Seeley introduces us to the upcoming one-shot
For Cassie Hack and her partner Vlad, what a long, strange trip it’s been. Since the lethal pair have gone monthly in the pages of Devil’s Due Publishing‘s hit horror series “Hack/Slash,” creator Tim Seeley has pushed the slasher slayers across a tapestry of mayhem woven with a healthy dose of teen angst, masked killers, gorgeous women, otherworldly beasts, a Sammi Curr-esque rocker, feral children and even Herbert West, the Re-Animator.
If you’ve been following along, friend, good. A blood-splattered gold star for you. If you’ve never picked up a copy, well, may I suggest you get started with the forthcoming “Hack/Slash: Entry Wound.” Muscling its way into comic shops in May, this one-shot is intended to give current readers an all-new adventure and introduce newbies to Cassie’s world.
“I sort of feel like the longer you go on with a comic book, the more people who were curious about it go, ‘Shit, I don’t want to spend 30 bucks for the Omnibus if I don’t like it,'” Seeley says frankly. “You can pick up one issue and you might be in the middle of the storyline. [Entry Wound] is a story I wrote and illustrated. It gives you the vibe, it’s cheap – it’s $2.50. If you’re a horror fan and you haven’t tried it, now you have no f**kin’ excuse. Maybe you’ll like it.”
Seeley – who was good enough to provide a preview of “Entry Wound” (below) – explains this will not be a “clip show episode” similar to last fall’s Halloween special. Instead, this fresh tale takes its cue from holiday-themed slashers. Let’s let him set it up for us: “The story begins somewhere in some other comics. A cosmic crossover is screwing everything up. So all of the slashers who normally come out on specific days – the holiday slashers – come out on the same day. So Cassie and Vlad are jetting around the country trying to kill all of these guys when normally they have to do them one at a time. So there’s a little bit of a play on that and a little bit of a riff on comic company crossovers.”
Getting more specific, Seeley reveals the main killer is derived from Groundhog Day. “While doing research, I found a pretty cool thing I could do with it,” he says, “because Groundhog Day was originally called Candlemas and basically the whole shadow thing comes from lighting candles. At one point in the issue they say, ‘So, what’s the deal? He’s a shadow and you’re dead?’ ‘Cause that would be a great tagline for a poster, I thought. But in this case there’s bits of Groundhog Day mixed with this seasonal-based slasher guy they have to kill in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.”
We’ve seen and heard stranger ideas for slashers.
“Hack/Slash: Entry Wound” will hit stands between issues 23 and 24. Enjoy the preview below and we’ll have more from Seeley on the series in the next few days!
Click on each page for a larger version!
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
