It’s time to give the devil its due. Devil’s Due publishing that is.

Cassie Hack is the lone survivor of an attack by a slasher called the Lunch Lady. A slasher that happened to ber her mom! Now she travels the world with her monstrous partner and friend Vlad hunting down and destroying slashers wherever they find them.

If you haven’t been reading Tim Seeley’s and Stefano Caselli’s wonderfully inventive comic book, then you’ve been missing out. Hack/Slash is one of the finest independent books on the market. I’m not the only one who thinks so as Hollywood, ever hungry for new source material to mine, has taken notice and a film version courtesy of Universal Studios Genre Division Rouge Pictures is in development.

Once starring in a series of mildly successful one shots, Vlad, the gas-mask wearing brute, and Cassie Hack, the goth girl turned acerbic tongued dispatcher of serial killers, have been through hell since they graduated to their ongoing series more than a year ago.

The thirteenth installment features the resolution to last issue’s story which finds Vlad and Cassie going up against characters from another defunct series, Fangoria comics’ Bump written by Mark Kidwell. Bump is a supernatural story of horror in which the spirit of serial killer Edgar Dill and his mysterious tree-huggers haunt the Dill farm.

These tree-huggers are also presumably the same creepy creatures responsible for the “Hitchfield Massacre” which has been in recent headlines. Last issue, Vlad and Cassie decided to investigate the disappearances of several college girls in the area while Chris and Lisa are given the task of taking care of “Pooch”, the demonic dog who’s returned looking for Cassie.

In fact, the comic alternates between these two subplots with ease, the hunt for Edgar Dill who is masterminding horrific attacks and Chirs and Lisa’s dealing with Pooch. As if that weren’t enough, Kidwell and Seeley also give the readers glimpses into Cassie’s past, thereby developing the intriguing subplot of her search for her dad. Emily Stone has been a dependable and solid artist throughout the book’s run and it’s good to see she is still adding to the visuals.

Final words: This book has been subverting the horror genre with smart, entertaining plots for quite some time. It looks like Seeley is going to continue to further develop Cassie’s back story, so the comic should continue to entertain in the near future.

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