Belle: Sirens

Belle: Sirens

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Written by Dave Franchini

Illustrated by Babisu Kourtis

Coloured by Juan Manuel Rodriguez

Lettered by Dezi Sienty

There’s nothing like a great song to put you in a good mood, but Belle is going to be doing anything but enjoying what these creatures have to say. Tune in for this can’t-miss issue, packed with 32- beast hunting pages of action you won't want to miss!

When you open a book what’s the first thing you notice, the artwork of course and Babisu’s is out of this world phenomenal and it makes you excited to sit down and read the book. It doesn’t hurt either that Dave is writing this because the man knows how to write a story. What this creative team is so successful in doing is making the reader want more. I’m dying over here for a four to six issue run arc, it’s past due to see Zenescope break those out for someone other than Liesel or Robyn. Also there’s an interesting new character being introduced here and based upon her name I’ll go out on a limb and think I know who she is, after all we’re sticking with the names of fairy tale characters.

I am digging the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development is fantastic thanks to how we see the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter continue to flesh these characters out beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing new characters and new adversaries we’re taken on a decidedly different kind of adventure.

I’m impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow throughout. I love the way that Dave manages to weave in some elements that while flesh out the characters aren’t essential to the main arc and yet manage to add depth and complexity to the overall book. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well how it moves the story forward is so well achieved. The way that this story glides through the pages really leaves you wanting so much more.

The interiors here are mindbogglingly brilliant. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level and quality to the detail work is astonishingly well rendered. The views are bloody brilliant and thanks to how we see the backgrounds marks this more impressive and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us this depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellous eye for storytelling. The colour work is utterly brilliant as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a mastery of colour and how to get the maximum effect out of it.

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This is what I love about Zenescope. You’ve got a strong powerful and down to earth, relatable female lead who has a day job and nigh gig as a heroine saving the world from monsters. Nothing kitschy or sexualised about her and we get a serious superhero title that rivals anything and everything that’s out on stands today. This is so smartly written and has interesting new characters being introduced and potential problems for Belle that she’ll do what she has to to avoid. It’s brilliantly done.