Blood Commandment #1 [Comic Review]

Szymon Kudranski / Image Comics

Ezra Connolly lives deep in the woods, isolated from the world. He cares for his son Wil, teaching him to shoot and hunt, but Wil, now a young teenager, doesn’t understand the need for isolation and is beginning to question his father. Meanwhile, Ezra’s dark past - supernatural and criminal - is now coming back to haunt him, bringing his fears to reality. Blood Commandment mixes horror, family drama, and crime.

This is the first book I’ve read written by Szymon Kudranksi. Overall the writing is very good, though he overindulges a little with narration.

Kudranski’s art is striking; I particularly enjoyed the limited use of color, which goes a long way to create atmosphere. My only gripe with the art is that it goes a little bit overboard with shallow depth of field. Nearly every panel is layered, with sharp foreground elements and blurred background elements. This is a great effect, and can bring the reader’s attention to sharp focus on important parts of the frame, but when it’s used everywhere it loses its effect.

I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the four issue miniseries. What I’ve read so far is mysterious and compelling. I think it’s shaping up to be a great one, all complaints aside.