Broken Frontier

Jason Blood and his demonic half begin a mystical adventure beyond strange where a new enemy emerges.

Randu’s mind has been pulled to someplace not of this world and when Jason Blood seeks to help, he instead takes the mystic’s place! As Randu, Anjeli, Kinkaid, and Harry try to figure out where Jason’s mind has gone Blood and Etrigan explore a world of dreams and nightmares. In this world Blood discovers a new enemy, one who wants the soul of the Demon! "Not quite meanwhile" the seemingly angelic, miracle worker, Joshua, meets with the President of the United States of America. The request he makes there could have dire effects on Blood and his small circle of friends.

This issue John Byrne and Will Pfeifer, as plotter and scripter respectively, drop the reader into the middle of a lot of weirdness and do a little explaining as they go along. There is a clever, twisted sense of humor at work here and one scene in particular stands out. When Etrigan experiences the stereotypical ‘in front of your classmates naked’ nightmare nothing is typical and the scenario has a demented streak. The story travels along, carrying the reader with it. There is a feeling that you really don’t know where this story is going and you start to wonder if the authors know where it is going either. There is a fun freedom in this; a feeling that anything can happen and anything will happen.

Although all of the characters are interesting, it is Detective Kinkaid who consistently shines. Her role as the ‘normal’ person among all these mystics allows Pfeifer a great amount of freedom with her dialogue. Here she continues to display a lot of plain, old-fashioned moxie; a trait often missing in female characters.

Byrne’s art on this title has been consistently good, if not some of his best in years. This issue is a prime example, as he unleashes a horde of bizarre monsters and panels of disturbing images. The backgrounds and details are also well crafted to add to the mood of the issue.

It would be remiss, though, not to compliment Dan Green’s inks on this issue. Green fills in for regular inker, Nekros, and does a terrific job of it. His work adds real shadows and depths here, giving the story an extra layer of darkness. It works extremely well in this tale, tinged with horror.

If I have any complaints with the issue it is that Will Pfeifer continues to have Blood talk out loud to himself entirely too much. Even though this comic is trying to tap an earlier style, the soliloquies go a little too far and become annoying. More of this dialogue needs to either go in thought balloons or caption boxes.

Blood of the Demon is something of an ‘old school’ title, and by that, I mean 1970’s ‘old school’. The magic, mysticism, occult, and even horror elements are similar to what was seen in titles three decades ago. In this modern era, however, that lends the title a refreshing simplicity. There is a strong nostalgia factor as well as an attempt at introducing new, younger readers to a time when comic book stories were not so tightly plotted they squeaked.

This issue is a good jumping on point as it begins a new adventure for the Demon and his friends. The title is, however, an acquired taste and one that not everyone will enjoy. If you have a love of free-flowing, occult based comics, though, Blood of the Demon is worth a look.