Eisner Award nominated creator Tim Seeley will team up with original Hack/Slash artist Stefano Caselli to bring legendary Jason Pearson’s iconic Body Bags characters back to the page in the upcoming Hack/Slash: Body Bags mashup. This four-issue miniseries—featuring Pearson’s beloved characters crossed over into the world of fan-favorite Cassie Hack—will hit shelves in October from Image Comics.
When slasher hunters Cassie Hack & Vlad roll into Terminus, Georgia in search of a killer… they’re instantly up to their asses in bounty hunters! Meanwhile, Mack “Clownface” Delgado needs to school his daughter Panda in the ways of Bodybagging, and it needs to happen quickly, which means a private school lock-in for baggers in training—and a teen-slicing slasher. Big knives, short skirts, and swear words will fly.
“Tim reached out a little over a year ago via our mutual friend, Cully Hamner, one of Jason’s former studio mates at Gaijin Studios, with the idea to do this crossover,” said Keven Gardner, friend and former Publisher to the late Pearson. “To be honest, before talking with Tim, my initial reaction was, ‘probably not.’ This was about six months after Jason’s passing, his mom was in the middle of settling his estate—it just wasn’t something on her radar or mine. But, after I spoke with Tim it was immediately clear that he was a huge fan of Body Bags, that Jason’s work had been a strong influence on him, and that this was something he and Stefano really wanted to do. We talked about possible ideas, and I could see how this could be something special.”
Caselli added: “Jason’s Body Bags is one of the biggest reasons I’m a comic book artist today.”
“Body Bags was my favorite comic of the late 90s, and its influence on Hack/Slashis probably pretty evident (see Vlad.),” said Seeley. “We’re so proud to bring Jason’s characters back, and re-introduce them to old and new fans.”
“Stefano told me about he and Jason got to be friends and would Skype sometimes when they were both at their drawing tables, and how he wanted to help Jason’s legacy live on by doing this crossover,” said Gardner. “As Stefano talked about why he wanted to do this and his friendship with Jason, it really got to me emotionally. All the concerns I had about doing this without Jason just went away; I knew Mack and Panda were in good hands. Plus, Tim’s idea for the story was so good—it’s set over one night in Terminus, right after the initial Body Bagsstory from 1996, Father’s Day, ends.”
Hack/Slash: Body Bags #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, October 23