My first "Keyboard Cuts" ever written was about the obvious greatness that was "The Walking Dead" by Robert Kirkman. Now coming in to a long stretch on Crave I felt the need to talk about my second favorite horror comic currently hitting stands everywhere and that's called "Hack/Slash" from Devil’s Due. This comic is fantastic and star Cassie Hack is one of the first comic book characters I've had a crush on in spite of her blossoming sexual confusion in the series. Yeah I said it, I love her.
Suffice it to say, my relationship with "Hack/Slash" (now a dynamite monthly series) has been probably the most beneficial since I started reviewing comics. Devil's Due contacted me to thank me, I interviewed creator Tim Seeley, and potential director Todd Lincoln, and I was even let in on the Suicide Girls tie-in with Hack/Slash. Anyone familiar with the comics knows that this was a natural tie in. But my start with the series was a rocky one. For one thing, I wasn't sold on this comic right away. Two of the original graphic novels were released before I started to gain some interest and even then I never sought it out as hard as I could have.
That is until she crossed paths with Chucky, her old nemesis and my love for comics was resurrected. Let's face it folks, the comic book medium is dead. It's now internet fodder and used as blue prints to make movies. Anyone who reads comics these days has never actually stepped in to a comic shop, they're all downloaded and even major companies like Marvel has stepped up to releasing some comics online instead of in stores. All comic book aficionados have been pushed in to dark corners and specialty stores. And remember when San Diego Comic Con was about comics? Me neither.
These days with junk like "Secret Invasion" and "Final Crisis" my one retribution has been horror comics and "Hack/Slash" is that glaring shining light for a person like me who has adored almost every single slasher film to come in to my doorstep since he was a child. "Hack/Slash" is a dream for the slasher fan, a story within a story about a monster hunter named Cassie whose mom was murdered by her as a child after becoming a vicious serial killer known as the Lunch Lady. She’s teamed with a deformed sidekick named Vlad, she and her lovable roughneck of a friend travel around the country fighting the deadliest of the deadly in the form of slashers.
Slashers are not serial killers, you see. Serial killers are human. Slashers are their demonic counterparts, the kind we've seen with Krueger, Myers, and that Voorhes fella (often mentioned through the span of the graphic novels, by the by). What I haven’t enjoyed about Cassie lately is that Seeley and co. have gone through great lengths to make her sound like Clint Frikking Eastwood, but beyond that, the series is a must read every single month from me.
Cassie is that girl who is multi-faceted to anything in the horror and punk rock universe and we’ve seen that with her exciting clashing with the Suicide Girls and now her meeting the one and only Dr. Herbert West who seems to hold the key to the secret of her mom and how her body suddenly disappeared. With the back story finally told about the Lunch Lady and who she was before she became morbidly obese, we’re gaining incredible insight in to the character of Cassie finally venturing in to her sexual confusion she confronts in the series.
Cassie is a girl with a Peter Pan complex, the hero who just can’t decide who she is, thus this leaves her a perpetually misguided child that can’t decide if she’s in love with her best friend who happens to be a girl, or is really just looking for a mother figure. She has no guidance, and is often forced to play den mother to her best friend Vlad, so there’s definitely a vulnerability to the character that is incredibly endearing; further sold by artist Emily Stone’s incredible line work. Cassie is one of the most fleshed out characters I’ve ever read in a horror comic and she’s one who can come across literally anyone in the horror universe and it would make sense.
I keep hoping she will meet Jason, a slasher form of Norman Bates and maybe Leslie Vernon who could definitely match wits with her. She is the ultimate final girl, after all. Imagine if Laurie Strode lived to tell about Michael and decided “Screw it, I’m using my resources to hunt all people like Uncle Michael.” As for Vlad, I interviewed Tim Seeley earlier this year and I confronted him about the changes Vlad has experienced and if you’ve read the series you’ll know that the character’s experienced a massive transformation over the years. And it’s been one I’ve really responded to.
He lost his virginity, fell in love, and he’s also started questioning Cassie’s motives and intents in their travels and is never afraid to stop her from making some truly stupid mistakes. This has led to some interesting moments in the series, especially in one issue when their main enemy turns out to be primal children. Cassie is forced to turn a gun on them and Vlad is forever changed in to someone second guessing his leader. The metamorphosis hasn’t been sudden which has helped it to feel natural and inevitable because Vlad has always been the strong arm expected to stay quiet and do work but now that he’s spoken up, Cassie is thrown for a loop.
I also enjoy the constant personal turmoils she’s forced to confront in her life without the help of anyone, and after issue 50 last month where the Lunch Lady was resurrected, I’m wondering if she’ll come to grips with her life, or if West in his lovable slimy despicable form will just make her more bitter and confused. Comics may be dead, but whoever says horror comics are dead clearly isn’t looking hard enough. You have to love Cassie Hack.
