Three words: pyromaniac female firefighter. Are you intrigued yet? Well, those are the three words that Shelly Bond and Si Spencer for Vertigo had been talking about with this series that got Si Spencer really thinking about Slash & Burn. It is described as having that feel of Breaking Bad and True Detective. It is set to come out in November with Si Spencer as the writer and the art work of Max Dun as well as Andy Parks. It is a comic about a recovering pyromaniac that decides to repent on her past sins by becoming a firefighter. While on this newfound path Rosheen Hayes runs across some fires that echo her past. A quote from Si Spencer from the Hollywood Reporter quoted him saying this about Slash & Burn:
What really fascinated me about the concept was the big question “Why fight fires? If you’re recovering from addiction, why not steer clear of all things flamey?” And addressing that contradiction seemed exactly the kind of story that this medium does better than anything else.
Comic books allow for so many levels of simultaneous narrative – there’s no other medium where you can combine third person visual narrative with a first person inner monologue and that seemed to me to be exactly what a lying addict does.
And hey y’know: fire good, fire pretty. And I like making up sound effects for things going kerboom.
Who can argue with the fun and intrigue of fire and the fact that Si makes about how comics can bring to light the multitude of narrations. I had not thought about that until I read that, that’s pretty cool. Now in the interview Si Spencer goes on to say that this comic is not set in the conventional reality that we all know. While they are real cities and settings they will not exhume the reality that we know. But if there is something that everyone should know is that the comic is how Si summarizes the Slash & Burn comic.
So this started out as a story about a very new take on a classic thriller about control and addiction in the best medium possible to show both the public veneer and the private agony. And of course a great chance just to blow shit up and burn stuff down. That sounded like just too much fun to resist and the plan was to just relax and enjoy myself with a procedural story.
With reasons like that I am sure to keep an eye out for it, cause let’s face it who doesn’t like “the pretty lights” that come from fire and the wonderful explosions with all the artistic fun that is associated with it. Slash & Burn comes out in November so it will be something to keep us warm during this winter.
