Hack/Slash #12 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Carlos Badilla (colors), Crank! (letters) and James Lowder (edits)

The Story: The Hack/Slash crew goes to South America, searching for a cure to the disease that causes slashers.

Four Things:

1. Funny. – This is a comic for people who like jokes about bodily functions.  If you roll your eyes at that kind of humor, I’m not sure that Hack/Slash is the book for you.  But if you’re one of “us”, there are some great moments in this comic.  The humor is in small places and a lot of it comes from timing, which is a hard thing to have in a comic.  For example, at one point, after landing on this monster island, Cassie goes into the bushes to go to the bathroom and gets attacked by water zombies.  Since they’ve been in the water, they’re soft and they pop when she hits them.  Soon she is covered in green blood and guts.  When she comes back to the group, one of the others says, “Whoa! You really had to go!”  I mean….that’s funny.  Then I giggled again when I realized that the name of the motion picture studio that shoots films on monster island is “Monster Bait” studios.  Heh.

2. Whacky ideas all over the place. – Not only is it a funny comic, but it’s kind of an idea-a-minute issue.  There’s the nature of the monster island and how it relates to those awful 50’s era monster films.  There are attacks by about 10 different types of weird monsters.  There’s a possible link to Nazi science.  I dunno why the mysteries of Nazi science are still so fascinating, but they are.  There’s also a possible link to the slasher disease.  It’s all good stuff.

Hack/Slash #6 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (artist), Mark Englert (colorist), Crank! (letterer) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: Hack/Slash gets back to some of its early roots with a story involving musicians & the hellish dimension of Nef.

What’s Good: This issue really had all the calling cards of a classically good Hack/Slash.  If you go back to the beginning of the series, there was involvement of the demonic realm of Nef with the slasher killers inhabiting the Hack/Slash universe and it’s fun to see the series going back to that.  That’s especially true because Seeley is doing it in such a way that is very new reader friendly.  So, if you’ve been lingering on the fence, this isn’t a bad jumping on point.

But, what sets Hack/Slash apart from the rest of the horror comics genre is its sense of humor.  This is a really funny comic and credit for that really should be shared by both Seeley and Leister.  The folks who get killed in this album are so annoying that you’re kinda happy when they get it.  One is some kinda shallow pop starlet with some made-up name and a massive following after one album and the other victims are stand-ins for the stars of the Jersey Shore.  I mean, who doesn’t enjoy seeing the slashers get those kinds of people.  Were this a horror movie, the audience would cheer when they die.  However, it isn’t all laughs because the killer really is scary so we’ve got something to laugh at and something to be frightful of at the same time.

There’s also two GREAT scenes with Pooch (the demonic Nef-beast turned good).  I’d like to say that we can never get enough Pooch, but that’s probably not true.  Part of Pooch’s charm is that he flashes through the comic for a few panels, cracks us up with his juxtaposition of earnest attitude and demonic appearance and then is gone.  Pooch always leaves us wanting more.

Hack/Slash #4 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors), Crank! (letters) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: The first story of Tim Seeley’s new volume of Hack/Slash (since it found a new home at Image) comes to a close.

What’s Good: This was a really good issue and you could tell that Tim Seeley was saving some fun bits for this issue.  This will get a little spoiler-y, but I think it’s warranted because it is fun things like this that give Hack/Slash its soul.  First, we have the fact that Cassie has to snap her monstrous sidekick Vlad out of his mind-controlled state so he can help her fight the acid lady (sorry, forgot her name).  Long time readers know that Vlad’s cluelessness about sex, but increasing interest therein, has been a running joke in this series.  So, it was very funny to see Cassie pull up her shirt and plant Vlad’s face right in her bosom.  Sure, enough….he wakes up and joins the fight, but it creates an awkward moment for the two friends.

Next we have a scene where the rest of H/S, Inc. are fighting off zombified animals.  Among the animals are some zombie cats and they get rid of them my having Pooch distract them with a laser-pointer (that he’s holding in this mouth) while someone else shoots them.  Awesome!

But, the best moment is that Cassie and Vlad have their big battle with the acid lady in the Intelligent Design Museum.  Clearly the battle had to happen somewhere, but rather than having it in some parking lot or generic old house, placing the battle in this museum allows the creators to have all kinds of fun with the types of exhibits in such a place (like seeing humans trying to feed a watermelon to a vegetarian T. Rex).  That’s just good stuff!

