Dark Horse Comics brings you an action-packed hand-to-hand combat that takes in the future in Blood Force Trauma. Now I’ve seen comics that come with a lot of action and stuff, and probably it’s one of my favorites so far because I’m more interested in looking at some panels where two people smack each other using martial arts, weapons such as guns, swords, machines, etc. It’s something like that I’m into studying some of the sickest dynamic poses of fighting. However, this comic is like an alternative version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Battletoads, or even Yu Yu Hakusho, because this is where indie comics are all indie comics, and it’s about some futuristic fighting tournament which is Blood Force Trauma with violence and bloodshed.
The comic is written by Hiram Corbett and also written and illustrated by Jake Smith. Now I feel like I’ve seen this guy’s art style, I did go to some comic fairs but I don’t remember where because it was a long time ago. But anyway let’s move on, Jake is a comic book artist based out of Kansas City Missouri. He has created his two completed graphic novels, but he’s also done various comic cover art for Image Comics, IDW, and Boom! Studios. He also did some storyboard projects for the YouTube channel MeatCanyon which shows some animated videos that are not for kids to watch.
The front cover shows some of the sickest cover art that I’ve ever seen. The background seems it takes place somewhere in the 80s, and the main character looked really pissed. Looks like he’s been through a lot. If there’s any other comic that is very recognizable, then get ready, this comic has a lot of video game references. And there’s so much stuff that I recognize, especially the pins on his jacket which show the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda, a blue pin that looks like The Flash’s logo, the pill from Kaneda’s jacket except the pill is red and white, and that dinosaur’s head that almost looks like some kid’s toy. What I really like about this front cover is that the character seems to be angry enough that his eyes have turned blue and somehow he’s wearing a helmet while his hair is on fire which is so cool. And looking at this cover art should look better if it was a Sega Genesis game cover art, it could be even better as Comix Zone. I really can’t praise enough of this cover art that looks so groovy.
The story goes of a boy named Zap Daniels who is about to see one of the biggest matches in the fighting history of some TV show named Blood Force Trauma, he goes to the stadium to see the fight for himself because tonight’s match is going to be Trash Skullcracker versus Meat Grinder which a human with portable skull against a rad shark. Every time they fight, the comic panels show such interesting action scenes, and the battle is decided when the Skullcracker slices the shark right up with his electrical knife that cuts like butter. And out of the blue, he chooses Zap to fight him because he thinks that this fight is meaningless to him unless someone takes over his place. So Skullcracker challenged Zap to fight him. But somehow he wanted Zap to defeat him on purpose by playing pretend. Zap killed Skullcracker by ripping out his arm and calling Zap himself the BFT champion.
So right after I turned a few pages of the comic, I noticed that Jake has placed so many fighting game posters around the streets, even Zap’s apartment where you see Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, Akira, the Fatal Fury series including Special and Garou Mark of the Wolves, any kind of poster you can think of. So Zap met a guy named Lightning Legs Jones who helped him from thugs and took Jones to his place, his bank account just went up after defeating Skullcracker and then Jones started training Zap to become a better fighter just to win more fights and get more money to support his family. After a few upgrades of his physique, his fighting style, his helmet, his determination, and more importantly Skullcracker’s sword, he started fighting some of the tough opponents in the arena that almost met Zap’s match. He may be a good fighter, but how long will he stand up and keep fighting to win?
The story is amazing to tell this comic is all action-packed with every fighting game tournament that you can think of. Of course, I played some fighting games at this time, however, this comic is way more different than Mortal Kombat or any other Mortal Kombat rip-offs because it shows so much bloodshed. But I believe my favorite fight is the beginning which is Trash Skullcracker and Meat Grinder because it shows some of the sickest fights that Jake has ever drawn.
Speaking of, I really can’t praise enough Jake’s art style because from what I see is that the character designs are really great so far and the dynamic poses are awesome too and I really love the coloring too, the way that he colored the background of the sky which is pink or purple it almost look like I’m seeing a background from 1980s. My favorite thing about his art so far is the fight scenes. The moment I saw the first fight really moved me to see that these fighters are smacking around while Skullcracker slices up the shark at the end of the match. The fight between Zap and La Venganza was something else but it’s not really that common for him to use black magic to summon an army of chupacabras to hold Zap down, what really amazes me is Zap’s power to electrocute the chupacabras, and threw a Kamehameha looking lightning to Venganza until his face got fried. I have never seen those kinds of scenes that are so very inspirational. And the creator has been doing those kinds of dynamic action poses based on every fighting game that he played. I keep turning the pages of this comic to see those kinds of scenes, it’s really amazing. Blood Force Trauma is an amazing comic to read and to see some awesome fighting scenes that you’ve never seen before.
Newsdesk