Cassie Hack’s Back! Tini Howard Shares Secrets of Hack/Slash’s Return

Physical trauma often leads to pain and suffering, but when it comes to emotional trauma, humans feel torment on a whole other level. In folklore and fiction, emotional agony even transcends death, resulting in things like ghosts or the hateful, undead killing machines that stalked the pages of Tim Seeley’s cult horror/humor comic, Hack/Slash. It was the job of the series’ title character, Cassandra “Cassie” Hackm to end the rampage of these so-called Slashers, and she did so in bloody, violent style.

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Introduced in a 2004 one-shot from Devil’s Due Publishing, Cassie Hack was a twist on the classic horror movie “Final Girl” trope who began her crusade against Slashers after her mother became one and she had to put her down. After that, she graduated to her own ongoing series, which eventually moved to Image Comics. That series came to an end in 2012, and since then Cassie has appeared in the occasional team-up miniseries with other horror characters. Now, she’s back in action with a new series of her own: Hack/Slash: Resurrection.

With this new volume, Seeley is serving as editor to the creative team of writer Tini Howard and artist Celor. CBR spoke with Howard about how writing Cassie is a dream come true, what Cassie’s been doing since the end of her original ongoing series, and the scenario that brings her back into the world of Slasher hunting,

CBR: Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley makes no secret that the series was born out of a love for horror movies — both the good and the awesomely bad. I’m guessing you share that love.

Art from Hack/Slash: Resurrection #2, by Celor with colors by K Michael Russell

Tini Howard: Yeah. Tim and I have been talking for a while. I had actually sent him something I had written for a book that was putting together essays on the subject of the anniversary of Dick Grayson. This book was collecting essays about all parts of the character’s life span, and I was really enjoying Tim and Tom King’s run on Grayson. I’m kind of an academic nerd when it comes to literary criticism, so I did that with their run and sent it to them.

Since then, we’ve talked casually on and off, and Tim reached out to me and asked if I wanted to write Hack/Slash. I’m a horror geek, a loudmouth, bisexual, and a girl, so I share a lot in common with Cassie. She’s a character I’ve loved for a really long time because I’ve always looked at the book as more than just a love letter to slasher movies. Tim did a lot of really smart things. He critiqued films and explored other aspects of the genre in a lot of different ways.

One of my favorite movies that sort of captures the feel of Hack/Slash is Tucker &Dale Vs. Evil. It’s legitimately gory and weird, but also very subversive towards the horror genre. That’s a lot of what I’m trying to do, have those great and gross moments, but to also throw in nods to things I love. For example, the setting for our first arc is Camp Indigo River, which is an obvious Camp Crystal Lake parody.

The Camp itself has an ulterior purpose, and Cassie’s role there is not what it initially seems, because it would be a boring story if it was just her going there to be a camp counselor. Though, I would have fun writing that, because I’d have fun writing Cassie reading the phone book. I love her so much that I write pages and pages of dialogue for every issue that never make it in. I like Cassie being a smart ass. It just comes naturally to me, but I’m also a very guarded person.

I like to think that Tim saw my potential and he asked me to write this book because of that. He’s said a couple times that he wanted to bring Hack/Slash back, but not until he felt like he found the right people to do it. He already had an artist in mind, and then he brought me on.

The original Image Hack/Slash series ended about five years ago, and since then Cassie has appeared in a number of places including the Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain miniseries and crossover/team-up stories that paired her with characters like Ash from Evil Dead and Vampirella. Where is she both physically and emotionally when you pick up with her in issue #1?

Art from Hack/Slash: Resurrection #2, by Celor with colors by K Michael Russell

We’re coming out the same time as the Hack/Slash Vs. Vampirella series, so there was an opportunity to crossover and work with that book. Ultimately, I decided part of the fun of writing indy comics is, you get to do whatever you want. So I decided I wanted to let Shaun [Aldrige] and his team do whatever they want over on Hack/Slash Vs. Vampirella, which has been a blast and super fun.

We start a little quieter. When we open up, she’s been off the grid for about five years. She’s living in a trailer on a mountain where she has good enough Internet access to make her living basically as a Twitch streamer playing video games like Friday the 13th and Dead By Daylight. She plays survival horror games, and she’s very good at them because she knows what to do. She’s like, “I never freak out because my adrenal receptors are basically fried at this point.”

She’s realized she can make a living with these games. People pay her to fight zombies, and that never happened when there were real zombies. She’s like, “I have a cat. I’m off the grid, and nothing bothers me. It’s great.” In the preview pages we’ve released, though, you can see that people are already looking for her, and she’s actively avoiding them. She eventually decides to go clean up this mess before she has real zombies in her front yard. That leads to the inciting incident of the book, which is her going to Camp Indigo River.

Page 2: Cassie Hack's Similarities To Batman & Wolverine

What can you tell us about the struggle Cassie will get involved in once she reaches the camp? I understand part of the problem she’s facing stems from a nearby prison?

Yes, there is a prison nearby. How weird! Who puts a kids’ camp in the same forest as a prison? And you see in the preview that the zombies are prison zombies. The woman who runs the camp calls Cassie on the phone, and what gets Cassie to respond is that this woman knew her mother. She talks about how she has an understanding of what happened, and she wants to know how to stop not just Slashers, but people who are hurt by trauma in any way. Because in a lot of ways the whole Slasher thing is kind of a metaphor for that.

