Evil Ernie

Evil Ernie is a fictional character, an undead, psychotic killer with his own series, published by Chaos! Comics and Devil's Due Publishing. Originally, Evil Ernie was part of Eternity Comics. He made his debut in December 1991. He was created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes.

Ernest Fairchild
Ernest Fairchild is the root or core of Evil Ernie. Ernest Fairchild was a young boy who possessed supernatural powers to sketch scenes, which would later come to pass. Ernie originally had an enjoyable life, but things started to turn sour when his father became the town pariah when his superiors at the local lumber yard forced him to lay off many workers. Mr. Fairchild began to drink heavily and killed Ernest's pet rat, Smiley, in an inebriated fit of anger. This enraged Ernest and led to him drawing a picture of a car crashing into a tree. It just so happened that his mother was driving over to a local bar to pick up her husband while he was drawing this and ended up crashing into a tree just like in Ernest's sketch. In addition to suffering numerous injuries, she had a miscarriage of the fetus she was carrying, which caused her to slip into an abusive psychosis matching her husband's.

As his parents abused him, Ernest's powers developed further to where he could hear the thoughts of those around him and he discovered that many of his neighbors knew that he was being battered by his parents, but did nothing to help him. Either they had lost their jobs at the lumber yard and were too bitter to care or they still had their jobs, but were too afraid of losing them if they confronted his father.

Ernest's parents sought to "cure" him of his abilities and brought him to Dr. Leonard Price, who had been working on a behavioral therapy device dubbed the Dream Probe. Price, not knowing about the abuse Ernest was suffering, submitted him to his device, which sent him to the Endless Graveyard, where he met Lady Death. There, she offered to give him the love he so desperately desired if he killed everything on Earth. Once the treatment was over, Ernest pretended to be cured and went home with his parents, only to murder them the next morning along with thirty-five others before he was shot by Doctor Price, who had come to check in on him.

After this time he was incarcerated in a mental asylum, under the observation of Doctor Price, who blamed himself for Ernest's murder spree and vowed to make sure it never happened again. Doctor Price lost hope for Fairchild early on, but then a young female doctor named Mary Young invented a process of altering one's mind known as Neurotech. Despite Price's protests, he was submitted to the Neurotech device. During the treatment, Lady Death used her telepathic link with Ernest to cause the machine to explode, killing Ernest. When a nurse placed a smiley face pin intended to be a gift upon his release next to his corpse, Lady Death used it as a conduit for her arcane energy, transforming Ernest into the powerful, undead monster that would be known as Evil Ernie.

'Evil' Ernie Fairchild
Evil Ernie hereafter, along with his partner 'Smiley' (A psychotic smiley badge, which was once his pet rat) set about to cause 'Megadeath', which involved setting all of the USA's nuclear plethora on the rest of the world, so the rest of the world fires on itself (a sort of domino effect). Ernie sets to accomplish this by creating an army of zombies known as 'Dead onez'. Various adventures ensue, including a trip back to his past to confront his parents about their ill treatment of him, and a trip to hell to rebuke Pagan (the court jester of hell) for having Lady Death cast out into the void by Satan.

The culmination of Ernie's efforts amount to him causing Megadeath by causing the rest of the world to fire on itself with nuclear warheads from other various countries. Elsewhere the world has been earlier obliterated by nuclear strikes from various countries. Evil Ernie ends his life in a duel with Dr. Price, and in the last moment before the missiles hit, Ernie overpowers Price and turns him into a Dead One, exclaiming: Do you see it now? To which Price replies I see it, it's beau- Hereafter, both are dead. The very last scene is one of a mushroom cloud behind the survivors, bearing a facade of Ernie's face, grinning maniacally.

Hack/Slash, Santa Fe
After his death in his own world, Ernie would be reborn in the universe of Tim Seeley's HACK/Slash (in which no equivalent of him appears to exist). Discovering that Lady Death does not exist in this world, a depressed Ernie takes up residence in the Fairchild Sawmill in New Jersey and begins killing strippers and changing them into Dead Onez. Ernie would eventually encounter slasher slayer Cassie Hack and her partner Vlad and in the ensueing battle read Cassie's mind and fell in love with her, believing them to be two sides of the same coin. After Cassie is saved from him by Vlad, Ernie, wanting to impress Cassie, decides to purge the world of killers and breaks into the Clearview Mental Institution, planning to start his mission there. During his killing spree, Ernie is confronted by Cassie and Vlad and, while fighting the latter, is attacked by a recently arrived police officer. Killing the officer, Ernie discovers Cassie had accidentally been shot and, after she dies, Ernie sacrifices himself to revive her, causing him to die and be reborn elsewhere.

