SIRENS GATE #1, from Dynamite Comics on October 5th, 2022, begins a supernatural adventure, from superstar artist Shannon Maer, about a young woman lured into the hidden world of monsters after a near-death experience.
The Details
- Written by: Shannon Maer
- Art by: Shannon Maer
- Colors by: Shannon Maer
- Letters by: Shannon Maer
- Cover art by: Shannon Maer
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: October 5, 2022
Is It Good?
When an artist plunges into writing (and illustrating) a comic, you never know what you’ll get. Not all artists have the gift of writing, just as not all writers have the gift of artistry. There’s no doubt Shannon Maer has the gift of art, but do the words live up to the pictures? Mostly, yes.
SIRENS GATE #1 is a fairly decent supernatural thriller about a young woman who seemingly comes back from the dead (or does she?), and her return draws the attention of an eclectic assortment of supernatural individuals. Maer does a fine job laying a plot that makes sense, adding in interesting beasties to stoke the flames of your horror-loving heart, and peppering in plenty of breadcrumbs to build curiosity. You get Tara’s (the main character) situation quickly and easily, so by using Tara as the audience surrogate, Maer smartly draws readers into Tara’s fear and confusion.
Maer is known for doing cover art, so how does it translate to the internal pages? In truth, it’s unusual but positively so. Maer’s realistic style combined with angled word balloons and captions gives each panel a 3-D quality. Reading through the issue, we kept thinking this comic looks like a sequential collection of images from a View-Master. Some readers may be unaccustomed to the static, photo-realistic quality of the art, but we give it high marks for uniqueness, and the action scenes have the energy when it counts.
In all, Maer has produced a fairly successful outing as both artist and writer on a supernatural horror comic. While the internal pages are certainly not traditional comic book fare, the art is incredibly interesting, and the lettering choices elevate the pop factor significantly.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with a pair of soldiers getting ready to enter a nightclub to approach a target. Before they enter, a masked woman with magical powers knocks out the soldiers.
Meanwhile, inside the strip club, Tara struggles to stay focused as the club’s bartender. Patrons notice the change in her hair color to white after Tara supposedly died and returned to life during a recent incident. A patron approaches Tara with a sealed invitation to meet with a famed horror writer, Lady Rose, for an interview about her experience.
Tara takes a chance to meet one of her favorite authors and takes the long ride to lady Rose’s estate. We conclude the issue with a very strange interview, monsters, and protectors.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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SIRENS GATE #1 is a respectable tale about a young woman who finds herself drawn into the world of the supernatural. The photorealistic art is striking, the lettering choices are eye-catching, and the story has plenty of curiosity-building breadcrumbs to generate anticipation for the next issue.
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