Sometimes the scariest part of a horror story isn’t the killer, it’s how easily an entire town decides who the monster actually is. Satanic Panic, a new four-issue series from Mad Cave Studios, arrives October 28, 2026, and it’s using a real, deeply strange chapter of American history as the backdrop for its slasher, which is exactly the kind of premise that pulls us in.
Satanic Panic #1
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Writer: Matt Miner
Artist: Clayton McCormack
Colorist: Oliver Mertz
Letterer: Matt Krotzer
Release date: October 28, 2026
So, What’s the Story?
It’s the height of the Satanic Panic in a small 1980s town, a stretch of time when a heavy metal cassette or a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet was treated as evidence of something much darker. A masked killer starts working through the town while that paranoia is already at a boiling point, and three teenage outsiders, D&D players and Ozzy fans named Naz, Sal, and Terry, become the easiest targets to blame. Now they’re stuck racing to find the actual killer before the town’s fear does more damage than the murders themselves, in a place where being different is treated as its own kind of guilt.
Who’s Making Satanic Panic?
Matt Miner writes, Clayton McCormack draws and covers, Oliver Mertz colors, and Matt Krotzer letters, published by Mad Cave Studios.
Miner is a Ringo and GLAAD Media Award winner, the GLAAD win came for Young Men in Love, the queer romance anthology he co-edited, and he’s no stranger to horror either, having written the punk slasher miniseries Poser years earlier. He’s also written for Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins, so a story this steeped in D&D-era anxiety is coming from someone who clearly knows that world from more than one angle. McCormack co-wrote and illustrated Batman: White Knight Presents – Generation Joker at DC, and his other credits include Zorro: Man of the Dead and the Oni Press series Night Moves and Redline, giving him a real range across both mainstream and creator-owned horror-adjacent work.
Why We’re Watching This One
The Satanic Panic is one of those genuinely bizarre pieces of real history that still doesn’t get talked about enough, entire communities convinced that D&D campaigns and metal records were gateways to devil worship, with real consequences for the kids caught in the middle of it. Building a slasher directly out of that moment instead of just borrowing 80s aesthetics for vibes is a smart way to make the horror feel like it has actual teeth. It’s hard not to think of Stranger Things a little here too, D&D and metalhead characters getting side-eyed by an increasingly anxious adult world is baked into that show’s DNA, even if the show itself never leaned into the real Satanic Panic angle this directly.
We also can’t help but think of Hysteria!, the Peacock series that mined this exact same slice of history, a heavy metal band getting scapegoated during a wave of Satanic Panic paranoia, to genuinely great effect. We’re not saying one influenced the other, just that it’s clearly fertile ground for a good story, and Satanic Panic looks like it’s finding its own angle into it. Mad Cave has also just been on a real horror tear lately, and this one slots right into a lineup we’ve been enjoying, including their other new slasher release this same month, Hammer Head, along with Pretty Hate Machine and It Killed Everyone But Me.
Who Should Add This to Their Pull List?
Slasher fans who want their killer wrapped in something more than just a mask and a weapon should have this on their list, especially if you’re into stories that use a real moment in history as the engine for the horror. Fans of Stranger Things or Hysteria! looking for more of that specific 80s paranoia in comic form should check this out too, and Mad Cave’s growing horror catalog gives it an easy home for anyone already reading their other genre books.
Release Details
Satanic Panic #1 releases October 28, 2026, from Mad Cave Studios, priced at $4.99 for 32 pages, as the first issue of a four-issue series. The main cover comes from Clayton McCormack, with variant covers B, C, and D all illustrated by Justin Coffee.
FAQ
When does Satanic Panic come out? Issue #1 releases October 28, 2026.
Who is writing Satanic Panic? Matt Miner, a Ringo and GLAAD Media Award winner known for Poser and Young Men in Love.
Who is drawing Satanic Panic? Clayton McCormack, with colors by Oliver Mertz and letters by Matt Krotzer.
What publisher is releasing Satanic Panic? Mad Cave Studios.
Is Satanic Panic based on real events? The killer is fictional, but the setting is grounded in the real Satanic Panic of the 1980s, a genuine moral panic that treated heavy metal music and Dungeons & Dragons as evidence of devil worship.
Is Satanic Panic a new series, limited series, or one-shot? It’s a new four-issue series.
Who should read Satanic Panic? Slasher fans who want real history behind the horror, and anyone who enjoyed the 80s Satanic Panic paranoia of Stranger Things or Hysteria!.
