Junko Mizuno's Princess Mermaid back

Tura, Julie and Ai are the beautiful mermaid sisters. Under the water they live, their briny home, a place to drag sailors to their deaths. Wasn't their mother killed by humans? Mermaid eyes are rare jewels, a shining trinket for spoilt little rich girls up there on the surface. They're only reflecting the cruelty that they themselves have felt.

The three sisters drift apart. One fears for the future of the mermaid world and dedicates her life to repopulating the ocean. Tura becomes more vicious and Julie falls for a human boy, one employed in the slaughterhouse that ended her mother's life. It's here that we get an echo of the original Hans Christian Andersen's original story. She wishes to become human, to walk with him on land. A terrible deal is struck with a duplicitous dragon, one that has been after her for a while.

As with CINDERALLA and HANSEL & GRETEL, Mizuno shoots the story off in new directions keeping the humour of the first two of her dark fairy tales but adding visceral horror. Her art, even though I'd read and enjoyed the other books, is a shocking, candy-coloured treat. This time the tones are subtler and, mixed with the rough paper (an intentional nod to old American comics), the blood-purples and moss greens are rendered fuzzy. Some of the time you feel as if you're reading through a light fog or remembering a early morning dream. As ever, there's a preoccupation with food, appearance and family but seen through the Mizuno lens.