The Dystopian Slasher You Should be Reading: Kill Train

Exclusive statement from writer Olivia Cuartero-Briggs.

Olivia Cuartero-Briggs whom I first discovered by reading Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter—a fantastic comic combining real life facts about Mary Shelley with the fictitious sci-fi world of Frankenstein, putting Shelley in her own book, brings us a new killer comic book series. Writer Olivia Cuartero-Briggs is joined by artist Martina Niosi, colorist Simone D’Angelo, and letterer Becca Carey to bring us Kill Train, a dystopian slasher published by Mad Cave Studios.

Cuartero-Briggs shares “Kill Train is my own personal ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ wrapped in a psychotic dystopian horror story and delivered with love to anyone who has ever yearned to be more than they are. It's a heartfelt gift from me to the hard working dreamers, artists, and mothers who might need this book as badly as I needed to write it.”

So what is Kill Train about?

This anxiety fueled story is set in a marginally more technologically advanced New York City. In reaction to an overpopulation problem plaguing the city, the Kill Train was created. The Kill Train is a randomized extermination initiative that happens on the city’s public transit. Subway cars are randomly selected and everyone aboard is brutally killed, slaughtered.

Kill Train follows Vanessa, a middle-aged mother who is struggling to figure out her life and living up to her own and society’s expectations of where she should be at her age. Between her misogynistic fiancé whom she relies on financially, to her unsupportive and judgemental mother, to the pressure society puts on her, Vanessa is on the verge of a breakdown. She then finds herself on the next Kill Train—could things get any worse? But she isn't going down without a fight. Fueled by her unstable mental state and pent-up emotions, can Vanessa fight to be the first person to survive the Kill Train? Good thing she isn’t alone. She runs into one of her old college friends who might just be the voice Vanessa needs to believe in herself again and fight her way to safety.

Vanessa and the other survivors of the first train car might have taken down their assailants, but it doesn’t end there, once they reach the end of the tracks there will be people waiting to kill any survivors. There are seven train cars, and they’ll have to reach the last one to hopefully find a way off the train. They’ll have to traverse death and carnage and face the unpredictable blood thirsty killers that are tasked with carrying out the Kill Train. What horrors are waiting for them in each train car? All the while Vanessa is having a nervous breakdown coupled with hallucinations. The themed characterizations of these killers make you feel like you’re in Gotham.

The first two issues did a fantastic job of setting up this gory dystopian horror story. Vanessa’s struggles are relevant and ground the story. The decision to create a randomized extermination program that happens on public transit represents classism and the wealth disparity—why would anyone choose to take a train if there was a chance they could get brutally slaughtered? Because they don't have a choice. They need the subway to get anywhere, to go to school or work, to get groceries or medical help, anything and everything. The Kill Train isn’t a threat to the upper class but is a direct attack on the working class. Good science fiction takes real life problems in the world, amplifies them, and puts them in a technologically advanced setting, and this comic does just that.

The chilling first scene in Kill Train left the audience asking what’s going on? This issue sets up the story without throwing you into the deep end, allowing the audience to live in the world and Vanessa’s struggles. This issue blends humor with horror while setting up a dystopian world set in the not so distant future— a world that looks like our own. The story of a middle-aged woman, a mother to a teenage girl, struggling to find herself and dealing with the external pressures of a judgmental mother, dismissive husband, and comparing herself to other women her age is one many people can relate to. Vanessa being a normal person put in an extraordinarily violent situation makes this story captivating, how will Vanessa survive— if she does at all? Can she step up and lead her fellow commuters to safety?

I had the opportunity to read multiple issues of Kill Train early and loved how everything played out. This is a binge-worthy series that’s captured my attention and took me on a wild ride, literally!

If you’re new to comics, you can start right here! Kill Train will come out monthly and is currently planned to be a five issue run (one volume). If you want to support this series, or any series you like, make sure to grab these new single issues as they come out. Issue 3 is scheduled to come out March 26th, 2025. This is not sponsored content.