Bloodborne – Review of the comic series

Bloodborne is a 2015 video game, produced by SCE Japan Studio And FromSoftwareaction RPG belonging to the subgenre of soulslike, now well known to all gamers. As often happens with such famous and appreciated works, these are also starting to appear on other types of media: in 2018, the Titan Comics publishing house (who had also published a comic series on Dark Souls) begins serialization of comics set in the world of Bloodborne.

Of six volumes published in Italy by Cosmo Editorial: today we will tell you about the first fouras they contain self-contained stories, while the fifth presents a different and still ongoing narrative arc. Aleš Kot is responsible for these volumesthe screenwriter (writer for the series of Zero and some Marvel and DC volumes), Piotr Kowalskithe designer (known for Urban Vampires and the comics of The Witcher) And Brad Simpsonthe colorist (known for work on The Amazing Spider-Man And Stray Dogs). So let’s analyze these first four volumes of the series.

• Original title: Bloodborne
• Italian title: Bloodborne
• UK release: February 2018
• Italian release: May 2019
• Number of volumes: 6 (in progress)
• Publishing house: Cosmo Editorial
• Type: Dark Fantasy
• Drawings: Piotr Kowalski
• History: Alesh Kot
• Format: ‎Paperback 25.3 x 0.3 x 16.7 cm
• Number of pages: 110

“The red moon on the horizon.”

Let’s start by saying that the comics of Bloodborne introduce new characters and eventswith only some of them connecting to the original plot of the video game: this is a free interpretation, where Alesh Kot makes use of the game’s setting and creatures to present us with original stories. Each volume has a self-contained story and, since they are not particularly long, I will simply mention their contents, in case you intend to retrieve them yourself later.

The first volume,”The sleep of death”, tells us about a hunter who, like an ordinary player of Bloodbornewakes up in the middle of the night of the hunt with the aim of finding a “haggard”; letting himself be guided by a mysterious child, the protagonist begins the search for a “hidden truth”. This first volume is that containing multiple references to the video game, with the hunter exploring familiar areas, especially for those who have faced the DLC. The faces he will encounter on his journey are also familiar, such as Iosefkathe hunters Powder Kegs and, of course, the two well-known inhabitants of the hunter’s dream.

The second volume,”Thirst for healing”, is set at the beginning of the plague of beasts and features a doctor and a member of the Church of the Cure, who decide to collaborate to understand what the origin of the disease was. Among all the volumes, this is probably the most interesting: the original characters are well characterized and credible in the context of the story, while the choice to observe the beginning of the plague from the point of view of normal citizens helps the identification and construction of the mystery. Despite the few pages, this second volume manages to create a story that is functional to the context of Bloodborne and which, more generally, turns out to be an absolutely pleasant dark-fantasy plot.

The third volume,”The song of the crows”, has as its protagonist Eileen the Crow, one of the best-known video game characters. As imaginable from her role as a “hunter of hunters”, the story of this volume sees her in search of a hunter now in the grip of madness caused by ancient blood. This volume makes an introspection on the character of Eileenas well as focusing on analyzing the concept of “madness” which inevitably affects hunters in the world of Bloodborne.
In this case, we have a less linear plot which leaves an ending open to free interpretation.

The fourth and final volume,”The torn veil“, it’s surely the most enigmatic and cryptic of all, almost complex in its reading: the protagonist is a nameless man who wanders the streets of the city, where the beasts have taken total control and the influence of the Great Beings is now such that the border between reality and Nightmare it seems impossible to separate.
The scenario presented this time seems to be that of a possible defeat of the hunters, who therefore would not have been able to counter the beasts. The main theme of the entire volume is madness, caused by the obsessive search for superior knowledge.

“Do you hear the lake?”

At this point, let’s take stock of the screenplays of Alesh Kotalso taking into account the more or less marked connections with the video game. The choice to insert new elements works, but only partially: On the one hand, we can see stories like “Thirst for healing”, in which the author’s creations blend perfectly with the setting of the game, while on the other hand there are situations in which the world of Bloodborne It seems to be used little or just for simple scattered quotes, only scratching the surface of a much larger universe.

Anyone who is passionate about the history of Bloodborne and its characters, you will notice some rather obvious shortcomings: just to give a few examples, there is no mention of the history of Cainhurst and gods Vilebloodnothing about the school of Monthly or of Choirjust as there are no references to important characters, as there could be Ludwig or Laurence. Same Great Beings they are used quite little within the stories. Since these are themed comics Bloodborne, the little attention given to the game world will endUnfortunatelyto leave many fans with a bad taste in their mouths.

The structure of the narrative doesn’t help, arriving, at times, to be far too slow and confusing; if we wanted to consider them out of the context of Bloodbornewe would have short stories that are pleasant enough, but which don’t add anything new to the panorama of dark-fantasy comics.

If we have ups and downs regarding history, from a technical point of view there is excellent quality: the drawing of Piotr Kowalski perfectly recreates every corner of Yharnam in a meticulous manner, filling even the smallest vignettes with glimpses of the city streets. The line is clean and precise in outlining the silhouettes of backgrounds and characters, to which is added fine shading with quite varied patterns, almost creating mosaics with the ink on the larger backgrounds.

The excellent drawings are then embellished by the care of Brad Simpson for the colors: as you might imagine for a setting of this kind, cold and dark tones are used, but not excessively dark. Lighting effects and interesting contrasts allow you to see a discreet variety of color palettes, while still conforming to the tones of the settings. The Kowalski-Simpson pairing undoubtedly proves successful, so much so as to make the artistic sector the greatest value of this comic series.

Comics by Bloodborne they can be found in the Editoriale Cosmo online catalogue, where you can choose whether to purchase them individually or through the box set. In addition to these four numbers, in the box set you will also find the fifth volume”The Lady of the Lanterns”, where we have Cullen Bunn to the screenplay, with the beginning of a longer and ongoing narrative arc; to analyze”The Lady of the Lanterns”, we have therefore decided to wait for the arrival of the next volumes, so as to review this new story once it is completed.

Who do we recommend Bloodborne comics to?

As you may have already guessed, comics by Bloodborne they are not for all video game fans: if a player approaches reading looking for a faithful story, it is very likely that he will be disappointed, just as he might be disappointed by the absence of many iconic places and characters; on the other hand, if you are a fan of dark-fantasy comics or collectors of themed products Bloodborne, you could take a look at it even just by picking up the first volume, and then consider whether to continue with the series.