30 Days of Night gives you the vicious, violent vampires you know and love, but puts them in a setting you may not have seen before. The swirling, freezing cold of winter lies heavy on every page, brilliantly illustrated by artist Ben Templesmith. I’m a huge fan of his work (something of a cross between Dave McKean and Ralph Steadman), and it’s showcased wonderfully in a backdrop of ancient evil and dripping viscera. The stakes are clearly set: a horde of vampires versus a band of small town residents who must find a way to make it through the next thirty days of darkness. Will they survive to see the light of day?

As interesting as the story is, I found it incredibly rushed and even hard to follow at times. Really wish it had taken its time with everything because the set up/story ideas are great. ( )

The performances were great. And the original story is great. This audio adaptation? Not so much. The graphic novel depends on the visual to tell the story. When you just pull the text from the book, it sort of loses a lot. While they add sound effects, it's difficult to follow the story. If you haven't read it (or haven't read it in years, like me), it's VERY difficult to follow the story.

I didn't pay for this copy, thankfully. ( )

I'm one of those people who saw 30 Days of Night the movie before picking up a copy of the graphic novel - written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. And while the movie is rather vague now - I must've watched it at least two years ago - I have to utter the unholy phrase of "I liked the movie better."

Don't get me wrong, the graphic novel's a must read - dare I say, a part of the ever growing canon of Vampire Literature. But it's lacks something that the movie offers: Build up.

Sure, I'm not a fan of plot devices, stringing the audience along and what not, but this leaves us hungry for more. It gives us little to work with. There isn't much character build up, isn't much plot build up and the climax is like an erection that grows flaccid immediately.

And I'm not cutting down on Steve Nile's story. The story is great, which is why I feel starved myself. If he didn't have the ability to tell it, or I felt that he was a hack, I wouldn't be here wishing there was more to this book than what was offered to me.

The edition I have - because I'm not certain that all the editions have this - also features the comic script written by Niles. It's pretty detailed for only a portion of the book. It also bears witness to the fact that he is a great and talented writer. So why is 30 Days of Night leaving me feel incomplete? I read a beginning and an end, but the middle was thinner than an bulimic prom queen.

I'm aware there are other books to the series, not just this one. But shouldn't I have been treated with something more in this novel? Or perhaps the novelization might come in handy, which I doubt as most of them suck anyway.

But to make up for the hunger of more story, I must admit that Ben Templesmith's artwork is beyond anything I've ever laid eyes upon. The man, like his writer counterpart, is a genius. These to are the dream team of Vampire graphic novels. ( )

And, just like that, the undead stop laughing

30 Days of Night is one of my favorite vampire horror movies, so when the Film at 11 Halloween Bingo square got called, I knew exactly what I wanted to read for it. It turned out to be that rare creature of the movie was better than the book (graphic novel) for me.

I can't really review this without comparing it to the movie, I found the origin story to be very stark and more of an outline of the movie. Eben, Stella, Marlow, and a few of the others are all there and more or less match up with their movie characters. I will say, knowing the ending of the movie, which they kept original to the novel, made the beginning of the novel more poignant. However, I felt like the movie focused more on the humans and did a way better job of setting the tone and slowly bringing in that sense of horror and fear as the residents of Barlow, Alaska realize who is visiting their town.

The vampires in the novel get more speaking lines and this “humanized” them more, which made them less scary to me. This is a series, so I can see how creating storylines for the vampires makes sense and why the focus was on them more.

I did read this on Kindle, so maybe I didn't get the best effect of the drawings but I can't say I thought they were the greatest and added emotion to the story. The style came off as watercolor dark shadowy Monet, except with less clear humans instead of plant scenery. You can see the inspiration for the movie vampire looks from the renderings in the novel, though.

Was a little disappointed because I thought the novel would dive deeper into the story, this is Vol. 1 in a series, so I guess I'd have to read on for that. I hate to say it, but choose movie instead of this. ( )

Wizard Top 100 (1991-2009): 93
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