by Steve Niles
Illustrated by Ben Templesmith
30 Days of Night had a brilliant concept. After reading it I did some research on the author and the storyline, and found out that it started life as a screenplay - and I think that shows in the final product. It felt more like a story-board for a longer piece than a complete novel. Length is a factor - it is short enough that I re-read it on my lunch break - but the pacing is also extraordinarily fast. The month of darkness flies by, and the reader misses out on a lot of the tension and dread that could have been built up in a longer piece or a different medium.
I have conflicting opinions about the artwork - it was difficult to make out what was meant to be happening, and there was so much black on each page. At the same time, the ephemeral style suited the wintery setting, and there were some really well done individual panels. The style of the artwork left things very murky and undefined - there weren’t a lot of hard edges or obvious features. The pit of burnt cell phones, for example, has only six cell phone shapes in it, and only three are clearly phones. Faces were often obscured. Teeth and noses were really some of the only well defined features. Periodically small print words would appear in the images, which I found distracting and borderline annoying - the page introducing Vincente and his two assistants naming each with small text hovering over their heads, for example, or the page when vampire-Eben has the words "badass time" hovering behind him. It gave those panels a rough draft feel, like it was an artist’s conception for what the finished page would look like instead of the final product itself.
The vampires of 30 Days of Night are stereotypical in some ways - superior strength and speed, invulnerability except a weakness to sunlight. They are much more brutal than some other vampire depictions. Their facial structure is unique - the black eyes and rows of teeth bring to mind human sharks, with snake tongues. The strength of these monsters is such that they effectively control the town from the moment they arrive. The scares come mainly from gore, perhaps at the cost of building tension. I think the things that would frighten me the most about this type of monster come from empathizing with the survivors - the constant hiding, the shock of seeing attacks on others, the unending tension from knowing you couldn’t win a direct conflict. This was absent from this book because of the length and pacing. Everything happens so fast you don’t get to read the day to day survival. The whole siege of Barrow may as well have happened in a single day. Then again, focusing on a gradual build up of tension can push the monsters into the background, which was a problem in I am Legend and Breeding Ground. I’d like to think there’s some sort of happy medium somewhere.
There is a minor plothole with the end of the story - Eben is able to undergo his transformation without losing his humanity, but another survivor who is turned immediately becomes a bloodthirsty monster. I wouldn’t have questioned it if not for the scene with the other survivor - I’d be willing to believe the vampires in Barrow are the ones who really enjoy being vampires and get off on the ultra-violence, whereas the quiet, contemplative vampires probably stayed home. But the scene where Ted turns and instantly becomes bloodthirsty and crazed implies the vampires have no control over this - which in turn contradicts Vincente’s apparent restraint and Eben keeping his humanity. It made the vampires more akin to zombies, and not necessarily in a good way. Part of the appeal of these monsters is that they are just as cunning and clever as the humans are.
Those things aside, this concept was well done and the overall plot was totally believable for me - vampires come out of hiding for a bit of debauchery and murder because it’s the only place and time they could possibly get away with it. The subplot with the helicopter is obviously only there to set up a sequel, which I have not yet read. I am hoping that it will be a little longer and a little bit slower paced. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the story was changed for the film version, which is next on my netflix queue.
Thank you--I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the survivor's transformation problematic compared to what happened to Eben. I'd say the plot hole lies with him, not with Eben, because Vicente and the others weren't stunned by Eben's behavior.
ReplyDeleteI noticed those little words in some of the panels, and for a while I kept trying to apply meaning to them, because I didn't want to believe it was a rough draft-ish thing that got left in.
Now I'm wondering even more about those notes - I looked back to see if I had misread the name and I see that in dialogue, the character is called "Vicente", but in the text in the artwork, there's a second n - Vincente. I wonder if the name got changed after the artwork was already done?
ReplyDeleteEben was just much nicer than Ted, I guess is supposed to be our takeaway? I agreed that seemed kind of lazy and judgey, and just like the helicopter plot perhaps the explanation for differences in vampire personality after turning are detailed later in the series.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that some tension was destroyed by how quickly the time elapsed. At the end of the book, I couldn't believe the sun was rising, it didn't seem like enough had happened. But that this was originally a script makes more sense given the rushed pace.
ReplyDeleteSo much black? It's vampires! Where's your Gothy spirit? ;)
ReplyDeleteBeing serious though, I could see again how this was meant originally to be a screen play. I guess when they decided to add to it comics-wise they kept the original story short since it wasn't a stand alone. The movie I don't think is as good as the comic of course, although there is one scene with this crazy ice-breaking bulldozer thingie that I don't know the name of that I wish was in the comic.
From your post, I would have to say that you not much of an art fan. You'll hate the impressionists, because the idea is basically no distinct images, but rather ethereal representations of the natural world. Like viewing everything through a vase of water. I like that form of art, because it isn't all clean lines and easy to define images, the images, like a well-written piece of fiction relies on the reader's imagination to create the final interpretation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the ease with which Eben dispatched Vincente led me to try to justify it with his law enforcement training. But even then... You'd think the top vampire had to develop some fighting skills along the way.
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