Comics and video games seem to have a large section of overlap in themes at their most basic level. Both tend to rely on power fantasies, telling the stories of incredible heroes overcoming the odds in spectacular fashion. But the similarities in their story types doesn’t mean that moving from one genre to the other is natural. Video games often have their story spread out more to give the opportunity for interaction, which doesn’t translate well to other forms of media. This goes doubly for games like Bloodborne that parse out their story through notes and item descriptions rather than traditional cutscenes.
Ales Kot and Piotr Kowalski took on the task of bringing the FromSoftware game to comics for publisher Titan Comics in 2018. Not only did the team manage to capture the tone and feel of the game without directly adapting a specific story, but they also enriched the already fascinating lore, presenting perspectives not shown in the game. The four volumes of the comic each tell their own standalone story, presenting a different set of characters from all throughout Yharnam.
DEATH OF SLEEP
The first story arc is probably the most traditional of the four volumes, telling the tale of a Hunter protecting a child who bleeds Paleblood. Death of Sleep features many touchstones from the video game: characters like Gerhman, Iosefka and Djura, creatures like the Blood-Starved Beast and the Giant Snake Ball, and places like the Forbidden Forest and the Hunter’s Dream.
The Hunter and the child embark on a long journey throughout these four issues, traveling through several game locations as they are relentlessly stalked by the Blood-Starved Beast before ending up in their final destination of the Fishing Hamlet. It perfectly captures the tone of the video game, melding tense action sequences with a surreal and haunting story.
THE HEALING THIRST
While Death of Sleep played with pieces from the main game, the Healing Thirst takes the first steps in filling in unseen mythology of the world of Bloodborne. The story follows Alfredius and Clement, one a physician-scientist and the other a priest of the Healing Church, as they independently investigate the plague that ravages the city. Both men are trying to do their best to heal Yharnam in the best way they know how, and both come to startling realizations about the true nature of the Healing Church.
It’s a bit jarring to see a Bloodborne story that doesn’t involve hunting or showdowns with giant monsters, but Kot and Kowalski make it work by maintaining a consistent atmosphere. When playing the game, it’s always hard to try to imagine how the city actually functions, and this storyline does a good job of presenting a slice of how life there might play out for people who aren’t directly wrapped up in the Hunt, but are still trying to fight in their own ways.
A SONG OF CROWS
For the first time in the comic series, we are presented with a protagonist directly from the game: Eileen the Crow. Much like how the back half of the game shifts focus from beasts to cosmic horror, the comic turns more experimental, fully embracing the dreamlike tone. Kot uses repetition, nine or 12-panel structure and lots of visual callbacks to put the reader in the headspace of Eileen as she investigates a ritualistic murder. A completely wordless issue where she discovers Rom manages to be the standout here, capturing the tone of that in-game moment perfectly on the page. It’s definitely a quicker read than the others due to the sparse text, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful.
THE VEIL, TORN ASUNDER
The dreamlike tone continues in the final story arc, exploring the tale of an outsider who is being driven mad by the “insight” granted from a page of arcane texts. The line between what’s real and what’s a dream quickly becomes unclear for both the protagonist and the reader, making for a disorienting read that’s definitely the most challenging of the arcs. As the character delves further into madness, the comic draws in characters and moments from the other stories, making it truly feel like a culmination of everything that came before it. While not the strongest of the volumes, it definitely wraps things up in a manner that feels appropriate to the source material.