REVIEW: 'Blood Commandment' #1 by Szymon Kudranski

 

BLOOD COMMANDMENT #1 

Writer: Szymon Kudranski

Artist: Szymon Kudranski

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: November 1, 2023

Cover Price: $3.99

MINISERIES PREMIERE

Living an isolated life in a shadowed valley surrounded by mountains and a thick forest, a father and son are terrorized by a dangerous supernatural presence. Only the father's dark secrets can save them...or damn their souls for all eternity!

Being a single father can be tough, but for Ezra Connolly, it's a duty he doesn't take lightly. Living off-grid, away from prying eyes, in the heart of forest country, he spends his days teaching his teenage son Wil survival skills. But Wil has questions, questions Ezra fears to answer about his past, and about why they never leave the valley before sundown...

A four-issue horror miniseries from the creator of the breakout hit series SOMETHING EPIC and the artist of SPAWN and Punisher. SZYMON KUDRANSKI serves us a story about survival, sacrifice, and hope.

"All my heroes growing up were writer/artists. It's the purest form of our medium. I now add SZYMON to this list of greats. This is Exceptional."

-MARK MILLAR (KICK-ASS, WANTED)

"BLOOD COMMANDMENT is the type of storytelling I yearn for. The depth of a human story coupled with the genre-bending horror that keeps me up at night! I love this book!"

-RODNEY BARNES (KILLADELPHIA, Star Wars: The Mandalorian)

Score:

★★★★☆ (4/5)

QUICK REVIEW:  'Blood Commandment' #1 by Szymon Kudranski is a well-written and thoughtful family drama first and a horror story second. I think it's important to make that distinction in order to measure expectations going into this miniseries. So much rests on the father-son relationship of Ezra and son Wil. The loss of his mother and being isolated in the woods has Wil asking a lot of questions. A lot of time and space is used to address Wil's concerns and Ezra's desire to be a good father. So, 'Blood Commandment' emphasizes character development on the way to revealing what Ezra is hiding and just how much danger they're in. There's a lot of dialogue. Their conversations cover religion, faith, spirituality,  life, death, and some heavy existential topics weighing on Wil's mind. In spite of so much familial tension, Kudanski deftly weaves a horror story throughout the book in the periphery which adds some suspense as the greater story begins to unfold. As the artist, Kudranski is his own best penciler, inker, colorist, and cinematographer who understands pacing, framing a suspenseful scene, and the art of the tease. 

'Blood Commandment' is a well-crafted story of familial grief, secrets, coming-of-age, and the supernatural. It's a monster story wrapped in a family drama that relies on character development over cheap theatrics as the slow burn to its horror plotline will give readers goosebumps.