Hack/Slash #3
Written by Tim Seeley
Art by Emily Stone
Colors by Courtney Via
Letters by Brian J. Crowley
Devil’s Due Publishing
Cover price: $3.50; On-sale date: July 18, 2007

Sex and drugs and rock & roll and a talking dog-thing and old gods and lesbian undertones and a certain oft velvet painted King make Hack/Slash one helluva hot ride.

It starts out with a tight close-up on a pair of 40 DD’s and just gets better from there. Devil’s Due Publishing’s high production value release, Hack/Slash takes a simple, solid, albeit weird, story by Tim Seeley and has a lot of irreverent fun with it. The artwork by Emily Stone is topnotch. Unlike most comics, the cover does not match the quality or style of the interior pages. It seems like they were going for a J. Scott Campbell style to attract readers with the cover, but that just may prove why J. Scott isn’t anywhere to be seen. The artwork has a sketchy feel to it, which I like. It may be computer inked. The colors by Courtney Via are simple and effective. Both add to the realism of the images. The lettering by Brian J. Crowley is very professional and really stands out with the drunken banter of an old groupie.

Except for a very brief series theme on the indicia page, Hack/Slash #3 drops you right in the middle of the ongoing adventure of Cassie Hack. She is the main protagonist of the series, along with her sidekick Vlad, and proves it straight off when she takes on a couple of freakish dudes right out of a scene from Star Wars. While Cassie fights for her life in the alternate realm of Nef, Vlad fights for his sex life in the here and now. He needs to lose his virginity to face the band of Slasher demons that have been kidnapping women to the alternate realm. This offers up some humorous moments balanced against Cassie’s very serious, frightening predicament. In which we see an offering for what may have happened to the King himself, Elvis Presley. His back story and appearance also add a touch of whimsy to what may be a very disastrous ending for Cassie and her friend.

There is definitely a lot of sexuality throughout Hack/Slash, which the second cover hints at a little more. It is definitely a mature audiences title, mostly because of sexuality and swearing. Besides Vlad’s attempt to lose his virginity, it’s the fact that Cassie is a virgin that gets her drafted to be impregnated by the ancient gods of Nef, but there is also sexual tension between her and her female friend and the dog thingy who wants her to pet him.

It may seem bad that you are dumped into the middle of the action without any recap because you seem to be missing some very pertinent information enabling you to follow the storyline. However, by issues end you not only have all the information you need to piece things together, but you had a great time deciphering it along the way making you want to pick up issues 1 and 2 to see how it all went down and issue 4 as well to see how it will continue and to get a peak at the gods of Nef and hopefully become a little more intimate with Cassie herself.

Rogue Pictures liked Hack/Slash so much they acquired the film rights to it. I enjoyed it so much that I would definitely add Hack/Slash to my very short and selective pull list. If you like sex, humor, horror, and rock & roll definitely check out this series. Oh, and give me a call too…