So the Cassie that we meet is, at her core, about avoidance. Then this woman confronts her with something that she can’t avoid, which is this information about her mother. That’s a part of her past that she’s been confronted with against her will again and again, but this time she makes a choice to engage with it. That sets her on her journey towards what we find at the camp, which of course is horrible stuff. What else do you find at a camp in horror movies? The undead, dead kids, and hot girls that want you to make bad decisions! [Laughs] Stuff like that.

The solicits hint that Cassie will run afoul of someone from her past when she arrives at the camp, and the covers feature a familiar looking woman with blond hair. Is that Cassie’s old friend, grown up girl detective, Cat Curio?

Art from Hack/Slash: Resurrection #2, by Celor with colors by K Michael Russell

No comment! [Laughs] There are some characters from the past that show up, and I’m really, really excited about the way in which they show up. I’m so bad at keeping secrets, though! [Laughs] So there’s not much more I can say.

The original Hack/Slash series could go pretty dark sometimes, but it could also be uproariously funny. It sounds like that’s the type of tone you’re aiming for with this book as well.

Yeah, one of my all time favorite comic runs is Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye, because I thought it did a really good job of treading that line between being hilariously funny, but also kind of heartbreaking at times. I also wanted to use the fact that I really relate to Cassie a lot. I’m a woman who loves horror, I’m bisexual, and I’ve been kind of goth. I kind of wanted to use all of these experiences of mine as an opportunity to give Cassie an interior monologue.

As a result, she does a lot of stuff that’s not really sympathetic. I just finished writing Issue #5, and while I was writing it I was like, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” We’ve all done that, though. We’ve all done stuff we regret or are ashamed of. You learn to live with that and laugh about it.

I spend a lot of time with Cassie’s inner monologue and outer dialogue, which is often her making jokes or saying things that she thinks are badass. That’s a lot of character stuff, and I promise there’s a lot of zombie killing and other gory, action horror moments. I’m trying to use a lot of that as set dressing though for this really jaded, funny, traumatized person who thinks she’s going back to a life she’s avoided. The truth though is that maybe she’s not as ready for it as she thinks, but maybe she doesn’t know any other way to be.

I do enjoy fiction where the protagonist isn’t always sympathetic. Some of my favorite novels and comics often have me screaming, “What are you doing?” at the main characters.

Art from Hack/Slash: Resurrection #2, by Celor with colors by K Michael Russell

I love characters like Batman, Wolverine and John Constantine, but those guys are jerks! We love them because, to use Wolverine’s catch phrase, they are the best they are at what they do. They know that, and readers know it too. It’s like, “I’ve got to love you because you’ve got so much pressure on you because you’re the only one that can do this.” That’s even when we want them to reach out for help.

I want that with Cassie. She’s not here to make friends, but she is human. So she naturally wants to make friends and be be close to people, but also she’s got that jerk protagonist streak in her where she feels a little entitled to be nasty because of what she’s been through.

I feel like we don’t see enough female characters that do that. That’s why one of my all time favorite female characters is Katniss from The Hunger Games. She’s a jerk, but she’s really good at what she does. I like that I can explore that with Cassie. She doesn’t have to be likable.

Visually she’s always been sexy and that’s not something that’s going away. Celor draws super sexy girls. I wanted to include that element because of course a lot of people will grab the comics because Cassie is hot, but she’s never been empty headed. She’s always been a survivor of serious trauma and a badass, and being a woman I felt like I didn’t have to write her as sexless to be taken seriously. She has a lot of sex in this book. She hooks up. She’s young, she’s hot, she’s living her life, and she’s out there.

At the same time I thought it was really cool of Tim recruit a lot of female artists for covers. Those artists didn’t shy awake from making Cassie sexy either, and I think you get a really cool interesting result when you have women engaging with female characters who are known for their sensuality.

I get an almost Chris Bachalo vibe from Celor and colorist K. Michael Russell’s art in that there’s a creepy and strange vibe, but there’s also quite a bit of fun.

Yeah I love that sometimes the action stuff that Celor does almost looks happy or geometric. Then K. Michael Russell did a great job of creating these vibrant, shocking backgrounds where you get these moments where Cassie is just like a figure in the air kicking ass. Then in the next shot she’s just this girl in a shirt and panties, and I love that.

What’s it like working with Tim Seeley on this series? What kind of role does he play in the book’s production?

Tim is basically my editor. I pitch my ideas to him. He approves them or asks them to be reworked. He’s very hands on, but this is my book. I’m having a lot of fun. I explain it as Tim handed me the keys to his favorite car. He just told me to bring her home in one piece. Or I joke that I’m taking his daughter out for prom night. “I’ll bring her home safely, sir, but we’ll have a lot of fun before I get her home.” And Tim is totally open to that. I pitched a couple things to him where it was like, “Is it okay if I do this? And that?” And he’s like, “Yeah, absolutely.”

Finally, if your initial Hack/Slash: Resurrection story resonates with readers would you be interested in telling more stories with Cassie?

I can’t currently confirm if we’ll get to do more than just our first arc. It’s up to our comic sales to make or break that and it can change at a moment’s notice. I will say, though, that I’ve sat down with Tim and talked about ideas we went want to do for Cassie’s next adventure. So I’ve got plenty of stories we can tell. This first one is just a drop in the bucket.

I wrote this new #1 as a good jumping on point for readers curious about Hack/Slash but weren’t sure where to start or if it was for them. And Tim takes care of things like adding a primer about Cassie in the front. So any new fans or curious readers can start with this series and move right along with us.

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