Product Description: 30 Days of Night was one of the undisputed success stories of modern comics, spawning a bestselling trade paperback, a major motion picture deal, and the attention of thousands of fans longing for an innovative tale of terror. Now the same creative team revisits Barrow, Alaska, the town where it all began, as the long night creeps once more over the tundra. Some things may have changed, but the horror remains...
30 Days of Night I was very disappointed to find this was just a comic type book. I saw the movie and expected a novel.
Biting Sequel After the film adaptation of 30 Days of Night received only so-so reviews, instead of waiting for the movie on DVD, I decided to take a look at the original comics/graphic novels created by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith.
Interestingly, 30 days was originally fielded unsuccessfully to studios as a screenplay before Niles hooked up with Templesmith to create the comic. Once the comic came out, even studios that had originally rejected the movie pitch were knocking down the 30 Days creators' doors to get the film rights (according to a 10/18/2007 IGN.com article).
Anyway, when I looked up 30 Days at Amazon, I found that more than just one version existed. There is the original 30 Days of Night; there is #2 called Dark Days; and there is #3 called Return to Barrow. There are even more in the series too, but the above three complete the trilogy created by the original partnership of Niles & Templesmith.
The first is the story of vampires that invade a small town (called Barrow in Alaska) at dusk on the first evening of 30 days before the sun will rise again. The second story is one of revenge; a survivor of the first story hunts and seeks to expose the existence of vampires; and the third story has the brother of a victim from the first story returning to Barrow to discover and expose the awful truth of what originally happened in the town.
The first 30 Days story is what the movie was based on. It's a fast read that took about an hour to get through. As an effect, the way the vampire's lines are written in the text bubbles is crooked, thin-fonted and sloppy; I suppose this was to trying to illustrate the sound of the vampire's voice, but it mostly made for some hard to read, headache inducing text bubbles.
Dark Days and Return were good, but not great like the original. But it was an overall fun series. I'll probably pick up the November 2007 release of 30 Days Of Night: Eben And Stella that picks up and fills an interesting gap between Dark Days and Return to Barrow. Niles is back for Eben and Stella, but Templesmith is out.
As for the movie 30 Days of Night, I'll check that out too after it comes out on DVD and let you if it really 'bites' like others have said it does.
"I only hurt them to save them. Please don't judge me." Barrow, Alaska was a scene that saw 19 people out of a population of 462 walk away physically intact and the rest - well, you know the drill. In the three years after-the-fact Barrow has also become a Mecca of sorts, with Vampires striving to erase both proof and place in the proces, the curious looking for answers, and droves of family members hoping to know what really happened on those fateful nights. There are also the people who still reisde in Barrow, knowing what they know and also knowing no one will listen. Enter a new sheriff hoping to understand what happened to his brother, a new wave of events that gather at the mesh walls now surrounding an obscure town in an obscure place, and another 30 days before the sun comes up again. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
While I didn't think that Return to Barrow lived up to the previous outing in the series, it really had some portions that were emotionally transfixing and I have to say that I liked what Niles did overall. When I read the recount of the sheriff's brother and what had transpired, finding out about him and his family, I was touched by the pain inside the moment and the way it was described. When I saw the expressions that Templesmith etched into one of the hardened Alaska survivors, you could almost see a tinge of wilderness inside that haunted man. There were also some loose ends furthered in the piece, some vampires looking awfully cute (those kids are adorably wild), and then there were the tactile changes that made Barrow something of a Road Warrior type nightmare. That was the beautiful. There were some not-so-beautiful areas in the book, too, and some of those might be particularly bothersome depending on what you want/ need. The "secret" harbored in the book was one I still don't know if I really like, and the assault on Barrow has a lot of pieces that are more like footnotes from the first 30 Days. There were differences, granted, and new players in a new game that has different stakes. Still, Dark Days set the sequel bar pretty high and some might find this a bit of a letdown.
If you liked the first 30 Days of Night and have followed along through Dark Days, you might want to finish the story because there are a few loose shoelaces that beg to be tied. If you didn't really like the first but enjoyed the second, you might want to use caution before proceeding. I personally liked the book a lot but this might not be the thing for everyone. It all boils down to how much the account of Barrow haunts you.
Brilliant I'm not going to go into a long-winded review. I just want to say that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Great story and great graphics. I also enjoyed Dark Days and 30 Days of Night. I am a 36 year old female, so that will give you an idea of the difference types of people that can enjoy this series.
Graphic SF Reader The brother of one of the men that died at Barrow moves there to take up the sheriff position, and find out what really goes on.
The vampires are real, and one of them that comes this time is an FBI agent with a much better grasp of the tactics of conflict.
Luckily for the remaining people, they have some mystery assistance.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
