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Belfry, The #1

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    Ian Jane
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  • Belfry, The #1



    Belfry, The #1
    Released by: Image Comics
    Released on: February 22nd,2017.
    Written And Illustrated by: Gabriel Hardman
    Purchase From Amazon

    This new one shot from Gabriel Hardman and Image Comics opens with a dramatic and frightening sequence in which a plane crash lands. The pilot survives but the person in the seat next to him in the cockpit does not and neither, seemingly, do any of the passengers in the main cabin. The pilot exits the plane is immediately set upon by a nude creature, half woman/half bat. She knocks him off the top of the plane, bites him on the neck and draws blood and then flies off into the night sky.

    We flash back before the crash. The pilot is named Bill. He wakes up from the dream when one of the flight attendants, a woman named Janet, stirs him. Some of the crew and, amazingly enough, all of the passengers did survive after all. His co-pilot, Anders, is also alive - though barely. Given that a tree branch broke through the window and went into his eye during the crash, we can forgive Bill for thinking Anders dead. Neither seems to really remember what brought about the crash in the first place.

    Knowing that they need help, Bill takes the flash light and tries to find a way out of the thick jungle. When he comes across a horde of the human/bat hybrids, same as the one that attacked him, he knows they're in trouble. He runs back to the crash site as quickly as he can but he's too late, the creatures make short work of the survivors, killing some and carrying others off to their lair. Bill follows them to the caves and eventually finds Janet and a few others naked and beaten, bleeding from their necks. They're all behind makeshift bars, tossed fish heads through the bars by a person who seems humane enough for sustenance. His eyes have been plucked out and sewn shut because he didn't turn.

    Soon enough, some of those in the cell start to do just that - they turn. Once their wings sprout, they're able to fly up out of the hole. Since Bill, who was bitten first, and a few of the other remained human, sure enough a winged creature comes into the cell with a stick to remove their eyes…

    A seriously dark story, The Belfry is a nice mix of classic monster movie tropes, survival story elements and fairly graphic nastiness. Hardman doesn't mess around here. The story is lean, mean and efficient and while it might have been a bit better had it been spread out a bit more to provide a bit more character development, what's here not only works but it works well. There's a lot of spook imagery here, drawn in Hardman's distinct style, a style that is somehow sketchy and highly detailed at the same time and that is often very dark and shadowy (traits that definitely work in favor of the story being told here).

    This one shot also features a text piece from Hardman that explains how with this comic he wanted to experiment and how the story was inspired by a pin-up he drew some years back (also included). This first horror one shot is good enough that fans will likely want to see him return to this type of material in the future, maybe with a series of self-contained stories like this inaugural offering.
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