I’ve been a little hard on the art in Hack/Slash, but it was a lot better this month and I think I know why.  Hack/Slash is probably a very hard comic to draw well.  Beyond the fact that there are a ton of different character types (skinny guys, hulking guys, sexy girls, zombies, etc.), those characters are always doing really dynamic things and it is very hard to maintain that sense of  energy.  That type of problem is going to be most noticeable on full-body panels of two characters fighting.  But, this issue has almost NO full-body panels; many are waist-up or just faces and hands.  And, at that level, the artwork still carries plenty of energy to make us feel the action.  Whether this was an adjustment by the creators or not, I really liked this art a LOT more than the past couple issues (which weren’t “bad”….they just needed a little more umph).

Hack Slash #3 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors), Crank (letters) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: Bobby Brunswick is back with an axe to grind against an ex-girlfriend and is using his “reanimate dead animal” powers to their fullest.

What’s Good: There’s lots of typical fun Hack/Slash action in this comic and that means it’s a lot of fun.  One of the villains in this arc is Bobby Brunswick, who old time Hack/Slash readers will remember as the veterinary assistant who had a huge crush on his boss, Lisa Elsten (the town vet and Chris Krank’s current girlfriend).  Lisa’s boyfriend at the time didn’t like this very much and in a prank-gone-wrong, Bobby was killed before coming back to exact revenge and exhibiting this ability to reanimate dead animals.

So, this issue has scads of zombified animals everywhere.  There are crows spying on pregnant Lisa through the window, zombie deer playing kamikaze with the sheriff’s patrol car, and zombie fish and an effing zombie snapping turtle trying to bite people in the river.  It’s both intense and funny all at the same time and that’s before we even get to the scenes of Bobby going after pregnant Lisa and the requisite Pooch humor (he gets locked in his cage for sniffing Lisa’s butt because “he wants to know what she ate for dinner”).

Summing up, this issue is just a lot of fun as Seeley keeps the action rolling and tosses in humor here and there.  If you like a silly take on slasher movies, you’ll love this series.

Hack/Slash #2 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors), Crank (letters) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: Old slashers are coming back from the dead!

What’s Good: What do readers expect from Hack/Slash?  They expect slashers/monsters, bloody fights with those slashers and scantily clad women.  It is so refreshing to read a comic that knows its niche and exploits that niche month-after-month.

The story is picking up a really good homage to 80’s slasher films.  What was the first thing that you thought when you watched those movies and the bad guy gets “killed” with 15 minutes left in the film?  Of course he isn’t really dead.  Slashers always come back!  And that theme is running in spades through this action packed issue that brings almost all of the Hack/Slash main characters into the action.

Hack/Slash #1 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors), Crank (letters) & James Lowder (editor)

The Story: Cassie, Vlad and gang are back!

What’s Good: Tim Seeley does a great job of making this issue “new reader friendly” but without making his loyal readers feel like they’ve gone back to kindergarten.  He pulls this off by giving us 2-pages of character synopsis (picture + 1 paragraph) for the major characters and then just having the characters do a little more exposition than is normal.  All comic readers know that Seeley is walking a tightrope with this type of issue, but he nails it.  New readers and old readers alike are going to love this.

If you’ve never ventured into the world of Hack/Slash, you should really check it out if you’re at all fond of 80’s slasher/horror movies.  The main character is a young woman named Cassie Hack who, along with her monstrous sidekick Vlad, hunts and kills slashers.  There is a lot of other goodness buried in the ~40 previous issues of Hack/Slash, but that’s the basic story: hunting and killing slashers in bloody ways and never being afraid to have the ladies wear revealing clothing.  This issue has plenty of those staples as well as tons of comic relief courtesy of Vlad and his hopelessly naive sensibilities about women and the world.  Toss in the fact that this creator-owned comic is doesn’t chase its own tail like Marvel/DC superhero comics and you have a winner.

This particular adventure is a classic as Cassie and Vlad are after a lover’s lane killer who isn’t all he/she seems.  Plus, while we’re getting our arms around that pretty straight forward story, Seeley gets us up to speed slowly on everything else that is going on with the supporting characters.  Bravo.

Daniel Leister’s art does what it needs to do.  He draws a couple of horribly bloody scenes (with a strong assist from the colorist) and a couple of other really screwed up panels (one of the killers victims is half-dissolved in a hot tub of acid or lye or something).  And he also draws the pretty ladies really well.  That’s kinda what it takes to be the artist on Hack/Slash.  It isn’t JH Williams, III type art, but it isn’t trying to be and nor should it be.

