Rating: Summary: A Great Graphic Novel/Comic Book Review: Normally, I don't read comic books, but I decided I'd give this one a try because I read about it in the July issue of "Fangoria."
Ben Templesmith has beautifully drawn grim and graphic depictions of vampires. Most of the artwork is kind of abstract, so it sets a great creepy feeling to the book. Steve Niles wrote this so that it reads exactly like a horror movie. If you like horror movies or comic books, then you should pick this up right now and look out for the movie based on this graphic novel/comic book.
Rating: Summary: Excellent idea and execution Review: "30 Days" has a couple of flaws, but it's an involving read.The writing is excellent, I think, well-suited to the medium. The concept is wonderful and certainly Niles doesn't spare the gore or pussyfoot around the concept of vampires ripping open throats. He puts in some disturbing imagery and his plotting is close to immaculate. A moment to address the other reviewer's complaints about cliche: Yes, you're right. Now stop whining. I doubt much new can be done with vampires, and it's great to see the human battling with the throat-ripping beast without having to deal with Anne Rice's sexual peccadilloes or purple prose. If Lestat actually existed, I would have purchased a flamethrower for the sole purpose of shutting him up. And maybe I would have taken out that whiny Louis, too, while I was at it. All praise and defense aside, I suspect Niles was given three issues instead of the four he asked for (or perhaps the four he should have written) and as a result his character development is lacking. While I think it's great the book hits the ground running, we only really get to know Eben and Stella, and those two we don't know very well, in the end; the townsfolk have maybe a panel or so (few are granted names) and then get turned into hamburger. The art isn't to my taste; I think the murkiness enhances it quite a bit, and there is some absolutely beautiful work with what I believe to be watercolor, but I don't think it would have killed Templesmith to be a bit more traditional and realistic. The sheer beauty of some panels, especially that opening splash, is absolutely frustrating next to the sloppiness (which I suspect was intentional) of others. Still, I'll cheerfully grant that it suits the story well. Overall, it's quite a fun read, a little too quick but definitely worth reading. I suspect the movie will be better, though.
Rating: Summary: A Steve Niles' tour de force Review: 30 Days of Night is the best horror comic I've read in quite awhile. I have to look back to the Clive Barker Night of the Living Dead comic series from the early 90's to find one as good as this story. This take on the vampire story by Niles' owes alot to Romero's zombie films and the action in Barrow really shows it in full, blood-red glory. I am pysched to hear that it will be turned into a film very soon.
Rating: Summary: Horrid Review: 30 Days of Night? Try 30 minutes... That's how long it took me to read the thing and that's how long I thought the story took in real time. The writing is awful. The first scene with the sun setting made me want to puke because it was obviously trying to get the reader to care about the two main characters, but ends up making you feel indifferent. The plot is just re-hashed Hollywood horror from George Romero to Dracula movies. Scary? Not even close. While the art seems to be well done it does not lend it self to story-telling at all. I was straining my eyes looking at the panels trying figure out what just happened and who it happened to. I heard they were making a movie out of this mess. They would be best advised to pull the plug on it now.
Rating: Summary: A brutal, horrific and gore-filled vampire story: Amen! Review: Finally, Steve Niles has written a vampire story that goes a long way to making the vampire genre a true horror genre instead of the velvet and lace which the Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton have turned them to.
Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night has the brutal and gore-filled stylings of Clive Barker's Books of Blood short stories. This is a story that is told with a minimum of fuss. In fact, 30 Days of Night is one of the leanest horror stories I have ever read. From the first page and panel of this graphic novel to the final one, Niles' pulls no punches and takes the breaks off this horror rollercoaster.
The plot is very simple. A group of vampires have decided to gather in Barrow, Alaska during its yearly 30 days straight of perpetual night due to the Earth's rotation. This monthly long darkness for the population of Barrow has been a part of their lives to become routine. Cell phones, radios, and other modes communication makes the eerie month easier to live through. But the gathering of undead have other plans.
The moment the night begins and the vampires arrive the story becomes one nonstop grand guignol bloodbath that doesn't hold back or slow down to give the reader a breather. Nobody is saved from the undeads' brutal and savage assault. Its not all the time an author has allowed kids to be fair game in addition to the adults.
Niles' really created a taut and fast-paced story that seems to be beg to be turned into a film. The good news is that Sam Raimi of Evil Dead and Spider-Man fame has optioned the graphic novel to be turned into a film. Steve Niles' himself will be writing the screenplay for this film treatment. I can't think of anyone else who can do a better job.
30 Days of Night is a great and scary ride that gives me hope for the future of horror. Steve Niles is one writer of horror and the supernatural that is very close to taking the reins of king of horror. Make sure to read with the lights on, or better yet in the daytime.
Rating: Summary: Making it more fun to Read. Review: First of all, if you haven't read any other reviews and know what the bad guys are, then let me help how to enjoy the book. When I first got this book, I though the bad guys were some monster you know, I didn't know what they were. They kept me predicting, until the End. The End made it obvious to me and I believe that is what made the book good. If you don't know what the baddies are, then get this book, start predicting and find a good ending!
Rating: Summary: All style, little substance Review: First, the good points: The art is absolutely amazing. Ben Templesmith combines Bill Sienkewicz and Dave McKean strokes to create an eerie atmosphere for the story. The concept is excellent too, a group of vampires invading a small town covered by a month of night (How come Finland doesn't have it's share of famous vampire stories?). However, the way it is written failed to exploit the intriguing plot concept. It all seemed shallow and it became unoriginal. There are also glaring loopholes: Like for a small town, how come the vampires needed a month to wipe them all out? Wouldn't the vampires overrun the town by the 1st week? For a small town, there seemed to be too many people. The description is correct - it's like Night of The Living Dead redux, all because it seemed like a B-movie.
Rating: Summary: It's Good, Not Great Review: Had I been aware of all the hype surrounding this book, I would have been very disappointed after reading this tome. With no previous knowledge of the book's popularity, I thought it was well written, but needed to be fleshed out some more. Too many loose ends, who was thats, why did that happens were left by the end of the tale. The art was well done, but would have served better as a set of paintings than illustrating a piece of sequential art. The artist attempts to supress the background in order to tell the story through the characters, but ultimately fails when this ultra-surrealistic style winds up disrupting the story's flow more than enhancing it. All in all it is an interesting read, but not worth the price.
Rating: Summary: The Hype is DEAD ON! Review: I am so happy that I ordered this book. Even living in Chicago I could not find the original comics to "30 Days of Night" so I jumped at the chance to order the TPB. It is amazing! An awsome story mixed with fantastic art and a couple of cool surprises. Spend the 20 bucks and read this thing over and over. Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith have created a true horror classic.
Rating: Summary: Greta idea, poor execution Review: I bought this book because of all the wonderful things I had read about it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be mostly hype. Firsy of all, the story takes place, as the title suggests, over a thirty day period. I found the pacing of the story was doomed by the brevity of the content. The thirty days is over and done with, the sun comes up, and I have no idea where the month went. It felt as if I had read an outline for a larger story. Nothing is fleshaed out, and the protangonist resolves the story in a flash. I really do not understand what people saw in this book. The characters have no depth, not a single one of them. The reader never gets a chance to know either hero nor villian before it is all over. The ideafor the story was fantastic, and I am a huge vampire fan, but I feel it needed to be an epic if it wished to live up to the premise. It needed more time to build and resolve. This is a comic in which the writers ability to execute and deliver a well-crafted horror tale was handicapped by length.
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