One place where the old-school slasher vibe seems to have survived, however, is in comic books. It’s entirely appropriate for this to be the case, given that the ghoulish humour, imagery and gore of 80’s horror owes much to the notorious EC titles of the 50’s that many of the filmmakers grew up on. And in these days, with the Comics Code Authority so distant a memory it’s practically a fable and a large percentage of comic covers bearing the words ‘Suggested For Mature Readers,’ the funny books can go to far greater lengths in terms of graphic content - further, even, than the movies have been allowed to go. Pretty much all the great horror icons of the era - Leatherface, Michael Myers, Freddy, Jason, Chucky, Ash, and Herbert West - have all found a new lease of life in the pages of books from Wildstorm and Devil’s Due.

But none of the aforementioned comics capture the old-school slasher spirit quite as well as an original creation from writer/artist Tim Seeley. His tales of a nerdy high school loner turned avenging angel - or should that be avenging emo? – and her hulking sidekick have proved to be one the most consistently entertaining ongoing titles in comics today. The heroine’s name is Cassie Hack, and the comic is Hack/Slash.

The basic set-up is as follows: Cassie Hack’s mother was the Lunch Lady, an embittered obese woman who embellished the school menu ever-so slightly by adding the meat of asshole schoolkids. On being found out she killed herself, but came back from the dead to continue her reign of terror. It was down to Cassie herself to put her mother back in the ground, leaving her orphaned (the specifics of her father not coming into play until more recently). And so it was that young Cassie made it her mission to hunt and kill all slashers, wherever they may be. Invariably, the places they tend to be are of course where young people get together for drinks, doobies and diddling.

Conceptually, then, it’s not a million miles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (funnily enough, another retired celluloid franchise living on in comics). But Cassie is an altogether different animal to the blonde saviour of Sunnydale. Much as Joss Wheddon described Firefly as “what Han Solo would be like before the time of the Star Wars movies,” Hack/Slash could almost be the pre-Buffy adventures of Eliza Dushku’s bad slayer Faith. And, as I’m sure millions of libidos will agree, that’s not a bad idea at all. While Cassie may echo Buffy in terms of emotional vulnerability, she more than matches Faith for brutality, rage and all around fuck-you attitude. Unlike Buffy, her opponents don’t go poof – they go splat, thwack, ker-chunk, and often. And, as if there could be any mistaking it, while Cassie as written may be an insecure, withdrawn, virginal outcast, as drawn she’s the dream girlfriend of untold millions of geeks; jet-black hair, rippling abs, word class breasts, ass that won’t quit, and legs that go all the way up! There can be little doubt that Seeley and his numerous artist collaborators including Stefano Casselli and Emily Stone are loving every millisecond spent drawing their creation, dressing her up in all manner of provocative goth-punk garb, and dropping her into a variety of near-sexual scenarios that border on the Charlie’s Angels-ish, not least the issue in which she’s forced to go undercover as – what else – a Suicide Girl…

But, on the off-chance that isn’t enough for you, there is a great deal more to Hack/Slash than T&A. For starters, it puts a fresh, creative spin on established horror lore, coming within nail-biting closeness of that holy grail of modern storytelling – a new idea. As intimated earlier, an interesting and agreeable step Seeley has taken is to establish slashers as monsters in their own right, a unique breed of beast as distinct as vampires, werewolves or zombies. Their fuel is not blood or the full moon; it’s their own fury. As defined by Cassie in the first one-shot issue, “they’re so full of rage they don’t wanna die. They hate love, youth, sex – things they miss from life.” Sure, to anyone who’s watched more than one slasher movie all this should go without saying, but it’s still kind of nice to have it put down formally. And while they are relatively clear-cut rules, they leave a lot of room for embellishment. And so we have fornicator-slaying fundamentalist Christians, a nightmare-invading toy-stealing spoiled brat, a white-skinned guy with a tic-tac-toe board drawn out on his bald head – stop me when any of this sounds at all familiar...

However, one nice touch is that thanks to Devil’s Due publishing a number of the movie-based comics mentioned earlier, we occasionally have appearances not just by characters reminiscent of old movie monsters, but the real movie monsters themselves. Cassie has more than once joined forces and/or done battle with Chucky and Herbert West. Alas, despite Devil’s Due also publishing a Halloween comic which Seeley himself has written, no crossover with Michael Myers has been able to happen; as Seeley told ComicMonsters.com, “Malek Akkad doesn't really like the crossover fights.” The very thing that scuppered the Pinhead Vs Michael movie that might have teamed up Clive Barker and John Carpenter in the wake of Freddy Vs Jason. Hmmm... fair enough if the Akkads are concerned about anything that might cheapen the character they own the rights to, but looking at the last few Halloween movies, one has to wonder just how defensive they are...

But never mind that, I hear you cry - what about a Hack/Slash movie? Inevitably - given the way comics have in the past decade become a hatchery for movies, specifically designed to line the pockets of corporate bigwigs and incur the dark wizard wrath of Alan Moore - a big screen outing for Cassie and Vlad has been on the cards for some time. Indeed, as early as the second trade paperback collection ‘Death By Sequel’ the words ‘Slated to be a major movie from Rogue Pictures’ were proudly emblazoned on the cover, and rumour had it that the latest bright young thing in Hollywood, Megan Fox, was interested in the lead. I understand it was even suggested that Cassie be brought into the fold when Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash was on the cards. (Incidentally, there’s also a comic adaptation of the treatment for that sequel-that-never-was, and I must say, based on the comic I’m damn glad that movie didn’t happen.) But for whatever reason, progress on Hack/Slash: the movie has been slow. Director Todd Lincoln is now attached to an adaptation of Whitley Strieber’s The Grays, and with Fox taking on horror with Jennifer’s Body and comic books with Jonah Hex and Fathom, it’s easy to see her passing on Cassie. Fan-casting online has long since become a common pastime, popular suggestions for Cassie including Ellen Page (doubtful), Danielle Harris (hmm, perhaps), and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (drooooooool...). Ultimately, if you’re a good-looking female brunette with a playing age of about 20, you’re fair game. For myself, I don’t know who the best choice is, but I have two key things to say on the matter. First - for the love of all that is divine get this thing into production post-haste, and in so doing scupper the proposed Buffy reboot movie. Second – Clancy Brown for Vlad. The build, the voice, the presence; you know it makes sense.

But, lest we too should fall victim to the dark wizard wrath of Alan Moore, let’s not forget that comics are a fantastic medium in their own right. Unbound by budgets, FX limitations and actors who say “my character wouldn’t do that,” the best comic writers and artists can take us headfirst into a world of their own creation, limited only by their own skill and vision. Hack/Slash is by no means a masterwork, but, like so many of the best loved comics there have ever been, it’s nothing if not fun. If, like me, you find yourself hankering for slashers like they used to be, you could do worse than to check it out – as well as the five trade paperbacks published to date, there are also two bigger anthology editions available. And if you’re not already turned on by surly fishnet-clad young women with parental issues, then you will be.