Blood Blister #1 Review

Brand Hull is a very good lawyer. He’s also pretty big douche bag who doesn’t really care about the difference between right and wrong. As you might imagine, the fact that a character like this is in a horror comic means he’s about to find out just how bad/painful it is to ignore the wages of sin.

Blood Blister #1 (AfterShock Comics)

Observations

• Wow. Hull may be a slimy lawyer, but you’ve gotta have sympathy for anyone who has to visit a family like this.
• Even if the cash goes from being stored in manila envelopes to pocket purses—this is a still a shady deal.
• I want to focus on Brand actually showing a bit of humility, but that blood blister he’s popping has me mesmerized.
• Say what you want about demonic forces, but this haunted house is still pretty great.
• Giant babies are terrifying enough without them ripping people in half, too.
• Geez. I get that Hull sucks and all, but does he really deserve to have all this happening to him?

The Verdict

On one hand, Blood Blister #1 delivers on atmosphere about as well as you can ask for. There are a lot of stories about people being trapped in literal and figurative versions of hell, but this one is significantly more terrifying/messed up than most.

Unfortunately, we don’t get a whole lot of actual story. While Brand Hull’s character is exceptionally well established, we never get much of a hint about why he’s being put through the spiritual ringer beyond being a run of the mill sleaze ball. Phil Hester’s dialogue is very well written, but it doesn’t feel like there’s much of a narrative behind things beyond “This really bad dude is being sent to hell.”

Tony Harris’ art is also a bit inconsistent, vacillating between appearing too cartoony for the subject matter (in my opinion, anyway) and perfectly suited for it. It’s definitely more good than not, though.

Overall, I’d say that Blood Blister #1 shows more than enough promise to keep on your pull list—even if the first issue is a bit of a letdown as far as the actual story is concerned. Any comic featuring gigantic carnivorous demon babies is definitely worth a second look.