30 Days of Night by Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of 30 Days of Night
Book Review: 30 Days of Night - Wow an original vampire story idea
Summary: 5 Stars
I really really like 30 Days of Night, I cannot stress this enough. 30 Days of Night is basically a vampire story centered on the fact that in Barrow, Alaska there is a period of time wherein the town is plunged into darkness for 30 days. The idea is so simple and yet so slick. What adds to Steve Niles story even more is the fantastic art of Ben Templesmith, this guy could draw grass growing and I think I'd buy it just for the illustrations. In short, if you like comics/like a good story/or just like Ben Templesmith's art style, read this trade paperback. Book Review: Good idea, poorly executed
Summary: 2 Stars
Don't believe the hype. This is possibly one of the most overrated comic stories I've ever read. Like a lot of other reviewers, I too felt ripped off after reading what I'd just bought. A great concept -- vampires go where the sun don't shine, by which I mean Alaska in winter -- is trashed by mediocre writing and artwork that's often indecipherable.
Sure, there are some good parts in the story. I thought the opening scenes of a town basically getting ready to hibernate established the mood and setting pretty well (in terms of writing, not art), and the ending was pretty original and quite poignant. My problem was in the pacing of the story. For a story entitled "30 days of night" I expected the events to take place over the course of a whole month. Maybe they did, but this isn't apparent from either the script (no captions indicating "day 15" for instance) or the artwork (no beard growth on the male characters or signs of them getting more haggard from stress and lack of sleep). The story actually seems to take place in just one night, with the characters running from one hideout to the next until finally .... well, I won't spoil it. In any case, I think the story would have benefitted from a few more "catch your breath" moments. Giving us more of these would have made room for more conversation between the characters, allowing us to get to know them more and care about what eventually happens to them, and the action scenes would have seemed even more dynamic by contrast. Instead, the story feels like one "aaah! run!" moment after another.
The art is even worse than the story, and I came to this conclusion after reading the original script pages in the back of my copy of the trade. There is so much detail (in terms of setting/environment, facial expressions and costume details) that Niles, to his credit, put into the script, which for some reason (vanity? laziness? ineptitude?) Templesmith just left out! The backgrounds are mostly non-existent, with washes of muddy color taking their place most of the time in what I guess is supposed to be an attempt to evoke mood. The characters are poorly rendered, and it's hard to tell who's who a lot of the time, at least amongst the non-vampires. Upon reading the script pages, I found myself thinking "oh, THAT'S what's supposed to be happening, okay...." This shouldn't happen if the artist has done his job.
If you really have to read this, to see what all the fuss is about, or whatever, then I'd advise borrowing it or buying it used. For a good horror comic I must recommend Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead". This is an ongoing comic, but has been collected into four trade paperback collections so far. They're all great, but this is a serialized story, so start with the first collection. You won't regret it.
Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
With the release of the recent paperback RUMORS OF THE UNDEAD I decided to check out the original graphic story. I discovered that all of the hype was unwarranted.
This supposedly original and groundbreaking story tells of Barrow, a town above the Arctic Circle where for thirty days in the middle of winter the sun does not rise. Certain elements preferring or requiring darkness may find this an interesting place to be at that time. So night falls and the creatures of the night descend upon the small town.
Here the story falls apart. We are led to believe that the creatures of the night can revel in the town for thirty days because of the darkness. But the speed and fury of their attack leaves little for them to do past the first few hours. Seems they could have done the same damage and had the same fun in a normal night. Then we have the leader chastize one member of the group but when we hear his argument (a standard in vampire fiction) we have to wonder at the actions of the rest of the group. Finally, we have to wonder how the newbie manages to suddenly rise to power greater than any other in just a few minutes. The whole thing is rounded out with a subplot involving characters that reveal nothing of the story and advance none of the plot. They seem to exist solely for the purpose of being mentioned in a sequel.
Very crude art and minimal dialogue is used to tell this story. When I finished the book (a fifteen-minute read) I had to ask myself if that was it. I felt cheated at the lack of substance and the rehashing of old ideas as if they were new and original. Of course fans not as familiar with the genre may find some of the ideas new to them even if they aren't new to the field. All in all I have to say that it isn't worth the money unless you just want to see really bad art of people being killed.
Book Review: Beautiful and Ghastly.
Summary: 5 Stars
Ben Templesmith has a wonderfully unique style that is both Disgusting and cartoonish at the same time. Steve Niles is a fantastic writer. Put them togeather, and you have some sort of bizarre frankenstinean mishigosh of author and illustrator parts. but, get them to work togeather (as they so often do), and you have a shockingly nice book.Book Review: boring and cliched....
Summary: 2 Stars
i don't know why this book gets such high ratings. it's just another average horror movie put onto paper. templesmith's art is interesting though.... for about 3 pages. after that, it just gets old. character dialouge is bland and reactions to "scary" situations are cliche. characters aren't given any depth and the story doesn't really focus on anything in particular. overall it's a boring, anti-climatic read with a cliche plot twist. weak beans.