Broken Frontier

Witness the previews of a half dozen films that will never be as Cassie Hack and Vlad go to the movies!

My friends love movie trailers. They often joke about some day creating a film reel made of nothing but trailers. For this reason, I imagine they’d get a kick out the latest offering from the Hack/Slash series. In this ingenious one-shot, writer Tim Seeley playfully skewers the film industry by presenting trailers for a variety of imaginary Hack/Slash films.

The first of these, Blood and Nuts, is illustrated by Skottie Young in his loose, cartoony style and concerns the escape into our reality by a deranged cartoon chipmunk. Said chipmunk proceeds to violently murder his creator, Mr. Young. This segment is worth it for the novelty of an artist depicting himself gruesomely impaled by drawing utensils alone. Seeley and Young also work in a dig at the comics fanboy resistance to non-realistic art styles and derive some cathartic revenge for cartoonists everywhere.

Renegade Knife: Itai!, illustrated by Sean Dove, takes aim at Asian action movies, pitting Cassie and Vlad against Japanese assassins. Drawing from anime stereotypes, this segment has plenty of speed lines, schoolgirls, and gratuitous upskirt shots (Cassie’s dress just doesn’t seem to stay down no matter what angle she’s at). While not the strongest of the trailers, Itai! does prompt a few laughs.

Seeley takes on double duty for Tub Club, both writing and drawing this particular story. Investigating a series of murders, Cassie must infiltrate an all-girl reform school—one where hot tub parties and lesbian love affairs inevitably ensue. The satire of Hollywood (and comics) pandering to horny males is biting and Seeley’s art looks as slick and polished as ever.

Orbituary, drawn by Mike Norton, takes a jab at the ludicrous tendency of horror movie franchises to eventually send their characters into space. Norton’s largely realistic art is solidly rendered and his characters very expressive. He treats us to plenty of dramatic angles, zombie space station crews, and globules of blood floating in zero gravity.

Stefano Casselli’s Dead Celebrities mocks the vapid world of film stars on the interview circuit and our culture’s obsession with fame. Casselli contributes some of the more grotesque images of the issue and all I can say is if you ever desired to see Jay Leno’s head explode, look no further.

Finally, Josh Medors (like a desperate studio exec greenlighting an improbable sequel) gives us Once Bitten, wherein Cassie sets her sights on the slasher of the animal kingdom, a hungry great white shark. Cue predictable Jaws jokes.

Hack/Slash: Trailers is a bit of a mixed bag and some of the results are somewhat forgettable. But for anyone who loves the promise and potential of a well-crafted movie trailer, this comic is bound to have a fun, off-the-wall appeal.