Welcome to Butcher’s Block, our “Hack/Slash” annotation. With the Kickstarter-funded hardcover version of the second omnibus now in print, there’s a few new additions that we should dive into.
Furthermore, for sake of clarity: “Hack/Slash” is a mature comic book series. As such, many images may not be suitable for younger audiences, and quotations and/or panels may include liberal curses and mature content such as profanity, violence, or sexual imagery.
Additionally, while certain characters are part of real-life history, and while we may give their names, they are never mentioned by name within the books, and so we shall go on implication instead. As such, they are not actually the persons, but rather adaptations of them for the sake of a horror story. That aside, they are never deliberately identified as these people on-panel.
New Concepts
Slasher Animals
While the slasher in “The Girl with the Fishnet Stockings” is not exactly an animal slasher, it is far from beyond the realm of possibility. Although the bloodline of slashers in general is primarily human, for some reason or another it is not unheard of for animals to take up similar capabilities. The most notable of these examples would likely be Blackfin, a massive shark from the ‘Once Bitten’ story in the first “Trailers” anthology. What exactly was going on to make an animal into a slasher is unclear, but the most likely case is that a normal shark had somehow ingested, be it through scientific injection, consumption of another infected, or otherwise accidental intake, the alchemical black ambrosia (to be discussed further if it ever directly comes up).
However, this story is not quite the same, and so isn’t entirely the case.
Nef Demons
Prominently shown in ‘Shout at the Devil’ and ‘Fame Monster,’ but also having their presence well known across many arcs of the series, the demons of the alternate dimension of Nef are in some ways the prototypical “rock music is the work of the devil” approach, but taken entirely literally.
Led by demonic “gods” known as the Lords of Nef or the Neflords (depending on the story), the demons are from an alternate dimension where they take virgin sacrifices to bear demon offspring, unable to create on their own. The mothers of these demons seemingly invariably die.
In order to secure sacrifices, the Neflords call upon agents to act in their stead, using the power of music (and possibly other methods, but that is the only one known) to hypnotize virgins that they then bring to the plane of Nef. In exchange, these agents are given the luck of being known ass extremely popular and successful musicians regardless of their actual talent, with a certain “King” of rock and roll being one of their former agents (Elvis Presley, though he is never named on-panel). Some of their music is used in demonic magic, as well as various dances or outfits, giving meaning to some of the proclivities of various musicians.
Despite the fact that it appears as though the Neflords were finally defeated permanently in the ‘Fame Monster’ arc, their magic, including that of their guitar, lasted far beyond, used in the ‘Final’ arc (the end of the 2011 ongoing series from Image Comics) in a way that shows it is capable of negating even the regenerative abilities of slashers, much like Nef magic wands do the same.
The most famous of the Nef demons is “Pooch,” a skinless dog-like demon born of an Earth dog known as a “lowbeast.” The lowliest of its kind, a lowbeast is treated poorly by others of its kind, and can talk.
New Issues
As with the first deluxe omnibus, the additions to the mythos for the second deluxe omnibus are not, technically speaking, “issues,” but are still effective nonetheless.
The Girl in the Fishnet Stockings
This installment is unusual for “Hack/Slash”: a prose piece. It is written by horror novelist Stephen Graham Jones, with spot illustrations by Jim Terry the same artist behind the artwork on the limited series for “The Crow / Hack/Slash.”
Continued belowAs for the quality of the images, it is in this quality that the pages were printed, possibly on purpose to give a sense of being “used” in some sense.
The overall story is pretty simple, a slasher trying to pass Cassie Hack and go to their target while being left alone. While it appears to be an example of an animal slasher (see above), it turns out to be something stranger, involving what might be an illusion, or perhaps shapeshifting. Further, we see Cassie deal with a slasher without Vlad after having joined up with him, emphasizing how he has a particular focus (yes, yes, “a particular set of skills”) that does not apply to every situation.
There is a half-valid explanation for how not every undead being may actually aim to seek revenge, but it is rendered moot by the fact that this particular one does kill random people.
Highwayman to Heaven
This one-shot story was written by Tim Seeley, with art by the aforementioned Jim Terry, colors by Felipe Sabreiro, and letters by Crank! as with many a story in this saga.
The result is only five pages long, but its place in the overall story of “Hack/Slash” seems self-evident. While the names of the characters are never stated (likely for legal reasons involving the implication that some real-life people were servants of demonic entities), they are still readily evident by the context and visual cues.
The time frame of the tale appears to be already known as well. Based on the all-but-stated identity of the champion of Nef before Jeffrey Brevard, a.k.a. Six Sixx, it appears to take place in 1977, presumably in mid-August of that year. Using some math, such as Cassie and Vlad’s relative ages according to certain flashbacks and the time in which they were released, this story therefore takes place roughly four years before Vlad was born, and ten years before Cassie was born.
In general, it shows the “payment coming due” for the agent before Six Sixx, specifically how his death in his bathroom in Memphis played out in this comic book universe. Instead of following him, however, it follows a friend of Mr. Presley: another unstated individual, to be sure, but the words on his guitar, “As sure as night is dark and day is light,” indicates that the person being seen, who apparently left to travel as a demon hunter, is Johnny Cash, with the words being lyrics from his famous 1957 song “I Walk the Line.” This information further correlates with the outfit he wears, the dark outfit and knee-length coat being the same he wore as his “the Man in Black” image in that era, along with the fact that he joined a band called “The Highwaymen” afterward that year. There are several events in real life that may correlate to his discovery of Presley’s fate, but such details delve straight into speculation and potential defamation, and so will not be addressed.
While there isn’t a lot here, there still is something. Want to know more about the pieces of the lore and particular material discussed, or other elements about the epic as a whole? Feel free to ask away in the comments below.
