Snake Plissken Lives! Mad Cave Studios Brings Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago This Fall

Snake Plissken Is Back, Baby! Mad Cave Studios Drops Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago This September

Wepaaaaaa! Lock the gates, hide the contraband, and don’t make eye contact with the wrong warlord, because Snake Plissken is officially slithering back into comics with a brand-new dose of dystopian madness.

Mad Cave Studios is bringing the legendary antihero back this September with Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago, a new continuation series that expands the world of John Carpenter’s beloved 1981 cult-classic film. And fam, this ain’t some soft reboot with training wheels. This is Snake Plissken territory dirty, dangerous, violent, and colder than a Brooklyn stare on a packed subway platform.

The new series is written by Kyle Higgins (Radiant Black, No One) with art by Val Rodrigues (The Pale Knight), sending one of pop culture’s most iconic badasses into a fresh nightmare loaded with danger, violence, and the kind of broken-world chaos that made Escape From New York a genre-defining classic in the first place.

Once you go in, you don’t come out unless your name is Snake Plissken.

This time around, Plissken is surviving as a coyote, smuggling people and contraband across the deadly dead zones between prison territories like Chicago. It’s a rough life, no glamour, no parade, no hero cape just grit, scars, and bad decisions coming at him like rush-hour traffic on the BQE. But when Snake is hired to extract a woman wanted by the city’s warlord, he finds himself staring down one more shot at redemption… or one more opportunity for the universe to kick him square in the teeth.

And because Mad Cave knows collectors are about to act up, the debut issue is arriving with eight covers. The lineup includes artwork by Stephen Mooney, Danica Brine, Dan Panosian, and Christian Ward, along with a 1:10 virgin incentive cover by Mooney, a 1:20 incentive cover by Nick Bradshaw and Jim Charalampidis, a foil variant, and a blank sketch cover. Translation? Wallets are about to catch feelings.

Reflecting on stepping into one of science fiction’s most enduring worlds, Higgins said:

“Escape From New York is one of the films that taught me what genre storytelling could belean, mean, and built on a world you can’t stop thinking about. Getting to write in Carpenter’s Manhattan is the kind of thing my younger self wouldn’t have believed. I can’t wait for everyone to see Snake’s next adventure.”

Rodrigues is equally excited by the opportunity to bring Snake Plissken back to comics:

“When I received the invitation to draw this project, I grabbed it with enthusiasm. Having the chance to draw such an iconic character from the movies by such a legendary movie director as John Carpenter is a fun and challenging task. Readers can expect the excitement of a Carpenter-style movie, with a distinctively absurd ’80s action skillfully adapted to the comics medium by Kyle’s writing, and that I’m doing my best to do justice with my linework.”

For fans of the original Escape From New York films, this new series looks ready to deliver exactly what the streets ordered: high-stakes action, gritty dystopian worldbuilding, and the return of one of sci-fi’s most enduring icons.

Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago #1 goes on sale September 23, 2026, with FOC set for August 24. Preorder your copy through your local comic shop or directly from Mad Cave Studios.

Snake is back. Chicago is cooked. And the dystopian mayhem? Oh, it’s about to be loud.

Stay up to date with Mad Cave Studiosand its imprints Papercutz, Maverick, and Nakama Press on social media, or visit www.madcavestudios.com to explore new releases, licensed series, and creator-owned titles.

Author Profile

Al Mega: I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!