Product Description

In a sleepy, secluded Alaska town called Barrow, the sun sets and doesn't rise for over thirty consecutive days and nights. From the darkness, across the frozen wasteland, an evil will come that will bring the residents of Barrow to their knees. The only hope for the town is the Sheriff and Deputy, husband and wife who are torn between their own survival and saving the town they love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32166 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

Customer Reviews

30 Days of Night
'30 Days of Night' is the first in the series of graphic novels written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. The story begins when a group of vampires flock to Barrow, Alaska where the sun sets for 30 days, allowing them to feed without the burden of sleep to avoid lethal sunlight. When the vampires' leader Vicente learns of this plan, he travels to Barrow to end the feeding, in order to preserve the secrecy of vampires. Because of the cold, the vampires' senses are weakened and a few of the town's residents are able to hide. One resident is Sheriff Eben Olemaun, then attempts to save the town and the lives of the few remaining townspeople, including his wife Stella.

After watching and thoroughly enjoying the incredible movie adaption earlier this month I just had to check out the novel to see what was the inspiration behind it all. Before this I'd not read a comic/graphic novel for about 10 years, but the medium didn't stop me from enjoying this book as much as if it was a "normal" novel. The illustrations are quite bizarre but work very well at keeping the nightmarish atmosphere and I noticed that the directors of the movie must have used some of the pages as storyboards for scenes in the movie as they were very similar. The story is amospheric, gruesome and exciting, but two things that did let it down slightly for me was that there were a lot of characters from the movie not included in this and the story was also a little short. This aside it is a truly great read and has re-introduced me to graphic novels and I have now ordered it's sequel, Dark Days, to see how the story carries on. Recommended to anyone who has recently seen the film and loved it as I have and is also the great start to a brilliant series of horror novels.

Not quite there
Being new to comics, I bought this and the sequel Dark Days (as well as some Alan Moore), as an introduction into this medium. Although I was blown away with the Alan Moore comics such as Watchmen, this comic left me feeling a little unsatisfied. Yes, the artwork is amazing, what looks like a combination of photos, pencil and crayong run through a computer to great effect, it is the story that lets it down. Firstly, for what is supposed to be 30 Days in darkness, it is far too short. The story does appear to jump from the introduction to a rather short mid section, to the end, with you as the reader having to imagine the pieces inbetween. It is quite pacy in this sense, having finished it in an evening, and wanting more, but it nice that the story is driven in this way. However, what really suffers and what is missing the most is some juicy characterisation. Like a bad horror movie, you are left with the feeling of not caring for the characters, and when the killing starts you don't really 'feel' it. This and some rather shocking dialogue, cheesy to say the least, adds to a feeling of disatisfaction. I'd still recommend it for the artwork alone. Worth a look.

Return of the vampire...
Set in a town called Barrow in Alaska, "30 Days of Night" tells a story of desperation and isolation with the townspeople at the mercy of an invading horde of vampires.

This is a good book. The title is good. The plotline for this book is good. But, "30 Days of Night" suffers slightly because of its weak characterisation.

Steve Niles makes little attempt at developing his characters and therefore, it is very difficult to feel any empathy towards any of his characters - good or bad.

The artwork throughout is heavy on style with inspirational moments. Ben Templesmith's incendiary artwork is appropriate to the book's nightmare theme - though it is, at times, visually incoherent. Nonetheless, the art is still very impressive.

The book marks the welcome return of the vampire as man's fearsome and practically unstoppable nemesis, therefore, "30 Days of Night" is a welcome break from the proliferation and monotony of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which has (apart from Blade, another vampire slayer) monopolised the vampire market for far too long.