Bellie Meets the Lord of Death

Rubin Museum of Art

This animated story appears in issue 10 of the print edition of Spiral magazine as a comic. See the print-edition comic below.

View the full comic

full-page illustrated comic of Bellie encountering the Lord of Death — *Bellie Meets the Lord of Death*. Story by Elaine Lai, art by Tenzin Tsering.

smiling adult woman with black hair wearing glasses

Elaine Lai is a scholar of the Great Perfection tradition of Buddhism and a lecturer at Stanford University, where she also earned her PhD. Outside of academia, Elaine is a screenwriter and storyteller of multiple forms. “Bellie Meets the Lord of Death” is a condensed version of a feature-length animated screenplay Elaine first completed in 2023, and she worked with Tenzin Tsering to create the character visuals. Elaine is delighted that Bellie is making her debut in Spiral.

an adult woman with black hair smiling and wearing glasses

Tenzin Tsering is a Tibetan Filipino illustrator and 2D artist based in Toronto, Canada, known for her vibrant use of color and dynamic storytelling through visual art. Drawing from her rich South East Asian cultural heritage and the whimsical world of comics, she creates immersive artworks in many creative fields such as mural painting, editorial art, book covers, comic illustrations, and character design.

Published January 23, 2026

Buddhism Creative Writing Contemporary Art Forms Magazine

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Bellie Meets the Lord of Death

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