Written and drawn by Robert Geronimo

Lettered by Thomas Maurer

Fantasy horror is a genre that’s been left by the wayside in recent days. As we rocket into the future aboard a flaming wagon filled with shit, people seem to be spending more time in fictional worlds closer to our reality and timeline.

Robert Geronimo’s new comic, Kingdom Of Blood, plants itself firmly in that subgenre with a tale of goat warriors, silent warrior priestesses, cursed kingdoms, and lots and lots of blood.

I’ll try to break down a synopsis, but it won’t be easy. There’s a human kingdom, Voragoth, and through just a whole bunch of bad decisions and evil shenanigans, they’ve become besieged by the Saytrians, a race of goat men who seek to not just overthrow Voragoth, but attain an ancient relic of evil that will make their General unstoppable. Between them and their goal stand only the Sisters of Silence, three holy priestesses with horrible power, and a little creature named Meek.

To say that’s the short version is an understatement. That’s really the primary problem with Kingdom of Blood. The first big chunk of the book is crammed full of enough high-speed exposition and lore that it reminds me of the infamous MST3K episode Cave Dwellers where the riff is, “This is the part of the film we like to call, She Had To Ask!” There’s just a LOT to ingest in a hurry. Curses and gods and priests and monsters and royalty and wars and really hard to pronounce words and stuff. There’s so much of it that the back of the book contains a lengthy “Lore” section that gives more detail on everything.

Frankly, the book would be better served to skip a lot of the lore and leave it in that back section, moving to the story at hand a bit faster. We don’t need quite all that info shoved at us in the beginning to get us on our way with the Saytrians and the Sisters.

That being said, it’s not bad, at all. It’s actually quite good. It reminds me quite a bit of the world of Diablo, the famous videogame series that’s really the most famous fantasy horror series in modern media. Yes, it’s all swords and sorcery, but it’s also hell, demons, and just rivers of grue. The same can be said for Kingdom of Blood. It’d shock me if the Saytrians aren’t inspired by the goatmen of Diablo.

Most importantly, once the quest is off to its bloody start, the book maintains its pace and keeps the blood flowing. The Sisters make Skyrim‘s fus-roh-dah seem like a yodel, dragons are turned inside out, everything seems to have way too many teeth, and guts are everywhere. Geronimo’s black and white art style would fit well in Heavy Metal magazine, and that’s another influence I detect. Kingdom of Blood would fare well as an entry in a new Heavy Metal movie, in fact. Just ad loc-nar and stir.

If you’re okay with your horror going medieval, Kingdom of Horror is a fun ride. It’s a bit of a weighty pill to swallow with all the lore, but once you get past that you’re in for some blood-soaked monochromatic fun.