Blazing Blade of Frankenstein #4 is a comic written by Clay Adams with art by Mick Beyers and Julio Rojas. Adam Frankenstein’s heart is judged after he washes up on the shore of R’lyeh, the Island of Death. This is a supernatural fantasy comic with heavy violence, riveting drama and elements from many great literary works like Frankenstein and Dracula as well as influences from authors like Arthur Conan Doyle and H. P. Lovecraft. The leading lady for this tale is Maggie, she is the Empress of this Blazing World but she has been on the run for some time now. Adam Frankenstein is a being made from different body parts who has discovered that he is a central piece to what goes on in this new world. He and Maggie both hail from our more normal realm but they’ve crossed over(at different times, via portals) and have been traveling together for weeks at this point. This story picks up where the last issue left off as an unconscious Adam is being dragged ashore by a pair of armored skeletons as Maggie looks on. They take Adam and place him on stone table in the castle where the mistress sticks her hand in his chest and removes his heart. This takes place in a magic-heavy world where anthropomorphic animal-like creatures are commonplace and monsters aren’t too far out of the ordinary. The violence has light gore and a decent amount of blood. This moves at a steady pace overall with an Egyptian/sword & sorcery tone. There are many dramatically and violently intense moments strewn about. The dialogue has nearly as much narration(descriptive, not from a character) as conversation with a Proper English talking style. There aren’t any word-heavy pages here. This is a compelling issue that focuses on the judgment of Adam Frankenstein which places him and Maggie in a life-threatening and quest-crucial situation.
The art here is drawn in a smoothly detailed manner with a unique style that is more realistic than cartoonish along with decent lighting and shading. The color palette is decently wide with brown/tan and cool black/grey being prominent. For scenery we have some trees on an island as well as long stretches of desert with pyramids in the distance. There are two central locations: the castle on the Island of Death and Ancient Egypt near a pyramid. The backgrounds do a good job of consistently showing the surrounding environment which helps add life to the different scenes. The expression level here is high as these characters have constant, and sometimes intense, reactions to what takes place here. Emotions shown here in include anger, rage, shock, sadness, remorse, smugness, and regret. The faces tend to have an average to high amount of detail and they can get a bit animated which leads to strong and clear expressions across the board. The only actual weapon used here is a sword, outside of that it’s just limbs and rocks. There are some hard-hitting and lightly gruesome attacks that lead to a significant amount of blood and some gore. The action scene is lengthy with a good flow and choice perspectives. These characters are wearing Egyptian garb for most of this comic which is revealing all-around.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural fantasy stories that star a determined empress and Frankenstein along with heavy violence, strong drama, and romantic elements as well as influences from other classic literary works then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Blood, violence, gruesomeness, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“You’ve seen his deeds. The weight on his heart.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/900595556/blazing-blade-of-frankenstein-1-4-complete-first-arc/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 30
Violent Pages: 14, for 47% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 4
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 2
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
