Tara is lost in a book at work. She works at the Cat Club. Evidently, it’s some kind of slow night. Not many people around. Not much going on until a man approaches her and hands her an invitation to meet the woman who wrote the book that she’s reading. Tara might not be a fan of horror, but she’s about to find herself lost in the world of the supernatural in Sirens Gate #1. Writer/artist Shannon Maer opens an atmospheric horror that glides across the page with a stylish swiftness that feels kind of awkward in places but still manages to make quite an impression.

It’s a slow night, but no one seems to be talking about it. Tara decides to go ahead and accept the invitation from the horror author. She will be uncomfortable, but there’s little question that she will have a story to tell when it’s all over. The author makes an advance on her. She’s confused as she leaves the author’s estate. Then there’s the werewolf attack. Prior to that moment, her nearest brush with the supernatural may have been her own death. It’s okay: she’s fine now. She’s just in danger.

Maer’s story is remarkably simple. The story slides along from the Cat Club to the author’s estate to the werewolf attack with only the bare minimum in dialogue. It almost feels a bit too simple without substantial background or in-depth narration, but Maer manages to lock in a strange sense of mystery about the story that COULD leave plenty of room for lots of background on a world in which the supernatural seems to be breathing through every shadow. Maer only allows just enough text to enter the panel to allow for the story to advance to the next page. It’s a stylish approach.

The visual element of what Maer is putting to the page feels stiff and awkward in places, though there IS an especially vivid sense of drama about it. The sparse dialogue opens up the page to develop a rich sense of atmosphere, from the pink glow of the Cat Club to the shadowy darkness just beyond it. The dialogue hovers in the air, sometimes reaching toward a vanishing point that adds a sense of depth to a world that is so covered in mist and shadow that it feels a bit like an ’80s music video.  

The graphic elements of Sirens Gate clearly distinguish it. It doesn’t look like anything else on the comics rack right now. It’s clearly one-of-a-kind. It’s too bad that the story doesn’t have more lurking around in the shadows beyond Tara and her journey. There is little doubt that there’s a lot left to be revealed, but Maer hasn’t put a whole lot into the panel to suggest that there will be a deep exploration of anything that isn’t happening right in the middle of the action. Tara seems like an interesting character. Hopefully, Maer lets the narrative get a bit closer to her emotionally as the series progresses.

Grade: B