Survival horror Blood Commandment pits an isolated family against a vampire

Art from Blood Commandment #1.
(Image credit: Image Comics)

Spawn and Punisher artist Szymon Kudrański is writing and drawing a new horror miniseries for Image this November. Kudrański has described Blood Commandment as "a story about the relationship between a father and his growing up son living far away from civilization in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by thick forests and mountains." Which sounds lovely, until you learn that it's also a story about a vampire...

Kudrański was keen to dig into the existential horror of being a bloodsucker for the four-issue series. "I tried to return to the most classical rules of vampires and reinvent them a bit, where their origin lies in the bearing of a damned soul, instead of a 'monster' that just acts as a killing machine... Staying within the framework of faith and God, it deepens the tragedies of these characters."

Check out some of Kudrański's atmospheric unlettered pages for the new book in the gallery below.

Image's official synopsis for the new book reads:

"Being a single father can be tough, but for Ezra Connolly, it's a duty he doesn't take lightly. Living off-grid, away from prying eyes, in the heart of forest country, he spends his days teaching his teenage son Wil survival skills. But Wil has questions, questions Ezra fears to answer - about his past, and about why they never leave the valley before sundown…"

You can check out the cover for #1, along with four variants - all drawn by Kudrański! - below.

The writer/artist has also been working on his ongoing fantasy series, Something Epic, also for Image. The timing is perfect, says Kudrański.

"The first arc of Something Epic ends in November, the second arc starts in March. Blood Commandment is a great story for someone who is following and waiting for my solo work as a creator, writer and illustrator. I assure my readers that they will experience a lot of emotions while reading it!"

Blood Commandment #1 is published by Image on November 1.


Not all vampires are evil. Some are even superheroes, including all the characters in this list.

Will Salmon
Comics Editor

Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.

Read more
A sinister clown.
Rick Remender and Paul Azaceta's new horror comic The Seasons feels like Tintin meets Wes Anderson in Hell
Blood and her gun on the cover of Blood & Thunder #1.
Invincible and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman's new comic Blood & Thunder looks like Blade Runner with a talking gun
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
The Witcher 3 devs created a Jekyll & Hyde-style character for their new vampire RPG "because nobody yet has done that"
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 director's upcoming open-world RPG Blood of Dawnwalker keeps revealing new vampires, and I can't get enough of this deliciously Gothic lore
Henry Blackheart, the hero of Lost Fantasy.
Final Fantasy meets horror monsters in new Image title Lost Fantasy
The Blood of Dawnwalker vampire
Former The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs reveal new Vampiric dark fantasy open-world RPG that's "the first chapter" of a "brand new role-playing saga"
Latest in Comics
King Kong wrestling a giant squid monster
The Monsterverse expands with Return to Skull Island, a comic tying into Netflix's King Kong-centric animated series
Close up on Emma Frost's face as she sits on a throne on the cover of Emma Frost: White Queen #1
"Bow down to the White Queen" as Emma Frost gets her own X-Men solo comic that flashes back to her time as a villain
The Biker Mice From Mars.
Oni Press's new Biker Mice From Mars comic will take a "hard-hitting approach to the stories" and "definitely won't pull any punches"
Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #12
Gwen Stacy and Loki team-up for a cosmic adventure in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #12
An alien attacks.
Xenomorphs have taken the island as Alien: Paradiso nears its endgame
Cover art from Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1.
13 years after his New 52 series ended, cult DC hero Resurrection Man is back in Quantum Karma
Latest in News
Players in GTA Online running businesses and playing missions
GTA publisher is suing a GTA Online website that lets you buy hacked accounts, which "risks upending the GTA 5 player experience"
Death Stranding 2 trailer showing Sam shooting at an enemy
Hideo Kojima aims to beat the ‘walking simulator’ allegations as Death Stranding 2 releases combat-heavy trailer
Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci in The Electric State
Stars Stanley Tucci and Giancarlo Esposito say their new dystopian sci-fi movie The Electric State is more like our own reality than we might realize
Suikoden
Suikoden lead hopes to expand the cult JRPG series "beyond where it ended" and would happily follow Zelda to the silver screen: "If you have any friends in Hollywood, please let us know"
Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod Baldur's Village
Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke gives his official approval to the Stardew Valley mod that brings the D&D RPG to Pelican Town
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in The Last Of Us season 2
The Last of Us season 2's Abby star Kaitlyn Dever admits it's been hard to not look at character backlash on the internet