Writer/Artist: Tim Seeley
Publisher: Devil's Due
Don’t let the 25¢ price fool ya; this isn’t a full length comic. It’s not even half. At just 8 pages, it’s about 1/3 the size of a normal comic, but 25¢ is about 1/6 the price of a normal comic, so it’s still a bargain. Either way, you should buy this, regardless of your preference in comic book genres.
There isn’t much to say about this issue specifically. It has the back story of the main character, Cassie Hack, which isn’t anything new. Then there’s a few pages of the soon-to-be-released Slice Hard 48 page one shot (most of Hack/Slash has been one shots).
To get an idea of what to expect art wise, the original artist, Stefano Caselli, is now working on Young Avengers and Runaways: Civil War. Though writer Tim Seeley has taken over for the art for this preview (they have had a lot of different artists), the art has always stayed in the same vein of dark colors, high detail, and scantily clad goth chicks. Seeley’s style is more a mix of anime and realism, with the “realistic” part coming in how each character is shaded. This is most apparent on the second page of the Slice Hard prelude which has a full page shot of villain Acid Angel in lingerie. What is remarkable is that within her highly detailed body, there are very few lines drawn, yet she is still more defined than a majority of the typical girls found in comic books. The Slice Hard artists will be Nate Bellegarde and Mark Englert. Some of their sketches are provided, and a full color back cover advertisement shows that the art should definitely fit in with the rest of the series.
As for Seeley’s writing, this issue really only shows one side of it. Generally, Hack/Slash has been a mixture of bad ass and humor. Some issues lean more one way than others, but they always have a good blend going. This preview shows plenty of the bad ass, but not much humor. There is a bit in Cassie’s back story, but the humor comes more from the art depicting the Lunch Lady killer (Cassie’s mother) than from the actual writing.
This was amusing, but expect Slice Hard to be much better.
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