Lion Forge’s New Graphic Novel
Bezkamp is a new graphic novel published by Lion Forge Comics, written by Samuel Sattin, and artwork by Jen Hickman. It is a science fiction drama set on an alien world with human looking people living in a small settlement, called Bezkamp, near a forest.
The First Chapter’s Story
At the beginning, we first meet a mysterious person wearing some kind of space suit, alongside a flying alien animal, as they traverse the forest. They’re both then attacked by large creatures before transitioning to a different character somewhere else on the planet in Bezkamp.
Now focusing on a young boy, named Nem, as he looks for artifacts around his village. As he gets back to Bezkamp, a woman suffering from some kind of affliction, wherein black slime drips from her mouth and eyes, arrives which horrifies everyone. Nem’s father, Migal, is a warrior of the village and orders for the woman to be taken to be cured and for him, his sisters, and another warrior to go to the woman’s home to figure out what caused the sickness.
A Not So Great Shortcut
Although Nem is told to stay in the village, he secretly follows his dad and the others and manages to find a shortcut to the afflicted woman’s home. Once there, Nem finds a large hole in the ground from which one of the creatures from the beginning, known as Crigs, comes out of it. Just as the Crig comes out, Migal arrives, saves Nem, and fights the large creature. During the fight, Migal gets knocked away and Yoggo, another warrior, is killed by the Crig.
Migal has his sisters distract the Crig so that he could attack it from behind and finish it off. As the fight ends, Migal and his sisters scold Nem for disobeying them and getting Yoggo killed. Using a syringe like device, the warriors cleanse the land that the Crig corrupted. Nem goes back to Bezkamp quietly after the rest so as to not raise suspicion for what happened to Yoggo.
At home, Nem overhears his family about how useless he is and that he will never be a great warrior. In the last few pages of the first chapter, Nem goes into a secret underground bunker that only he knows about. It’s there where we learn that the village leaders forbid everyone from asking questions, writing, and other things to not make the same mistakes their ancestors made.
Enough To Want More
The first chapter of BezKamp has enough intrigue and questions that it’s impossible to stop there. Samuel Sattin’s writing gives so much information but in such a way that doesn’t feel like too much so early in the story. The shift from the mysterious figure at the beginning to Nem and his village makes you wonder how exactly they’re connected as the only similarity is that they both confront Crigs.
Though one flaw, but still interesting, with the writing is that the way some people in Bezkamp talk is that certain words are written differently, like “wut” for “what” and “twinty” for “twenty”. It can take a second look for one to realize what certain words actually are, but it makes you wonder how that happened.
The artwork by Hickman is fresh, detailed, and so very colorful though there are small parts where the detail is missing a bit when characters are shown from farther away. What Hickman best excels at is drawing the right emotions that each character has at certain moments.
With just the first chapter, Bezkamp pulls you in right away and fills you with intrigue that you just need to read the rest of the graphic novel.
You can pick up a copy of Bezkamp at Lion Forge, Comixology, and your local comic book store.
How did we rate the first chapter of Bezkamp? Rating: 6 Sodas.
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