Customer Reviews

Dark Days (30 Days of Night, Book 2)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having only discovered Steve Niles' work a few months ago, he is rapidly becoming one of my favorite comic book creators. In "30 Days of Night," a small Alaskan town was beset by bloodthirsty vampires during a month-long period of darkness. In this series we follow one of the survivors, the wife of the sheriff who sacrificed his life to save the town, as she fights to make the world believe in the menace that destroyed her husband.

Niles has an incredible ability to take concepts as old as vampires, zombies and werewolves (in his Cal McDonald stories) and find new and intriguing angles to view them through. We get to see a woman try to convince a skeptical world that vampires are real, that they have worked for centuries to cultivate the belief that they are fiction, and that they are very dangerous. Niles doesn't go for the easy ending, either -- this is a story even more brutal than "30 Days," and one that leaves you shivering.

Ben Templesmith's artwork isn't something I'd always go for, but it fits the tone of these stories perfectly -- scattershot, disjointed... horrific, but with a strange elegance to it.

This is one of the best horror comics on the stands these days, and I can't wait for the paperback of the third book to hit the shelves.

DARK DAYS is the sequel to 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and focuses on Stella Olemaun in the aftermath of the horrific slaughter of the citizens of Barrow. Widowed, she has moved to Los Angeles and has now written a book about what happened in Barrow. The story starts with her doing publicity for her book which instigates the action that follows. Why? Because the book is damaging for vampires: It speaks of them and divulges their secrets, but is most damaging simply because it states that they exist. Naturally the vampires don't expect all of humanity to suddenly believe in their existence and promptly hunt them down, but they fear that it will renew interest in them and that some will believe. The vampires don't want this, as humanity's ignorance to their existence is the key to their prosperity and their survival. One expects that the vampires will aim to silence her, but so does Stella... and she's prepared...

Although DARK DAYS doesn't have the focus, tension or horror of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, it doesn't mean it isn't as good - in fact, I actually think it's better. In 30 DAYS Steve Niles had a premise and ran with it. The story was gripping and well paced and other than it being sad and scary, there wasn't much else to the book. But that's what made it good: the simplicity and the focus of it. DARK DAYS is more in-depth, it's subtler and has more of a narrative in that it's a complex story that develops through each chapter. Even though it isn't horrific, it has a chilly feel to it because we are nevertheless dealing with vampires. There is also tension, as even though we don't have the claustrophobic setting of Barrow, there is a different threat to the setting of Los Angeles, as one never knows when or from where a vampire may appear.

30 DAYS OF NIGHT hints at the humanism behind the vampires - that they're not all merely sadistic creatures that have a thirst for blood. DARK DAYS elaborates on this and the joy of this book is having a closer look at the vampires; each vampire has different motives, agendas and loyalties, and they don't all get along.

The artwork is again excellent and Ben Templesmith's moody, expressive, artwork complements the feel of Niles' writing and smoothly drives the story, punctuating dramatic moments with exciting illustrations that arrest the audience. He works well with the summer hues and capitalises on its incongruity, making it add to the eeriness. The climate also adds a lot to the realism, which is much of what this book is about: taking it slow and trying to make us suspend our disbelief, and to this purpose Los Angeles is a perfect setting.

Thats what makes the book so good, the fresh and realistic angle on vampires, giving the feeling that its realistic and suggesting that there could just be vampires out there. In the end, we're all familiar with the idea of hissing vampires, running about in the dark - but seeing them standing and smiling in the lazy haze of the Los Angeles summer... somehow that makes them seem rather more realistic.

I love Steve Niles work, and became interested in his stories after reading 30 Days of Night. I found Dark Days to be an excellent read, picking up the comics as they were released. Niles tells a great story revolving a survivor from Barrow trying to convince the rest of the world that vampires do exist. While character development may not be great, for a comic its good enough. Besides, most of the character development was done in 30 Days of Night, and doesnt need to be rehashed here. Templesmiths artwork, as always, is great and lends itself well to Niles storytelling. If you enjoyed the first book, I highly recommend this sequel.

Unlike most people I talk to who've read '30 Days of Night', I found it neither fantastic nor horrible. It was a decent, and more importantly, a simple stroy. The setting was different, the premise original, and the characters realistic (vampires included) and compelling. Then, of course, there was the artwork: gritty, dark, expressive, and uber-modern! It's like no one had ever seen a realistic nose super-imposed over a sketchy, 2-D cartoon face before. That said, it was a fun read.
'Dark Days', however, was sheer and utter garbage; it literally took me 20 minutes to read it. I might have spent longer, had I not given up straining my eyes to discern the murky, overly-textured backgrounds, which more often than not distracted from the awful storytelling and utter lack of character development. To say this comic was 2-dimensional is, I think, crediting this book with one-too-many dimensions. I believe this might have been a movie treatment realized in comic book form (since this in no way deserves even the euphemism of 'graphic novel') The story is absurdly predictable. A group of covert vampire hunters plans to expose the vampire menace, and end their reign of terror. They are led by the beautiful but deadly Stella Olemaun, survivor of a vampire massacre where her husband lost his life defeating a powerful vampire lord. Their efforts are thwarted by the vampire lord's wife, I guess, and the entire team is slaughtered, save for the brave Stella, who is helped by a rogue vampire with a conscience. I won't spoil the ending for those masochists planning to read the book, but it's as laughable as Stella's inexplicable decision to sleep with the 'good' vampire she encounters.
That Niles/Templesmith so sloppily subvert their earlier work, by making the vicious, rabid vampires he introduced in '30 Days' suddenly seem tame and incompetent, leads me to conclude they either spent a decade or so writing, fine-tuning and re-editting 30 Days, or else that they're hacks who lucked out with a cool idea. Also, with Templesmith's mastery of Photoshop now undisputed, perhaps he might decide to use it more economically and devote a bit more time to drawing the occasional background. I do appreciate the effect of claustrophobia, the focus on the characters and such, but it has grown tedious.
As for the ending, I may be mistaken about this book's intentions, but it seems a rather blatant setup for another sequel. Somehow, I believe Niles/Templesmith won't be content with the story ending like some hackneyed Outer Limits episode.

