I grew up in the golden age of the slasher. Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Pinhead—I devoured them all. My first taste came from sneaking late-night TV airings, heavily edited but still utterly hypnotic. I was hooked on the mythology, the larger-than-life killers who captured our collective nightmares whether the movies were brilliant or ridiculous.
Unbound: A Manic Expression Story is my love letter to that genre. I first dreamed up the story as a teenager, but didn’t write it until 2007 while assembling the first edition of Manic Expression: A Collection. Unlike many of my other tales that blend genres, Unbound is pure, unrelenting horror built around one clear-cut villain at its black heart.
What Unbound is about: Victor Silverberg is the wildly successful mastermind behind Cosmic Comics. He has money, fame, and a life built entirely on his own terms. But when his Holocaust-survivor grandmother is brutally murdered, Victor discovers the nightmare from her past never ended.
An undying evil has returned: Captain Franz Lutz, an immortal SS officer driven to finish what he started. He’s been erasing survivors and their entire bloodlines—one nightmarish slaughter at a time. Victor is the last name on the list.
The long, strange road to this release: A full decade passed between my dreaming up this nightmare and the finished story. What began as a cool slasher concept evolved into something far more personal. The Holocaust is heavy territory; I refused to treat it as mere fodder for a Friday the 13th clone. I had to dig deeper.
I have Jewish heritage on my mother’s side—something I only confirmed through a DNA test as an adult. I’m also queer. I came out as bisexual at seventeen, and like Victor, I had to rebuild my life on my own terms after it didn’t go well. Those experiences helped shape a story about fighting for the right to simply exist as yourself.
Unbound is ultimately about defiance in the face of hatred. There will always be monsters like Franz Lutz trying to erase those who are different. We defeat them by surviving, by refusing to hide, and by choosing love over fear.
Grab your copy today!
I’d love to hear your thoughts—and who was your favorite slasher villain back in the day?
See you next week for a trip back in time!
James Daniel Walsh
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