30 Days of Night has never really clicked for me. Don’t get me wrong, I think the basic concept (Vampires descend of a small Alaska town in order to take advantage of their sunless Winter) is brilliant, but Writer/Creator Steve Niles is a truly untalented storyteller, and is never quite able to live up to his high-concept story premises. I’ve tried various permutations of 30 Days of Night, and the only ones that even come close to being good are the ones that Niles isn’t involved with personally. That said, I had high hopes for the outrageous pairing of legendary Writer Joe R. Lansdale and gonzo illustrator Sam Kieth.
Maybe it’s time for me to just give up on 30 Days of Night altogether.
Lansdale and Kieth tell yet another story of marauding vampires in Alaska. The book had me confused right from the start, as it begins in Barrow, the besieged town from the original mini-series. Is 30 Days of Night: Night, Again taking place alongside the original tale? Am I supposed to know/remember any of these characters? Because I couldn’t quite make the timeline mesh, it got me off to a bad start. (Anyway, that’s what nearly 40 years of reading comics gets you: A head full of continuity worries, but that’s my own problem, not yours.) Vampires are destroying the town, feeding on the inhabitants, yadda yadda yadda…..a handful escape, and make the 100-mile trek to a neighboring town, where the encounter a group of Scientists investigating climate change. Said Scientists just discovered a Nazi torpedo imbedded in the ice that contains a Golem. (A GOLEM! I have to give Lansdale props here…..in all of my 41 years, I have never once wondered “Who would win in a fight between a Golem and Vampires?”, so he gets a point for originality.) The Vampires follow the survivors across the ice, survivors and Vampires fight, Golem joins in…..and that’s it. There’s absolutely no characterization to speak of, and neither Lansdale or Keith make any real effort to humanize either the Humans or the Vampires, resulting in what is essentially a group of cyphers going through the motions. I’m usually a fan of Keith’s art, but it’s wholly out of place here, and he doesn’t help matters by going into full-on cartoon mode for much of the story, and Lansdale’s story, like much of his recent comic-book output (Especially Papercutz’ Tales From The Crypt comics) has a phoned-in feel to it. I’m generally a huge Lansdale fan, but there’s absolutely nothing to recommend here.
30 Days of Night: Night, Again collects all four issues of the mini-series, including covers and variant covers, as well as a small commentary section by Artist Sam Kieth.
- The Scarlet Gospels - March 9, 2015
- Inspector of the Dead - February 23, 2015
- The Boneyard - February 23, 2015
- The Deep - February 2, 2015
- Pumpkin Cinema: The Best Movies For Halloween - November 20, 2014
- The Wake - November 20, 2014
- Dark Screams, Volume One - November 20, 2014
- Horror Library, Volume 5 - September 16, 2014
- Ghost Heart - September 16, 2014
- Monster & Madman - August 6, 2014
