The classics are classics for a reason. And for IDW‘s 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, a lot of that comes down to the brilliant simplicity of the premise.
In the book, Barrow, Alaska is about as far North as you can get. In fact, it’s so North that for 30 days every year, the town is plunged into darkness. Guess who else likes darkness? Vampires. And so over the course of three issues, vampires lay siege to the town… Picking everyone off one by one as they struggle to fight back.
It’s a fantastic pitch, and in fact, it started as a movie idea from Niles. But unlike many movie ideas turned comics, 30 Days of Night works. The pitch grabs you, and then Niles etches out indelible characters in the town of Barrow that you feel deeply for as they die. And then there’s Templesmith’s art. This was his first full-length work, and it’s a stunning debut. His heavily shadowed, exaggerated style throws menace lurking in every corner. His vampires are terrifying. And the colors are stark as well, contrasting the red of the blood with the white of the snow around Barrow.
The comic has spawned several spinoffs and even came full circle by being made into a movie. But the original three-issue run is still the best, a tightly wound tale of terror that mixes the carnage and tension of Dracula, with the snow-locked horror of The Thing. If you’re never checked it out, a cold evening in October is the perfect time to curl up with 30 Days of Night.
It’s spooky season, and you know what that means: time to curl up with a comic book or graphic novel that will scare your socks off. With that in mind, we’re posting a new horror book to check out every day of October, for our 31 Days Of Halloween Comics. Awoooo! Looking for the rest of our picks? Check them out on the Halloween tag.
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