Another revised and reprinted blast from the past
“The legend says that even the tiniest fragment of a vampire contains the essence of the whole… that no matter what is done to us… we can always come back… with a little blood… the right blood.”
Stella Olemaun goes on a book tour seeking to reveal the existence of vampires to an unwary public only to find disbelief everywhere she turns and a pair of vampires out for revenge.
TITLE:
DARK DAYS
WRITER:
by Steve Niles
WRITER:
by Ben Templesmith
SERIES:
30 Days of Night Series #2
PUBLISHER:
IDW Publishing (December 6, 2004)
LENGTH:
Page Count: 144
GENRE:
Horror Fiction, Graphic Novel (Collection), Adventure.
DESCRIPTORS:
Vampires, Monsters, Secret Societies, Small Towns, Isolated Towns, Survival, Sheriff and Deputy, Night, Predator, Prey, Winter, Militant Group, Author Tour, Revenge, Lost Loves.
CHARACTERS:
Eben Olemaun, Formerly the sheriff of Barrow. He was married to Stella until he died.
Stella Olemaun, Formerly the Deputy of Barrow. She was married to Eben.
Dane, A vampire who was Marlow’s friend and seeks to avenge his death.
Lilith, Vincente’s mate who now seeks revenge on Stella.
Miss Judith, She also seeks proof that vampires exist.
Agent Norris, An FBI agent who stumbles onto the vampires.
SUMMARY:
Sixteen months after the vampires destroyed Barrow, Alaska, Stella Olemaun leads a small group of fellow survivors to Los Angeles to promote her new non-fiction book 30 Days of Night. She wrote it to warn people and draw the vampires out into the open so she could prove their existence.
In L.A. she meets Miss Judith. Her son Ali died getting photos of the Barrow massacre, which she has on CD-ROM. This is the physical proof Stella has been lacking.
Stella also encounters a vampire called Dane. Dane had Eben’s remains dug up and brought to L.A. in a bid to avenge his friend Marlow’s death. Unfortunately Dane’s courier is intercepted by the Lilith, the powerful vampire wife of Vincente who begins her own bloody quest to avenge her husband’s death.
When Dane finds out that Vincente, not Eben or Stella, killed Marlowe, he begins to form an alliance with the ex-deputy. He explains how he intended to use Eben’s remains to restore him, still a vampire, back to unlife with blood and then kill him in front of her. Suddenly, Stella has new hope.
But first she needs to get Eben’s remains from Lilith.
The agents of Lilith move in on Stella and her band of vampire killers. Dane finds himself siding with the humans against the vampires. However, with Stella’s crew destroyed or turned, will even Dane’s help be enough?
APPEAL:
The pacing is quick. The painting, very stylish and evocative, occasionally got in the way.
The characterization was a lean, dealing mostly with Dane and Stella, the protagonists in the story. Stella is far more predatory than before and she revels in it. Dane is a vampire who reigns in his monstrous nature. His reasons for doing so were fascinating.
While Stella and Dane are interesting contrasts, Stella and Lilith are two sides of the same coin — interesting foils for one another.
There were multiple storylines, but the story always came back to Stella. Dark Days was told in 3rd person past tense, limited view point with only a sprinkling of captions.
The story works better if you’ve read 30 Days of Night because of the many references to it. In fact it opens up with an extended working of the last scene in 30 Days of Night
READALIKES:
Like 30 Days of Night, the sequel Dark Days is a dark, twisted and visually grotesque graphic novel. This kind of over-the-top graphic novel horror is popular these days. However, if you like the 30 Days of Night series you should try Steve Niles’ graphic novel hard boiled detective series about Cal McDonald, a hard drinking, pill popping wreck of a human being who puts his body and sanity on the line to save humanity and a hidden pack of friendly ghouls from the monsters who prey on them. Check out Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery
The next titles of the graphic novel series are: Last Train To Deadsville: A Cal McDonald Mystery
GRAPHIC NOVEL:
SOURCE:
I borrowed the graphic novel from the Heights Library. You can click on either book cover image to view the book at an online book store. The links for 30 Days of Night: Dark Days are affiliate links. The links to the books in the Readalikes section are also affiliate links.
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