As I mentioned in my earlier blog about Scud the Disposable Assassin, I’m willing to give Image the credit for publishing a book even if they weren’t the first people to get their hands on it. Such is the case for the newest addition to my homage to Image, Hack/Slash.

Originally published by Devil’s Due, a href=”http://starclipper.com/2009/07/22/hackin-and-slashin/”>Hack/Slash is a story that has garnered a lot of attention in the Star Clipper blog space, courtesy of my fellow blog-writer Fleet, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least give this series a mention.

If you’ve never read Hack/Slash before, the easiest way to describe it is as a darker, more bad-ass version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, except instead of fighting vampires and demons, title character Cassie Hack spends her time hunting and killing resurrected monsters she refers to as “Slashers.” Slashers are basically the 80’s horror monsters cliché; murderous fiends who died once and decided not to stay that way, just like Chucky, Jason, Freddy Krueger, and every other movie monster from the era where horror creatures actually had first names.

Just to be clear, this is not a story for children. It is DARK. It is full of every kind of mature content you can imagine, including violence, gore, and extremely sexy situations. However, it also has interesting and well-developed characters, elaborate plots that can be both humorous and action packed, and a host of artists and styles that manage to give each story a slightly different flavor than the one before it. One day the story will look like it was carved from one of your nightmares and the next it’ll look like it was set in the world of Archie.

But all of those attributes pale in comparison with my favorite feature of Hack/Slash, which is that it’s an excellent parody of a genre most people don’t give much thought to anymore. In my opinion, there are good parodies and then there are bad parodies. A bad parody is designed only to make fun of its subject, ripping apart its original intent and meaning until you either get offended or forget there was ever anything worthwhile about it. A good parody, on the other hand, is usually conceived by someone who actually has a fondness for what they’re making fun of. Like Family Guy’s Blue Harvest, it takes all the clichés and mistakes a story has and draws attention to them while still embracing the genre it’s set in. Hack/Slash is a shining example of what parodies can be, so I have to give writer Tim Seeley the credit he deserves.

As I mentioned before, this is not a story for the meek, but it is an excellent series which is now available in three nicely sized omnibus editions (printed by Image, of course).

Check it out. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

-Brent

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