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‘Army Of Darkness’ Finally Crosses Paths With ‘Hack/Slash’ This Summer!!

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Tim Seeley just completed his ongoing Hack/Slash series at Image Comics, but the adventures of Cassie Hack are far from over. Dynamite Entertainment announced today that Cassie will be crossing paths with Ash Williams in a new six-issue crossover event, “Army of Darkness Vs. Hack/Slash”. The series takes place after the events of the recently concluded series as Cassie attempts to live a normal life until the Deadites attack. The first issue will be in comic shops everywhere in July.


Official Press Release:

April 12, 2013, Mt. Laurel, NJ – Dynamite Entertainment is proud to announce that Cassie, the star of Tim Seeley’s most famous creation, Hack/Slash, will be crossing-over with Ash from the Army of Darkness, in a new series written by Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley! Featuring covers by Tim Seeley himself, his Hack/Slash co-creator Stefano Casello, the acclaimed Ben Templesmith, and a special cover by Chris Eliopolis, Army of Darkness Vs. Hack/Slash #1 is not to be missed when it arrives in-stores and digitally this July 2013!

In Army of Darkness Vs. Hack/Slash #1, after the events of the Hack/Slash series, Cassie Hack is doing her best to live a normal life when a Deadite attack forces Cassie back into action. But she’s not alone! Meet Cassie’s new partner: Ashley J. Williams! Can the pair keep from killing each other long enough to quest for the stolen pages from the Book of the Dead? Will Ash get some sugar? Or will Cassie make him kiss it? It’s the horror mash-up that fans demanded!

“Besides being one of the inspirations for Hack/Slash, Army of Darkness has long been one of my all-time favorite films,” says writer Tim Seeley. “Readers have been asking for Cassie and Ashley J. Williams to meet for as long as I’ve been making Hack/Slash, and we’re finally going to give them what they want. There will be blood, boobs, baseball bats, and boomsticks.”

Ash, the square-jawed protagonist of the Army of Darkness series, has frequently teamed-up with (or faced off against) beloved characters from throughout comics, film, literature, and real life. Best-selling crossover miniseries include Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness, Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness, Prophecy (alongside heroines like Vampirella and Red Sonja), and Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash. Also, in over nine years of publication through Dynamite, the Army of Darkness series itself has hosted Darkman, H.P. Lovecraft’s mad scientist Herbert West, and classic monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein. Ash even got patriotic when he met the president in the Ash Saves Obama storyline.

“It’s a natural fit, putting Army of Darkness together with the ever-popular Cassie Hack,” says Nick Barrucci. “And honestly, it’s what the fans have asked for! Ash is the Crossover King, that perfect combination of badass and jester which makes for amazing, amusing comic book team-ups. And what better combo could there be, between a splatter movie hero and the ultimate Last Girl?”

Hack/Slash is a comic books series, created by writer/penciler Tim Seeley. The focus of the series is on a horror victim, Cassie, who strikes back at the monsters, known as “slashers”, with Vlad, a disfigured “gentle giant” who frequently wears a gas mask.

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

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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

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