It rarely happens, that I read sequel of something that was so boring and uneventful, like "30 days of night" was. But, as it happens, I have free access to most of the comic books published in my country, and this somehow ended on my table. Having nothing better to read at the moment (okay, we all know this to be a lie), I decided to give another chance to Steve Niles. Why Niles and not Templesmith? Well, I was amazed with Templesmith art in the first book of this series, as much as I was astounded with lousy writing of Niles. Templesmith managed to create an atmosphere, but Niles failed to give it some kind of meaning. Chances were that this second installment will be as bad as the first one. I'll gladly say that I was wrong.

What we have here, builds itself upon premises of the first book. But, as first book was shallow festival of slaughter and mayhem, second book is much more psychologicaly inclined. Yes, there is still brutality, yes vampires are still silly animals (well, most of them), but sense of isolation, that Steve Niles tried to accomplish within first book works much better here. Where is the difference? First book was all about attack on the city which was for thirty days enveloped in darkness. And all we were able to see was, random people killed by random monsters and few bleak characters who tried to make a stand. Here, we have a lone survivor from the first book, that isolates himself into her own paranoid world, proclaiming vengeance on entire race. And, as her fury becomes brighter, so does the neglect of authorities becomes much more evident. She is left alone on her crusade, with few payed accomplices, and entire burden falls on her. Yet, as much as it might seem, she is not blindsighted with rage, she yet yearns to escape her self-made prison, and when opportunity presents itself, she will gladly sacrifice her quest for a chance of happiness. Stated briefly like this, it becomes obvious that script is much more developed than it was in the first book.

Combining more advanced script and great art of Ben Templesmith "Dark days" became much better than its predecessor. Yet, that may not mean much. "Dark days" are far from being great comic in any sort of way, it lacks all sorts of things for that, but despite that, it is an interesting, atmospheric comic that will definitely find it's readers. If you're into vampire stories, some old school thinking about horror, than "Dark days" may be comic for you. It certainly is better place to start than "30 days of night".

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.

Dark Days is Steve Niles' sequel graphic novel to his critically-acclaimed 30 Days of Night. Once again, his brutal and tense prose is backed up by Ben Templesmith's unique illustrations that really helps Niles' story with its horrific and disturbing images.

Dark Days continues the events which transpired in Barrow, Alaska except this time the story is set in Los Angeles and its sunny atmosphere. The story this time is really one of revenge and redemption. The major characters, from the good guys to the villains have revenge as the common denominator linking them throughout the lenght and breadth of the graphic novel. There's one character who straddles the line between light and dark who is the most interesting in the bunch.

The story itself is not as powerful as 30 Days of Night. Dark Days is similar to James Cameron's Aliens --- when compared to Ridley Scott's Alien --- in that there is more action in Dark Days than its predecessor. There is still a heavy dose of horror, but it doesn't suffocate as much as 30 Days of Night's did. Dark Days even has more of a film feel to it that 30 Days and maybe thats why its horror is less, but I am not complaining too much. And yes, Dark Days would also make a fine sequel to 30 Days of Night if the original ever gets on celluloid.

Dark Days' ending does owe alot to shock value, but it just shows that Niles' take on horror as something that shouldn't really have a nice, sunny ending. Fans of the original graphic novel won't be disappointed with this sequel. Steve Niles is a master storyteller and I hope he continues the saga he began with 30 Days of Night.

Being a new fan of Mr. Niles work, I picked this up and quickly read it. I admit that the story has weak plot elements to it, namely the end (which I wont spoil). I felt a bit betrayed by the conclusion but understand its horror and shock value. Overall well done and the artwork continues to be top notch, one of the best. The setting moves from a forlorn Barrrow, Alaska to sunny Los Angeles (which makes for a great contrast). I wish the some of the minor characters had more development, but understand the limitations of this genre. I highly recommend it.

Finding this book made my secret santa very happy. It arrived in plenty of time and was in perfect condition.

The first volume of this now electric series was very underdeveloped. I felt like it needed to explore more elements before being called "a good comic." Dark Days picks up from ground zero, and creates a new story that delivers faster and harder than round 1. We get a badass female heroine and an exciting plot, thank you thank you Steve Niles. Luckily all my complaints were resolved this time around.

So what's better? The art is ten times more tolerable, due to a bit more definition. The dialogue, for the most part, is rock solid. Twists are around the corner instead of a few blocks away. And last, but not least, the characters are just awesome. The first volume barely went into any character development, but this book makes me want to read more and more about them. Dark Days is a vivid and mighty sequel from start to finish that does real justice to the series.

I highly reccomend this book, and I've been suckered in to getting the rest of the series. If you want a great horror comic with slick pacing, Dark Days is where it's at. By the end of the first book, you may wonder whether a story of Stella should be told. Dark Days will prove to you that Stella is more entertaining then you ever thought she would be.