30 Days of Night – Comic Book Review
Horror Graphic Novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Jul 10, 2009
30 Days of Night, originally a three part series, but also available in the one comic, is the horrifying story about savage vampires who take over the small town of Barrow, Alaska during a prolonged period if darkness. Written by Steve Niles (Hellspawn) and illustrated by Ben Templesmith.
30 Days of Night Overview
The town of Barrow, Alaska suffers from 67 days of total darkness during winter, at which time; a group of bloodthirsty vampires descend upon the town for a smorgasbord of Barrow’s human occupants.
Prior to the last day of sunlight in Barrow, the vampires send a delegate to town to prepare for their arrival. The delegate steals all the cell phones he can find as a way of blocking off communication to areas outside of Barrow.
As more strange occurrences happen, husband-and-wife police force, Eben and Stella, appear to be the towns only hope of survival. But as the vampires feed, only a small group of manages to hide, but their chances of survival are slim as the vampires seek out all remaining humans. In a town of perpetual darkness, how long before they run out of food, freeze to death from the cold, or are found by the monsters.
30 Days of Night Review
With an introduction by horror writer Clive Barker, this graphic novel has an interesting and unique vampire story. The vampires are hungry, bloodthirsty monsters, a far cry from the sexy, romantic vampires that have become popular in movies and novels.
The artwork is equally gruesome and pages are splashed with blood and gore. The novel is well written and the artwork compliments the dialogue and story. Templesmith doesn’t hold back when it comes to the vampires slaughtering their victims.
Niles’ character development for Eben and Stella is good and readers will care about what happens to them and what they’ll do next, however, the rest of the townsfolk don’t get much of a mention. The relationships between the main vampires are also well developed particularly between the leaders of the vampire clans.
There isn’t a great deal of color involved in the artwork, aside from plenty of red, however, this minimalist use of colors adds to the story as it portrays the gloomy existence of the town in its current state.
The story is plot driven and suspenseful enough for a graphic novel, and has a twist at the end, and is certainly not a bad addition to any comic book collection.
30 days of Night was first published in 2004 by Idea + design Works (IDW publishing) (ISBN 0-9719775-5-0). Story by Steve Niles, Artwork by Ben Templesmith. It has also been made into a horror movie.
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