Hack/Slash to End in March

Back in 2004, horror fans got a pleasant surprise with Hack/Slash, an indie comic published by Devil’s Due, written by Tim Seeley, and drawn by Stefano Caselli. It was a fantastic one-shot with some great art and an interesting take on old-school slashers. Since then the series expanded into more one-shots, mini-series, and two on-going series. But, nothing lasts forever.

It was recently announced that Tim Seeley would be ending the current on-going with issue 25, wrapping up the current arc, Final. Probably could have guessed that was coming from the title, but I digress. Seeley spoke to CBR about ending his nine year run on the series and why he decided to end it.

 The main reason is that the story I was working on kind of came to a perfect end there and I had set up that ending when I set up the first ongoing series back at Devil’s Due, so I had that intended. Looking back on what I had said before and what I was planning when I started, I had an 80-issue run planned. Not counting all the crossover stuff, this goes up to 78, so it’s sort of perfect and worked out that the story I had in mind ended there.

He had decided on an 80-issue run because he believed that that was long enough to write a quality story and not overstay your welcome. He went on to say that ending the series now felt like the right time and would let him focus on his other titles, Revival for Image and Ex Sanguine for Dark Horse.

However, we will (probably) be getting more stories with Cassie and Vlad somewhere down the road. Seeley said that he had left himself “a spot to go back to.” When asked if he had plans to revisit these characters, he said this:

Definitely. Part of it is just recognizing that these characters have a story that they’ve started with. Having a resolution to their story doesn’t mean the whole rules that we’ve created for slashers in “Hack/Slash,” that that’s all over with. The world is definitely still ripe for stuff to do if I can come up with something that won’t disappoint people who are big fans of Cassie and Vlad. There’s potential that I could also continue their story. Plus, it’s horror movies, so remakes and reboots are sort of par for the course. If I wanted to do that, it’s also a possibility, but it’s not my first choice.

Hack/Slash may be ending with issue 25, available on March 27th from Image Comics, but ain’t dead.