30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow

Written by Steve Niles
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz

It's weird how I keep getting more 30 Days of Night collections, even though I'm generally unhappy with the series.  I know that the different series were really popular, and so I always assume that if I give the title another try, I'll be happy with it.  And I'm almost always proven wrong.

Here's what I've learned:  If it's a 30 Days of Night written by series creator Steve Niles, don't bother.  His writing is rushed and undeveloped, and he's really only capable of a couple of tricks, which get used over and over again.  If the book is written by someone else, like say Ben Templesmith or David Lapham, it's safe to buy.

So, knowing this, why did I buy this book?  Two reasons.  The first is that the art is by Bill Sienkiewicz.  I've been a Sienkiewicz fan since his run on New Mutants when I was a kid, and while his craft hasn't improved much since the Elektra: Assassin days, it's nice to see something new from him.  He has a few totally unreadable pages here, which is to be expected, but also some very cool images.

The second reason why I bought the book was because it was 75% off.  Good thing too, as it only contains three comics, and retails for $18.  That's $6 an issue, for anyone calculating.  Sure, there's a few pages of scripts, and some sketches, but really, what are they thinking at IDW?  I'm sure you can, with some hunting, get the original comics for a total of $3 on ebay.

As to the story?  It has a couple of nice moments, but it doesn't make sense.  Night has fallen in Barrow Alaska again, and some rich Hollywood types decide to fly in and see some vampires.  They piss off some townspeople, and then inexplicably drive off into the middle of nowhere to set up camp.  Then they get attacked by something other than vampires.  Then the book ends.  Blah blah blah.

That's it.  I swear I'm not going to buy any more of these - at least no more with Steve Niles's name attached.

30 Days of Night: Red Snow

by Ben Templesmith

So once again, I'm dipping my toes in 30 Days of Night water, and find this outing to be better than some of the others.  A lot of that has to do with Templesmith's art, even if his writing is a little stiff here, and too constrained by the dictates of the franchise.

This story is set in 1941, somewhere north and cold along the Russian front.  It follows a group of German soldiers, a group of Soviet soldiers (with a random British guy accompanying them), and a Russian peasant family who live in the area.  These disparate groups end up in the same place, at the same time that a bunch of vampires appear and attack.  The humans have to work (uneasily) together to try to survive.

As usual with these books, (with the exception of the brilliant 30 Days Til Death series by David Lapham), the vampires are total ciphers, and the people don't get much more development.  Russians and Germans hate each other?  Shocking!  Peasants afraid of Soviets?  What they needed was a good long political argument when they were all trapped in the tunnels together.

And really - again with everyone hiding in basements?  There was too much here that was borrowed from the first volume, and not enough of Templesmith's usual madness.  Still and all, it's a decent read.

30 Days of Night: Dead Space #1-3

Written by Steve Niles and Dan Wickline
Art by Milx
I've dabbled a couple of times now into the 30 Days of Night pool, and in each case I've come back with mixed feelings, except for David Lapham's awesome contribution to the line. They consistently seem to fall short of their potential, which I find frustrating.

This series is no different. The concept hooked me right away - a space shuttle mission with a vampire on board. It's a little like Aliens, except the creature can be a real character. What happens though, is that the entire crew of the shuttle is dispatched with off-camera, and the next two issues of the comic are all about the 'rescue mission' coming up to see what was going on, before they too get attacked.

It's a quickly-paced story that depends on a couple of things happening that are rather ridiculous. I'm willing to accept that vampires can survive in outer space, since I assume they don't breathe. What I can't handle is that vampires that burn up if they are exposed to sunlight on Earth would be able to happily float in orbit around the planet for a month, and never once catch a glimpse of the sun. This is never discussed in the story, and I found it made it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief (being fully aware that I'm reading a comic about vampires in space).

The characterizations in this book are handled very quickly and with little development. The one person that the authors take the time to flesh out is the astronaut that becomes a vampire, but I'm not clear how he became infected.

The art is different - it looks like it's all watercolours - but it works quite well for this type of story. I get the feeling like it might be time to abandon hope for this line, but I did pick up Templesmith's Red Snow at the same Comic-con, so I guess it gets one more chance.

30 Days of Night

Written by Steve Niles
Art by Ben Templesmith

I've come at this series rather backwards, having previously read David Lapham's wonderful mini-series, and the trade with the only so-so Matt Fraction story. I figured it was time to check this out from the beginning, and see what the original premise is.

It's a good idea. A group of vampires decide that a town in Alaska that doesn't receive sunlight for one month of the year would be a good place to be able to eat and rampage in the open, and so they go there. The local sheriff and his wife offer up the only resistance available. That's basically it.

What I've noticed about my few forays into this series, is that there is a lot of politics involved in being a vampire, and the older, more established ones will always tell the younger ones what to do. This leads to fighting, which seems to be the core of the drama for this series.

