Pardner, what did you think of dropping the news like this? Will: Let’s frame this up clearly before we get any deeper: Maniac of New York ends (spoiler) with an announcement that the series is continuing next year with “The Bronx is Burning,” a second volume that will surely see Harry tear ass all over the city and maybe one borough in particular. But does that make me any less excited for the prospect of a Maniac of New York 2: Maniac Harder? It abso-fuckin-lutely does NOT. Limp feints meant to obfuscate just where that hulking “dead” body went to or obvious red herrings setting up one last BOO to send us out into the lobby, giggling and covered in popcorn butter.ĭo I think the slightly shuffled ending of Maniac of New York #5 saps some of the delicious tension it’s fostered? Sure. And like we somewhat discussed in the last column, the slasher subgenre is positively RIDDLED with stuff like this. And that’s fine - so long as we’re not in the Trump dark place, and we get the second volume. I wouldn’t even say it rises to Widening Gyre levels of tension. But this is not a “Best of Both Worlds, pt. To be clear, I’m not mad - I love where we’re leaving it. But, man, how wretched it would have been to end the series on what’s kind of a flat cliffhanger. or Ivanka or (maybe I should stop there before I give myself an angry sad). Will: Admittedly, not much would be as bad as another four years of Donald Trump or Trump Jr. Even if you do manage to “kill” him, push him in front of a train or maneuver him into a wood chipper, big bois like Harry don’t stay gone forever. Justin Partridge: OH ZOUNDS, I can hardly imagine! But we horror-hounds know better than that, don’t we? That you can’t keep a good slasher like Harry down for long.

Maniac of New York by Elliott Kalan