Aria is a miniseries by Image Comics, written by Michael Turner. It's idea is the familiar 'mythic beings exist in modern world' idea, as seen in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and American Gods novels, Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Laurell K. Hamilton's A Caress of Twilight and Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and White Wolf Inc's World of Darkness. It has since been published as a volume. Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960 in Portchester, England) is the author of numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including many comic books. ... This article is about the Neil Gaiman series. ... American Gods is a novel by Neil Gaiman. ... Joseph Joss Whedon (b. ... Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a U.S. television series loosely based on the 1992 movie of the same name. ... Laurell K. Hamilton Laurell Kaye Hamilton is an American horror and fantasy writer. ... Spoiler warning: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter is a series of dark fantasy/alternate history novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, narrated in first person hard_boiled detective style by the title character, Anita Blake. ... The World of Darkness is a fictional RPG multiverse developed by White Wolf Game Studio. ...

The story opens in a New York bookshop, specializing in the esoteric. The shopowner, a sardonic young woman, over the course of a day deals with a woman who found a sword in her flat, two goths who want to drink absinthe, and a man looking for a bargain-basement love potion. After work, she goes back to her flat, where she is greeted by a talking mirror and a fishtank full of tiny merpeople... A sword (from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd lit. ... A vintage absinthe advertisement Absinthe (from the French) is an alcohol liqueur derived from herbs including the flowers and leaves of the medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called wormwood. ... Love potion can refer to many things. ...

She goes to a club which caters to an unusual clientele, where it becomes apparent that the woman is a Fae noble. She meets Puck and Dion. On the way home, she is attacked by a group of shadowy creatures. See Puck (mythology), a nature spirit Puck (comics), a diminuitive superhero in Marvel Comics Puck (Shakespeare), from A Midsummer Nights Dream Hockey puck, the ball used to play ice hockey Puck (moon), a moon of Uranus Puck, Poland, a town in Poland Puck, a character in the Japanese anime... Bacchus by Caravaggio The god Dionysus is occasionally confused with one of several historical figures named Dionysius, a theophoric name that simply means [servant] of Dionysus. ...

Meanwhile, in a elven pub in Cottingly, a group of Fae are killed by further shadowy creatures.

In New York, Puck has rescued the heroine, and they are both looking for some answers. We are also introduced to Childe Roland, a half-elf street artist.

The death of the drinkers means that all of the Fae must return to their realm, temporarily for the funeral. We are introduced to 'Mad Ginny', the heroine's cousin, a touch insane, and the ultimate cause of the Cottingly Fairies fiasco. She, too, is being stalked by the shadowy creatures.

Eventually, the villain becomes apparent: a dark spiritual creature, who fought the Fae in ages past, and survived up to the present day as a shrub. Every hundred years or so, the spirit is able to directly touch the physical world, and influence it, causing such disasters as the Great Fire of London in 1666. On his last visit, he found Mad Ginny, raped her, and sired a son, through which he can act against the world at any time. The son is gathering the forces of the father...

By the end of the book, the father has been definitively trapped in the shrub again, and the son has been driven mad by the experience. He is in a sanitarium, with chalk drawings of little winged people all around him. All the characters go back to their lives.