship comes. Yet the robot

(02:35):
they send out to bring him back to the new
ship seize the spores of infestations, so he gets left
to die in space, while rich Folk okay or thes
people in semi formal dress and Champagne Flutes says, well
that's a shame, and that goes on to laugh and
mock his death. However, on the robots en there's some
spores done Dune Dune and finally originally published in Weird

(02:58):
Fantasy number twenty two. We have Derelict Ship and finally
originally published in Weird Fantasy number twenty two, We have
Derelict Ship written by William M. Gaines and Al Feldstein,
arp by Bernard Kringstein, and colors corrected by Anaki apt Yazu.
Captain Vance Kaye finds an old derelict ship with the
aged remnants of the past on it. It is a

(03:20):
fantastic read even then, and I really don't want to
spoil how great it is reading it in the moment,
but yes, definitely read this one. So I love pulp
sci fi for the very same reason why I love
pulp horror. It can do whatever it wants and reflect
the world far better than even things set in contemporary normalcy.
The first one is clearly about race. The second one

(03:41):
is clearly about well, maybe it's about how people don't
pay attention to the world around them and trained behavior
does not beat instinct. I think, I don't know. You're
gonna have to read it and let me know. The
third is that the callousness of capitalism truly has no benefits,
even if you become the boss. And of course without spoilers.
The fourth is it may be a good idea ship
all anti American red hats to their own planet to

(04:03):
be Nazis on I mean it wasn't Red Hats since
that story was in nineteen fifty seven. But you know,
time is a flat circle and all that. I really
don't want to get into the weeds, but I do
really like all four of these stories to varying degrees.
So my verdict is, as it always seems to be
with ec comics, collect it. Collect it means that you
should have this both digitally and physically, have any variant

(04:25):
covers you can find, and it should be put onto
your pull list. Now I am wondering what the next
ECY anthology comeback is gonna be, though I kind of
want them to go into the romance comics category. Hey
who do I have to talk to about this? But
maybe I'm wrong. Let me know what your thoughts of
this issue is over on Facebook at the Comic Archivist

(04:47):
or Twitter at AGC underscore does it all and on
Blue Sky at AGAC does it all without any Underscore.
Don't worry to like, share, follow, and do all the
stuff that I'm being told is so important to continue
doing these more than anything though, Stigled and Inklings