One of the biggest cult characters in horror comics is Evil Ernie. Created by Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes in 1991's Evil Ernie #1 through now-defunct publisher Eternity Comics, the fan-favorite serial killer has moved between different publishers over the years to continue to bring the bloody thrills and scare up a new generation of fans.
Now, CBR is taking a quick look back at the chaotic legacy of this supernatural horror comics icon.
WHO IS EVIL ERNIE?
Born Ernest Fairchild, the future mass murderer developed the supernatural ability to cause things he drew to happen in the real world. Abused by his alcoholic father and mother after he accidentally causes a miscarriage through one of his drawings, Ernie's powers grow and he meets Lady Death while undergoing an experimental procedure. The personification of Death offers Ernie the love he desires in exchange for killing everyone on Earth. Subdued after killing his parents and neighbors, Ernie is killed in an accident caused by Death and reborn as the undead villain Evil Ernie.
Ernie sets out to cause MegaDeath, a nuclear apocalypse eradicating all life on Earth by turning the world's nuclear weapons against themselves. To accomplish this goal, Ernie raises his undead victims, whom he dubs Dead Onez, to carry out his bidding with bloody results. Just before the warheads strike their reprogrammed targets around the globe, Ernie defeats his old psychiatrist, Doctor Leonard Price, in single combat. As Price rises as a Dead One, the missiles strike, wiping out all life on Earth in a fiery explosion resembling Ernie's usual grin.
HOW STRONG IS EVIL ERNIE?
Even before rising from the grave, Ernie had exhibited powerful supernatural abilities, including the ability to change the future through his drawings and the telepathic ability to listen to the thoughts of those around him. Through Price's experimental device to tap into users' subconscious, Ernie developed a telepathic link with Death herself which would lead to his eventual death and undead resurrection.
With a smiley face pin as the conduit to his undead energy, Ernie received a significant power boost following his rebirth. Now possessing superhuman strength and endurance, Ernie could also launch powerful blasts from his hands and raise the dead to create an army of undead followers. When separated from his pin for too long, Ernie gradually becomes weaker before reverting to an inert corpse. If his physical form is destroyed, he can be reborn into a new, unwilling host if the pin is stuck into another body, but only if the new host is already dead and under Ernie's control.
WHO MAKES EVIL ERNIE COMICS?
After his initial five-issue miniseries through original publisher Eternity Comics, the Evil Ernie license was acquired by Chaos! Comics in 1993, leading to a new line of miniseries that were popular throughout the '90s and published through 2002. The license changed hands again in 2005, going to Devil's Due Publishing, with Ernie reborn on an alternate Earth where he crossed over with Tim Seeley's popular Hack/Slash horror comic. A separate Devil's Due miniseries saw Ernie born on a different Earth, pursued by a detective in Santa Fe.
Most recently, Evil Ernie was published by Dynamite Entertainment after the comic publisher purchased Chaos! Comics. A reboot in 2012 revised Ernie's origins for the 21st century in a miniseries by Jesse Blaze Snider and Jason Craig, where he was reborn after an arcane storm strikes over a prison the same night as his execution on death row. The undead Ernie faces off against the forces of Heaven and Hell as he seeks to continue his bloody rampage on Earth.
For nearly 30 years, Evil Ernie has brought bloody thrills to readers with his fiendish machinations to kill everyone on Earth. Now at Dynamite Entertainment, the grinning mass murderer has received updated origins but remains no less deadly as he cuts a new swatch of victims at a different publisher.