Templesmith's art is at it's messiest best, and while some pages are not particularly clear, they all carry his unique, yet Ted McKeever inspired, approach. This is a decent comic, although I'm not sure I'm in a huge rush to pick up the rest of the volumes. They'd have to be pretty inexpensive, as I don't feel like there's much here that's new.

30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales

Written by Steve Niles and Matt Fraction
Art by Kody Chamberlain and Ben Templesmith

As I've said on here before, I've never really bothered with the 30 Days of Night series, and only ever bought the mini-series done by David Lapham because he's on my 'buy everything you can' list.

Well, parts of the concept interested me, so I decided to poke around through what was out there. Around the same time, I saw the solicitation for the tpb of Juarez, written by Matt Fraction (another person on my 'buy everything (non-Marvel)' list). Then, I found this on ebay, collecting both the Juarez story, and one other. Seeing as they are vastly different, I'll review them separately.

'Dead Billy Dead' is written by the series creator, and I suppose there's nothing wrong with it. It's about some guy who gets turned into a vampire, and basically falls afoul of some creepy professor. It's a good enough story I suppose, but it's not the type of thing that would ever get me into this franchise. The art is sketchy and a little hard to follow in places, but is generally serviceable.

'Juarez', on the other hand, is a mess, but a glorious mess. This is the type of Matt Fraction that I like best - where the ideas are flowing quicker than the story can handle. It's mostly about the missing girls in Juarez, and how one investigator - Lex Nova - thinks it is the work of vampires, as does the Zero Family Circus - a group of deranged vampires, looking for their lost Uncle Zero. Their stories collide, along with a faithless priest, and some Mexican whores. Again, all the elements needed for a great story.

Things don't really coalesce until the last chapter, which is really a prologue to the story. Lots of things don't make sense right until the very end, prompting the reader to turn back to the first page and start again. Things are further confused by Templesmith's art, which I always enjoy, but can't always follow.

'Juarez' made this a worthwhile purchase, and now has me interested in other writers who have dabbled in Nile's universe. 'Red Snow' is next on my to-buy list, if it's any good.

30 Days of Night: 30 Days 'Til Death #4

by David Lapham

I'm sorry to see this title end. I found I was getting attached to Rufus, and his carefully planned way of life. The cast for this title has been amazing, although many of them meet with amusing and fitting ends in this issue.

Lapham excels at creating unlikely groups of characters, and the putting them through hell. He mapped out and paced this story beautifully, keeping it surprising right up until the end of this issue.

30 Days of Night: 30 Days 'til Death #3

by David Lapham

I've really been enjoying this comic - so much so that I'm tempted to read some of the original 30 Days graphic novels, which had never previously interested me. Lapham continues with his story as only he can. The vampires that appeared last issue posing as Rufus's family, make things very difficult for him, as they lack his self-discipline. All of his carefully built lies fall apart in this issue, as the vamps go nuts on his building and his life.

The dark humour and bizarreness of this book are perfect, as is the art. I hope that people who read and enjoy this series take the time to check out Young Liars, Lapham's excellent series at Vertigo.

30 Days of Night: 30 Days 'til Death #2

by David Lapham

Lapham continues his excellent mini-series with this issue. The book starts with a flashback to a better, easier time for Rufus before he became hunted by the vampires we saw briefly in the first issue. This gives us some perspective on why he is so focused on not drawing attention to himself, and explains the reason why he kidnapped the woman in the first issue.

Now, Rufus lives in domestic bliss (at least in theory). Lapham continues to build on the cast of characters that live in his building, and the issue culminates in an excellent cliff-hanger.

As I said before, I know nothing about the 30 Days of Night franchise, but if I thought they were all like this, I would be doing a lot of hunting on ebay right about now....

30 Days of Night: 30 Days 'Til Death #1

by David Lapham

I've never read any of the 30 Days of Night series, nor have I seen the movie. In fact, all I knew about it before picking up this book, was that it was about vampires.

The reason I got this is because of David Lapham. I've been a Lapham fan since the Plasm days, and Young Liars is one of my favourite current books (unfortunately, my comic store didn't have this weeks issue).

So, going into this, I didn't really know what to expect. It has some very familiar Lapham-esque tropes to it: the dysfunctional group of neighbours is reminiscent of the haunted apartment building of his Spectre story in Tales of the Unexpected a couple of years back.

I don't know if the main character, Rufus, is a regular in this series, or is Lapham's own creation. He kidnaps a junkie (unless she's also a vampire), and ties her to his bed. He also tries to help his neighbours straighten out their drug-dealing grandson. As all of this is going on, there is a shadowy vampire meeting in Germany, where we find out that some Nosferatu-looking old guy has sent a vampire death squad to America to kill American cowboy vampires, which I think its safe to assume, will include Rufus.

I like that I don't need to know much of the backstory (although a text page at the beginning would have been nice) to undersand this series, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of it.