Blood & Fire #1 is a comic written by Aaron Woblewski with art by Ezequiel Rubio Lancho. Ishida Nobutaka and the master of his house travel to visit Lord Ishida Takakore as he has grown deathly ill. This is a historical fiction comic with a bit of drama and quite a bit of violence. The main man for this story is the unnamed master of Ishida Nobutaka’s house, he has a wife and a daughter and he is all about honor and respect. Ishida Nobutaka is an older man who is kind and seems to try to find the positive in situations. The story begins the unnamed master training out in the field when he sees a messenger heading towards the house. He heads there as well and Nobutaka tells him that he has been summoned by his brother because he is dying. This takes place in 1563 Japan which is during the Sengoku Period. The violence is very bloody with some gore and gruesome attacks. The pacing is steady with a calm, uneasy tone. The intensity gets high due to violence. The dialogue here is conversational but scarce with a number of word-light pages. This is a debut issue that sets the tone and gives us an interesting and violent story.

            The art here is a bit stylized with good detail and well-done shading. The coloring here is reminiscent of classic Japanese art with it being in black, white, and brown, with blood being red. There is plenty of scenery from mountains and hills to thick forests and fields with lengthy grass. A good chunk of this story takes place in and around buildings but the outdoors are always close by. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings but it can rarely just be a layered color with snowfall making a frequent appearance in both types. The expression level here is around average as most of the characters here maintain an almost consistent unhappy look. There are rare moments of happiness but most of the emotions here are tough and angry-leaning with some stoic shots as well. The faces are decently drawn and convey the feelings well so you won’t get confused about the expressions. The violence here involves arrows and katanas with plenty of blood spilled and some gruesome attacks that lead to gore. The action scenes feature a decent to good amount of panels with a smooth flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like Japanese historical fiction stories that star a man with a family and features violence as well as some drama then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“He grieves in his own way.”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.red5comics.com/blood-fire

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/a-aron/blood-and-fire-a-samurai-tale/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 27

Violent Pages: 5, for 19% 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 – 3

“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 – 3

“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.”