It's closer to around 2 Months of Night, but who's counting?

March 31, 2009 10:23 PM

STEVE NILES is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence, and was recently named by Fangoria magazine as one of it's "13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years." Niles, a horror/comic writer, is responsible for 30 Days of Night. Although, the idea originally was unsuccessful as a film pitch he turned it into a breakout mini-series comic. Did you know there was a prequel released, before the movie, online: 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (Hulu)? AND a sequel: 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust (Hulu)?

There is an actual film sequel in the works also.

Ben Templesmith, the artists responsible for the look of 30 Days, has done some interesting stuff and is well worth checking out. He has a CafePress store that you can purchase prints from.

posted by P.o.B. (20 comments total)

30 Days of Night the comic was an interesting idea, some very cool monster design, and a totally shitty story. 30 Days of Night, the movie, which I caught on TV the other day, was like a shittier version of the comic, with the monster design toned down, and even more cliché bullshit. Has he done anything else that's better?

I'm sorry if I sound bitter, I'm just frustrated about the state of modern horror writing, particularly for the screen, and how mediocre at best writers and directors with derivative ideas get declared the next big thing every two weeks (see also Roth, Eli).
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:36 PM on March 31, 2009 [2 favorites]

Has he done anything else that's better?

No.
posted by jimmy at 10:56 PM on March 31, 2009

STEVE NILES is one of the writers responsible...

So it was him! Get the torches, lads!
posted by turgid dahlia at 11:05 PM on March 31, 2009

There are a few side spin-off stories from 30 Days of Night. Criminal Macabre being one of the more popular. He also turned I Am Legend into a comic. But I actually appreciate him for turning vampires back into monsters. What with all the Ann Rice romanticism about them we have crap like Twilight now. I included a preview link to some of his other work (kinda hidden though) or you can take the drive-by-snarkers word for it and not check it out.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:16 PM on March 31, 2009

What incredibly weird timing, I just watched 30 Days of Night the other day -- I really liked it but a lot of that could be I HATE the romaticising of vampires, and the vampires in that movie couldn't be any less romantic.

Let the Right One In is another great vampire movie that while totally different is not romantic about vampires in the least.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 11:25 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ach, got that a little switched around. Criminal Macabre is not so much a spin-off as it exists in the same world. (Wise ass ex-cop who has to deal with ghouls, zombies, werewolves, and vampires on the daily.) This is probably my favorite storyline from the 30 Days of Night series.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:28 PM on March 31, 2009

Ben Templesmith is great though.
posted by Artw at 11:44 PM on March 31, 2009

Steve is an awesome guy and was very cool when I interviewed him about his legendary HarDCore band Gray Matter last year. I wish I'd had time for more comics questions, but he did mention that he names many of his characters after old school DC punk rockers.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:05 AM on April 1, 2009

Yes, Mr. Templesmith is awesome, with a distinctive style. I'm glad he's around.

Fan-boy whine: Fell, which is a shining example of Templesmith's art, is very late with its next installment. Got tired of tracking the author Warren Ellis' meagre updates on the matter, and now I just query my comic shop every other month or so.

Reminds me of Frank Miller and his taking a year to put out the final issue of Hard Boiled, which is eye-poppingly drawn by a Geof Darrow. But I'm patient. Brilliant artists are usually worth the wait.
posted by Jubal Kessler at 6:16 AM on April 1, 2009

On the subject of Fell/Mr Ellis.

Planetary #27 Ellis. Chop chop.

/googles.

Oh shit. Apparently he announced yesterday that Cassaday has finished the artwork.

Just checked the current release date - July 7th. Chinny fucking reckon.
posted by longbaugh at 6:54 AM on April 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

Just in time for Duke Nukem Forever!
posted by Artw at 7:37 AM on April 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

Joakim and jimmy nailed it in the first two comments in this thread. Steve Niles is tied for first on my who-the-fuck-keeps-hiring-this-guy list, right alongside Frank Tieri, both enjoying top slot since the retirement of former who-the-fuck-keeps-hiring-this-guy heavyweight Chuck Austen.
posted by Shepherd at 7:55 AM on April 1, 2009

I'm sorry if I sound bitter, I'm just frustrated about the state of modern horror writing, particularly for the screen, and how mediocre at best writers and directors with derivative ideas get declared the next big thing every two weeks (see also Roth, Eli).

I disagree with your assessment of Roth, whose work I actually like a great deal, but I do think there's an awful lot of crap coming out of the genre currently.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:11 AM on April 1, 2009

Ben Templesmith is indeed great. I love "Wormwood". (I'm less enthused about "Groom Lake", but, whatever.)

Templesmith tweets, too.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:46 AM on April 1, 2009

Yup, Fell is excellent, if gritty, stuff. I still want to know what happened that got him thrown out of the city. I also liked the Dr. Who series that Ben Templesmith illustrated, and it's a bit more kid-appropriate. At the moment, almost anything drawn by him is on my buy list.
posted by mdoar at 9:52 AM on April 1, 2009

I actually liked 30 Days of Night as a movie, even if I didn't care for the comic, possibly because it felt more like I Am Legend on the screen than the Will Smith travesty.

Also, Shepherd: what, no Jeph Loeb?
posted by Amanojaku at 10:15 AM on April 1, 2009

Eli Roth is a trust-funded cancer on the genre. *HISS*
posted by butterstick at 1:49 PM on April 1, 2009 [2 favorites]

Cabin Fever was sort of fun.
posted by Artw at 1:55 PM on April 1, 2009

Artw: I actually liked Hostel a lot more than Cabin Fever. Hostel did something new, at least in how far it was willing to take things, the plot sorta kinda made sense, and it got a visceral reaction out of me.

Well, Cabin Fever got a visceral reaction out of me too, but it was more along the lines of "I wish absolutely all these people would die right now so the movie can end". The plot makes zero sense, the dialogue is horrible, the acting worse, and there's just nothing at all to redeem it. Well, you know, flesh-eating bacteria, but if you want to make a horror movie about that kind of thing, maybe your point of reference should be, oh, I don't know, David Cronenberg, instead of every slasher movie of the eighties.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:22 PM on April 1, 2009

who-the-fuck-keeps-hiring-this-guy

Far be it from me to push something on people that is generally disliked, but I think Niles has done some decent stuff. I also think the horror comic genre is both small and fairly uncompetitive enough that Niles is the front-runner by default rather than any extra special skill. I still stand by my assertion that Criminal Macabre is pretty good though. I'm drawn to comics that fill a couple of different personal wants rather specific exceptional abilities, such as writing or the art. You could find both of these things other places. More or less I want to read and see something different. There is a reason I stopped collecting the regular 30 to 50 year old runs of the same stories long ago. I want to see creative and new storyline that have a beginning, have an arc, and have an ending(some kind of ending!!!) That is one of the reasons I thought Wanted was so great and thought they actually detracted from the original by taking out what they did to make it into a movie.
Nonetheless the main point of the post was about some vampire monster series I was unaware of and thought maybe some people might want to check it out online. The rest was padding.
posted by P.o.B. at 9:36 PM on April 1, 2009