Dark Days #1
By Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Published by IDW Publishing
I greatly enjoyed the visceral high concept of 30 Days of Night, one of last year's biggest hits (reviewed on this page). The concept -- vampires converging on Barrow, Alaska where the sun goes away for 30 days and partying like it's 1999 -- had that great creative engine of seeming screamingly obvious in retrospect but having never been done before. Niles and Templesmith carried off the three-issue mini with style and a sense of coolness that created a huge demand for the floppy individual issues and spawned a trade paperback that featured some extra pages (and free autographs on some of the first printing copies).
In this sequel, one of the surviving characters from the first mini-series has written a book about her experience (called 30 Days of Night, funnily enough) dedicated her life to eradicating vampires, and has put together a team to help her wipe them out. This first issue is focused, tight, and features maybe the best storytelling Templesmith has ever done.
Templesmith works in a surreal, gothic style strongly influenced by Ashley Wood but more grounded in humanism and more able to convey the emotion of the characters. Niles, as always, has a strong grasp on the motivations of his cast and a terrific ability to deliver the unexpected and make you want more.
I really didn't know what Dark Days would be about, but the fact that it begins directly where the earlier mini-series left off and yet goes off in an utterly unexpected (and logical) manner shows that this is a sequel that will at the very least live up to its inspiration -- and from the quality of this issue I fully expect it to exceed the expectations that have been set. Grade: 4.5/5