Grimm Fairy Tales Myths & Legends: Gretel

Grimm Fairy Tales Myths & Legends Quarterly: Gretel

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Written by Dave Franchini

Illustrated by Alessio Mariani, Guillermo Fajardo, Babisu Kortes & Dario Tallarico

Coloured by Juan Manuel Rodriguez, Ulises Arreola, Leonardo Paciarotti

Maxflan Araujo

Lettered by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studio

Gretel’s life has been coupled with one trauma after the next, starting with the loss of her brother at a young age and then her mentor just recently, both due to the machinations of an evil witch. Cursed with powers that grant her a long life that spans centuries, she is forced to consume human hearts to sustain herself at the cost of her own humanity.

Recently, she has teamed up with Calabar, a mercenary who is part of a secret faction determined to rid the world of all witches. But now, what they have discovered could unravel everything they have been working so hard to create. A new coven of witches is forming, and at its center a new evil rises, something so ancient that they may not be enough to protect us.

This oversized 72 page story, packed with wall-to-wall action and horror, is one not to be missed!

This is great and for long-time fans and brand new readers’ alike this is a great way to get into the world Gretel inhabits. Yes she’s in the Zenescope Universe but she’s got her own niche that doesn’t seem to cross paths with the others. I love the take on her legend and how she came to be the woman she is and how that haunts her. Dave is one of the best writers for her and I hope that we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this pairing after this issue because now that we’ve seen what we’ve seen here a string of limited series is definitely in order.

I am thoroughly enjoying 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 beautifully. The opening is superb and opens up a whole new slew of story ideas and engages the reader perfectly. I mean it makes me wonder how people can let themselves be swayed by men who use religion to be powerful instead of being good. Things like that mean that I have been pulled into the story right away and it’s just sensational. The character development we see is spot on and that we get so impassioned by what we see you know that is the tell all be all of how good a writer is. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we’re treated to an amazing tale.

The interiors here are absolutely amazing. I read the whole issue without even realising there was a slew of artists involved. Sure segments changed a bit but overall these folks are so good at what they do that they understand the nature of the story, subject matter and the Zenescope universe and it shows. I’m not going to lie I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised here, some segments are better than others with it but they just enhance the moments so incredibly well. The attention to detail we see through the linework and it’s varying weights is stupendous stuff and it’s consistent throughout. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some marvellous eyes for storytelling. Also I love the faces and facial expressions as they really help to further the characterisation and help the reader keep their first impressions solid, oh some are hated some not so much but your first impressions holds up throughout. The colour work that we see is gorgeous! The various hues and tones within the colours that we see being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is simply superb. Wow.

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Zenescope has come so far from their pin-up cheesecake days and here we see just how far that’s come. The story is amazingly solid, with a great premise and it shows such depth to Gretel as a character and how amazing a character she really is. The complexity of the storytelling and the layers within that continue to impress are real standouts here and it makes me look forward to reading her further adventures.