Connect with us

Comics

BREAKING: ‘Hack/Slash’ Creator Tim Seeley Parts Ways With DDP, Moves HisTitle To Image Comics! (UPDATED)

Published

on

I don’t think that anyone saw this one coming except for those close to the players involved, but as of today Tim Seeley (Creator ‘HACK/SLASH’) is no longer writing for publisher Devil’s Due and in doing so will be taking his cult horror smash, ‘HACK/SLASH’, with him! But where is he taking his million dollar title to? How about the creator owned comic haven that is Image Comics?! Read on for all the details on the departure, and what this move could potentially mean for everyone involved!

The announcement came today at the Emerald City ComiCon that Tim Seeley’s ubber popular title was no longer being published through Devil’s Due Publishing and would instead be handled by Image Comics as of immediately.

Comic Related Broke The Story,

“My little creator owned book is making the move to the biggest creator owned comic company!” exclaimed Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley. “The move is sanctioned by Devil’s Due Publishing, and Josh Blaylock has been helping me with the transition. June will see the release of the first issue of HACK/SLASH: MY FIRST MANIAC, which is set in Cassie’s past and is the perfect tale for new readers as well as those who’ve been following the book for several years. And, best of all, my crack creative team of artist Dan Leister, colorist Mark Englert, editor Jim Lowder and letterer Crank! are coming with me to Image-Land.”

Besides the blockbuster announcement of the move itself Seeley also announced plans for the series’ first arc with Image titled “HACK/SLASH: MY FIRST MANIAC”.

“HACK/SLASH: MY FIRST MANIAC explores Cassie’s first case. 16-year-old Cassie Hack has just been forced to kill her mother, the undead murderer known as the Lunch Lady. Now faced with overwhelming guilt, she must decide if she can make a life with her foster parents or use her new-found slasher killing skills to save other screaming teenagers. But does the apple fall far from the tree? A perfect jumping-on point for new readers and a previously untold tale for old fans!”

The title will go on sale June 9th with a list price of $3.50 as well as a reprintings of the “HACK/SLASH OMNIBUS VOLUME #1”, and “HACK/SLASH, VOL. 3: FRIDAY THE 31ST”.

To me this is a hugely positive move for Tim and the ‘HACK/SLASH’ universe. The title felt held down by Devil’s Due with an unpredictable release schedule and poor marketing. With Image Comics Seeley will have a much better shot at getting the long overdue motion picture off the ground as well as a far more serious and thought out marketing campaign for the cult hit.

As for what this could mean for Devil’s Due the move could prove to be back breaking. The company had already been dealing with some financial issues, and it also owes quite a bit of money to many of it’s writers and artists. I would go as far as saying that this could be the end of the company entirely seeing as this was easily their biggest money-maker. Only time will tell though. What say you?

Comics

[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

Published

on

Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

Continue Reading