After the Hack/Slash crossover, the newly renewed license gained a new lease on life in the 4 issue mini-series Evil Ernie in Santa Fe. Written by Alan Grant and penciled by Tommy Castillo it featured Ernie in Santa Fe contemplating matters of fate after killing Norman Lowell, a lawyer who led Ernie against a Satanic cult performing rituals with connections to FastWay, a fast food franchise, while planning to sacrifice a child to demon Zabudel who granted wealth to their leader. All the while Ernie is chased by Dr. Price's daughter Layna who wants revenge partnered with detective Rig Dannon who's willing to catch Ernie for the million dollar reward.

Smiley
Throughout the series, Ernie's companion is Smiley, a wise-cracking smiley face button usually attached to the lapel of his jacket. Smiley serves as the conduit for the arcane energy that gives Ernie his powers, as well as the comic relief of the series. Smiley claims to be Ernie's super-ego and is sometimes at odds with his friend's decisions, such as when Ernie resurrected his parents in order to confront them about their past. For the most part, his personality is more easy-going and comical than Ernie's.

Powers
As Ernest Fairchild, he had the ability to sketch drawings of the future. This was first demonstrated when he drew a picture of a brand new washing machine being delivered shortly before one was delivered to his parents as a prize in a raffle they had not even entered. It seems that his ability could change the future since he once drew a picture of him and his future younger brother walking hand and hand when he heard his mother tell his father she was pregnant with a boy, only to prevent his younger brother from being born when he drew his mother's car crashing into a tree. Later on, he gained the ability to listen to the thoughts of others.

As Evil Ernie, he was extremely strong, practically unstoppable, thanks to the arcane energy of Lady Death. He could revive anyone he killed as loyal zombie follower in his army of the undead. When he was resurrected in Washington D.C., he was even more powerful. He could now resurrect the corpses of anyone nearby, whether he had killed them or not, and could manipulate arcane energy into powerful blasts to destroy his enemies, though he rarely used this ability since he preferred to be more "hands on" when it came to killing. He retained his telepathic abilities only to a small degree, which allowed him to speak to and see Lady Death after murdering someone or using astral projection to visit Hell while he slept.

The source of Evil Ernie's power comes from the arcane energy channeled into him by Lady Death through his button, Smiley. If Ernie is separated from Smiley, he begins to lose his power and becomes much weaker and, if apart from Smiley long enough, dies.

Reboot
Evil Ernie is being rebooted by Dynamite Comics. The new issues are being written by Jesse Blaze Snider and drawn by Jason Craig. Issue #1 was released October 2012.

Comics Timeline
Eternity Comics

Evil Ernie: 1-5 (1991)

Chaos Comics

Evil Ernie: Youth Gone Wild # 1-5 (1991-1992)

Evil Ernie: Resurrection # 1-4 (1993)

Evil Ernie: #0 (1993)

Evil Ernie: Revenge # 1-4 (1994)

Evil Ernie Vs. Superheroes (1995)

Evil Ernie: Straight to Hell Prologue (published by wizard) (1995)

Evil Ernie: Straight to Hell #1-5 (1995-1996)

Evil Ernie: # 1/2 (published by wizard) (1997)

Evil Ernie Vs. Movie Monster (1997)

Evil Ernie: Destroyer #1-9 (1997-1998)

Evil Ernie Vs. Superheroes II (1998)

Evil Ernie: Monthly #1-10 (1998-1999)

Evil Ernie: Depraved # 1-3 (1999)

Evil Ernie: War of the Dead # 1-3 (1999)

Armageddon (preview) (1999)

Armageddon #1-4 (1999-2000)

Evil Ernie: Pieces of Me #1 (2000)

Evil Ernie: The Return #1 (2001)

The Untold tales of Evil Ernie: Relentless (2002)

Devil’s Due

Evil Ernie: In Santa Fe #1-4 (2005)

Hack/Slash: The Final Revenge of Evil Ernie (2005)

Dynamite

Evil Ernie: Origin of Evil 1-6 (2012)

Additional information

 * Prior to her sale to CrossGen (and then Avatar Press), Lady Death was Ernie's lover.