Hack/Slash: Me Without You #1 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors), Crank! (letters) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: Where did Vlad (Cassie Hack’s hulking companion) come from?

What’s Good: I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that all Hack/Slash fans love Vlad.  To me, Vlad has become the heart of the overall series with his tireless efforts to stand by Cassie through thick and thin, protecting her from danger, keeping her sane and (of course) helping her to kill bad guys.

Before now, we really didn’t know where Vlad came from, but we did know that he wasn’t a garden-variety human being.  The origin that Tim Seeley gives him fits perfectly with the Hack/Slash universe and sets-up a whole raft of future story angles.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Vlad’s past coming into the pages of Hack/Slash once the ongoing series from gets ramped back up at Image in the next month or so.

All of the things that make Vlad such a great character are on full display here.  We get to see how he remains a kind an optimistic character despite the incredible sadness of his life and his protective nature also shines through as he dotes on a young lady who is in trouble.  And, of course, there are a few trademark Vlad bits of humor.  For example, at one point where his charge says she’ll be his friend, but he has to follow her around all the time, stay out of site and not bother her.  She concludes, “That doesn’t sound like too shitty of a deal, does it?”  To which Vlad replies, “No! It sounds like a fair amount of shit.”  I LOVE those little naive bits from Vlad

Daniel Leister’s art is very effective for this series.  He can do gory (as we see on the first page).  He can draw attractive women.  He can emphasize monstrous nature.  But what I think I like best about Leister is that he varies his panels and his layout quite a bit.

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac #4 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors) & Crank (letters)

The Story: This Cassie Hack “Year One” miniseries wraps up.  How will Cassie deal with Grinface?

What’s Good: This series did exactly what it set out to do by reintroducing Hack/Slash to its new audience that it gained with its move to Image, while staying true to the issues that Tim Seeley published through Devils Due Publishing.

For a final issue, I thought this issue hit all the right notes as it shows how Cassie is both vulnerable (as a misfit teenage girl) and tough (as a avenging killer of slashers) and it is that balancing act that makes this series such a joy to read (as I’ve been catching up on the series on my iPhone).  If you’re a fan of 80’s slasher movies, there is just a LOT to love here as the bad guy (Grinface) and setting (abandoned barn next to a corn field) could have appeared in any of the horror movies I watched as a kid.

I’d love to see one of Seeley’s scripts because I think there must be constant notes that say, “Lots of blood”.  Good lord is there a lot of blood sloshing around in this as people are hit with hammers (big and small), hit by cars, etc. and it might be excessive if this comic weren’t a loving spoof of those ultra-bloody movies.  Otherwise, the art does a very good job of selling the story.

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac #1 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors) & Crank (letters)

The Story: As Hack/Slash moves from Devils Due publishers over to Image, we are treated to a fresh jumping on point that explains the origins of Cassandra Hack and why she’s out to kill serial killers.

What’s Good: Hack/Slash is not a new title by any stretch, but when you move from Devils Due to Image, you are going to get a flood of new readers because a lot of LCSs will stock a few issues of Image titles, but won’t touch anything from Devils Due out of fear that they won’t sell.  So, it makes sense that creator Tim Seeley would give us a nice jumping on point for the world of Cassandra Hack now that he’s got a few more eyeballs on the title.

The concept of Hack/Slash isn’t that complicated: Cassandra Hack is teenage girl who hunts and kills serial killers.  That’s basically it.  I haven’t read all the prior issues of Hack/Slash, but it has become a favorite of mine on the iPhone when I have idle minutes in the various waiting rooms of the world.  You really don’t need any prior knowledge to hop on and figure out what is going on in this comic.  It is a very good intro to who Cassandra is.  I think she’s like a teenage girl version of Bruce Wayne, but without the money or compunctions about killing the bad guys.  She’s grim, ruthless and not about to let emotional attachments stand in the way of getting the bad guys.

I think the art goes a long way to selling a book like this.  It is appropriately colorful and descriptive, yet creepy.  I also really enjoy that it isn’t all photo-reference.   Leister doesn’t shy away from showing the blood and guts and he certainly knows how to draw a pretty woman (and how much fun is a horror book without pretty girls?).