The concept is elegant in its simplicity.

Fans of slasher films know that one person, usually female, always survives the predations of a maniacal killer. Likewise, the killer almost always has some supernatural, hate-driven origin that drives them to keep slaying even after they've taken enough damage to, themselves, die.

So, in Hack/Slash, we have Cassie Hack, the lone survivor of the Lunch Lady killings, who has partnered with the misshapen but supernally strong Vlad to roam the country taking out slashers. Although still quite young, Cassie has become quite adept at the task.

Her story begins in "Euthanized," one of three stories collected in First Cut. After a brief origin story -- dealing with the murderous Lunch Lady (Cassie's mother) who came back from the dead for a second killing spree -- we meet Cassie and Vlad in pursuit of a slasher who uses undead pets in his rampage. That's followed by "Girls Gone Dead," a stereotypical slasher setting, where teens partying hard meet their maker at the hands of a religious zealot. And, finally, "Comic Book Carnage" takes death and destruction to a comic-book convention (strongly based on Philadelphia's Wizard Con), where real-life luminaries such as Steve Niles are among the fallen.

Hack/Slash runs with a fun concept and makes it work. Tim Seeley is the writer for the series; pencils are wielded on the first tale by Stefano Caselli and on the second two by Federica Manfredi. Both are good at bringing Seeley's stories to life (or, as the case may be, undeath), but I have to give the edge to Manfredi's cleaner lines and more fluid style of illustration over Caselli's more painterly work.

First Cut is a lot of fun. I'll be back for more.