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Underground > Comic Books >

30 Days Of Night

13:06 / 22.04.03

All I know is that this is about a small town in Alaska that becomes over run with vampires, since the sun won't rise for thirty days. And there is a movie in production based on that premise.

Yesterday in my local shop I asked the fat beard behind the counter about this trade. He handed it over and while I perused he gave me a lecture about how disappointing the book was and why movie writers shouldn't write for comics. The art looked great, but I was just two dollars short of the cover price. I've also overheard comic shop talk about how the writer was trying to get the story optioned as a film for years. When no one would bite, he sold it as a comic.

Can I get a more informed review from our own experts?

The Photographer in Blowup

14:35 / 22.04.03

Just out of a truly morbid curiosity:

what did the 'fat beard' say about screenwriters writing comics?

15:28 / 22.04.03

JMS
Kevin Smith
David Goyer

.....

hmmm.... All with quality, high selling books... seems like your "bearded friend" likes to talk out of his ass. Keep it real, bub.

16:14 / 22.04.03

His general attitude was that movie script pacing doesn't translate to comic book, panel by panel format. In regards to 30 Days of Night, he thought that it caused that book to end abrubtly, without signifigant character development. Since I haven't read it yet, I can't comment. He also said that he hated The Ultimates book because he was a "traditional" Avengers fan. "I don't read comics for realism, I read them for escape."

But I can see how it would be possible for movies to fail as comics. The pacing that makes David Lynch's dialogue so unsettling probably couldn't work in word bubbles, because factors such as time and movement occur in the reader's imagination instead of on the page.

17:05 / 22.04.03

>>>JMS
Kevin Smith
David Goyer

hmmm.... All with quality, high selling books<<<

High-selling, perhaps. But quality?

17:17 / 22.04.03

jms has got quality. is this 30 days even worth reading? my friend told me about it, but this is the same friend that buys any title beginning with ultimate, and she has a "crush" on gambit too.

at the scarwash

19:07 / 22.04.03

Kevin Smith no es bueno. God, can't he keep 3rd grade atheism out of a comic book/movie/phone sex conversation for like, ten minutes? At least CHristopher Durang is funny.

JMS writes better comics that films.

19:51 / 22.04.03

I've only read the first 2 issues of Thirty Days of Night but I've liked it so far. I'ts been a while since I read them, so I think I'll pick up the trade when i get back home. I liked the art. John Wayshack right?

20:32 / 22.04.03

All three do ultrabland superhero comics.
And their films suck too.

21:31 / 22.04.03

really? I don't think midnight nation, rising stars, and amazing spiderman are bland. what movies has jms done?

02:03 / 23.04.03

30 Days of Night isn't so good. Beyond the initial - admittedly great - premise, it's pretty empty and lackluster.

The art is by Ben Templesmith.

JMS created and wrote almost all of Babylon 5. As well as episodes of She-Ra, He-Man and Murder, She Wrote.

testpattern Kevin Smith's atheism? Isn't he an outspoken Christian.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:07 / 28.06.07

Reviving this thread because I just read 30 Days and the sequel.

Did anyone else read these?

Spoilers ahead...

The fact that the first story was only 3 issues was a suprise to me, I expected it to go much longer. Then ending was pretty ok though. The only real problem I had is we had 3 issues to cover 30 days and we learned nothing about the characters. The art, while nice, didn't help as at times I couldn't tell who was who on the page. The ending, with Eben fighting the vampires and then letting the sunrise kill him was pretty good though.

The sequel, Return to Barrow, was pretty interesting. It takes place a few years after the original story. The main character is the new sheriff in town and the first issue is a set up, explaining that the townspeople who still live there prep the town for attacks every winter. When the vampires show up in force, this time with guns to tip the scales in their favor again, they find themselves being picked off by something inhuman.

The ending of Return to Barrow I didn't quite get, as the inhuman vampire killing monster turned out to be Eben's wife Stella (now a vampire maybe?) and someone else who appeared to be Eben himself.

Was there another series in between the original and Return to Barrow that I missed?

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:16 / 28.06.07

Alright, thanks to Wikipedia I just found out that there is another series, called Dark Days, which takes place between the two that I read.

15:26 / 28.06.07

All I know is I've never read this comic but I hear it's good, and Bill Sienkiewicz is about to draw new special or mini-series written by Niles himself.

And the movie is getting some fine advance reviews as well...

20:07 / 28.06.07

It was an okay book - a great premise that I've toyed with in scripts myself in the past, and manages to hang more onto the story than just a neat idea.

If you get the chance, Finderwolf, you should read it.

09:37 / 29.06.07

Tell you what, from what I've read of this book it appears that it's in desperate need of an editor - someone who can spell and understands the magic of scene transitions.