By STEPHEN ROMANO, PAT CARBAJAL (Eibon Press; 2017-20)

One of the sickest surprises of December 2020 was the release of this graphic novel, which breaks new ground in splatterific excess.  Collecting the three issue Eibon Press MANIAC comic, which ran from November 2017 to January ‘19, this compilation was supposed to be released in October of ‘20 but due to printing snafus was pushed to Christmastime, which given the gist of the year overall seems appropriate.

MANIAC is an adaptation of the William Lustig directed 1980 movie of the same name, crossed with the 1982 Lucio Fulci slasher THE NEW YORK RIPPER.  The idea of combining the two was a sound one in my view, as to be quite honest neither film has much to offer on its own.  Even better, the adaptor was the always-inspired Stephen Romano (who fit this gig in amid scripting Lifetime channel movies) and the superbly rendered illustrations were by Eibon Press regular Pat Carbajal, whose respective labors nicely compliment the extremely durable and attractive packaging.

As with many Eibon comics, MANIAC “stars” a number of real life performers impeccably rendered by Mr. Carbajal, among them Joe Spinnell and Caroline Munro, the stars of the MANIAC film, as well as its FX maestro Tom Savini and director William Lustig.  Spinnell plays Frank Zito, a serial killer residing in an especially skuzzy New York City dive during the early 1980s, bearing an unhealthy fixation on his deceased mother and a most unfortunate habit of dismembering prostitutes.  The nature of Frank’s insanity (and the book overall) is laid out at the very beginning, with an eye-popping two page spread depicting slashed throats, ripped-out hearts and exposed innards, and the proceedings only grow steadily nastier.  The MANIAC film may be one of the most notorious gore fests of its era, but this book far outdoes it, and the equally controversial NEW YORK RIPPER, in panoramic splatter; the scalpings, eyeball slittings, beheadings and shotguns blasts seen in the films are all included, in addition to cannibalism, chainsaw carnage and a machine gun massacre.

There are also some quiet, non-gory bits.  Most involve Munro as a sexy photographer who invites Zito to her apartment, and for a brief period humanizes him.  But then, at around the midway point, the killer from THE NEW YORK RIPPER, an unidentified freak who wears a duck mask and quacks, turns up, invading Zito’s dreams and instituting a rivalry.  Needless to add, further carnage ensues.

I don’t think I need to tell you that this volume ain’t for everybody.  It’s the only book I’m aware of that contains a back cover proviso that “No One Under 17 Should be Allowed to Read this Graphic Novel.”  I can think of many people over 17 who should also steer clear, while for the rest of us MANIAC stands as a potent blast of no-frills nastiness from a writer and artist who really know how to do this stuff.