Writing this week’s entry of this series was so hard to do as there were a ton of comics I picked up recently that I really like and want to write about but I can’t just write about 10 comics each entry as I won’t be able to give them the love they deserve. To pick this week’s entry I just went with the bloodiest of the bunch but I promise you will hear about the others in the future, but until then…

Welcome back to Horror Bound’s Horror Comic Haul where we dive deep on the best and brightest horror comics available at your local comic shop. In this entry, we will be covering the Volume 1 collection of Aftershock’s comics Maniac of New York.

The comparisons to Jason Takes Manhattan are inevitable so let’s just get them out of the way shall we? When people talk about Friday the 13th Part VII: Jason Takes Manhattan they sing its praises, they talk about how awesome it is but I am of the opinion that people aren’t really in love with Jason Takes Manhattan they in are love with the idea of Jason Takes Manhattan. Let me explain:

For the first seven movies in the franchise Jason Voorhees stalked around the woods surrounding a remote campground picking off everyone in sight. The problem was, it was a remote campground and there were only about 10-15 people to pick off. The idea about Jason taking the island of Manhattan is that the island has 1.6 million residents, meaning that Jason would have tons of people to murder. The only problem is the actual movie would be more accurately titled Jason Takes a Boat. Thank god Maniac of New York is here to make all of our wildest dreams a reality.

The comic opens with Harry the Maniac murdering seventy nine people in time square on New Year’s Eve 2016. SEVENTY NINE. Yes! That’s what we wanted to see Jason do all those years ago. The comic then jumps forward four years and the residents of New York have not moved on from the tragedy of 2016 and it’s not because they haven’t tried, it’s that Harry the Maniac is still around and still killing people. How many people? Four hundred and ten people to be exact, at least that’s what the local news anchor mentioned on their regular day “weather, road, rail and maniac” report. Due to Harry being a supernatural creature who they are unable to kill, people have just learned to live with a maniac being in their midst and try to live a normal life as best they can.

While the pages are absolutely dripping with blood there is a pretty compelling story behind all the blood. There are three main characters, the first is Gina Greene the new director of New York City’s Maniac Task Force. We find throughout the story that Gina encountered Harry the Maniac when she was a teenager at a remote campground in the middle of nowhere where Harry killed her boyfriend. This is her motivation for ending Harry’s reign of terror. Second, there is Zelda Pettibone who plays the cigarette smoking, whiskey drinking, anti-hero cop that perfectly compliments the hero archetype that is Gina. She is on the Maniac Task Force as punishment for testifying against her former partner who shot an unarmed teenage boy and tried to cover it up. The third main character is Gabriella Acosta who is just trying to get home from work on the subway when Harry the Maniac boards her train. That’s right, Harry ends up on the train with about two hundred people who have no where to go. Jason took a boat, Harry takes the train.

Chapter one is dedicated to world building, chapter two is dedicated to carnage, chapter three is dedicated to horror as Harry stalks the train cars trying to kill Gabriella and two small children who are the lone survivors of the train car massacre. Chapter 4 gives us an epic showdown between Harry, Gina and Zelda as they board the train against the wishes of the mayor and the NYPD. The final chapter deals with the fallout of their actions because despite their best efforts, Harry the Maniac is still on the loose. Perhaps the best part of the story outside of the killing is how the inept government officials and media deal with tragedy. The government is more worried about their precious subway train than the lives being lost on it. The media demonizes Gina for her actions which turns the public against her as the truth of the situation is ignored in favor of the government narrative. It’s pretty interesting reflection on modern society and the writer, Elliott Kalan speaks about this in his foreword of the comic mentioning that he created the comic as satire for gun violence in America and it quickly became applicable to the COVID pandemic as well. It’s clever and well done without being heavy handed in its social commentary.

The volume 1 trade paperback titled The Death Train collects the first five issues. A second volume of the series Maniac of New York: The Bronx is Burning hits comic book shelves December 1st 2021 with new issues monthly so grab a copy of this trade and issue #1 of The Bronx is Burning ASAP.

Lastly, I cannot talk about this amazing comic without giving huge props to the artist Andrea Mutti and his fantastic watercolors used in the comic. They are very unique and absolutely incredible, just check it out for yourself.