Review: 30 Days of Night (Graphic Novel)
I'll admit it now: I don't really "get" graphic novels. I haven't read very many, but the ones I have haven't left much of an impression on me. They just fly by so fast, you know? With so much space on the page devoted to the art, the story itself has to progress so rapidly. I mean, am I supposed to be able to finish a full graphic novel in a 20-minute sitting, or am I doing it wrong? I try to force myself to slow down and stare at the art a bit longer, but... Am I just bad at this?It helps when the art adds dimension to the story that words would have a hard time describing, sure, I'll give graphic novels that. But honestly, I just found the art in 30 Days of Night to be a distraction. It was so dark and so sketchy that I really couldn't tell what was supposed to be happening half the time. Is that a hand? Is that burst of blood from the guy's face or his chest? Is that even the same character who was in the last panel, or somebody different? I really couldn't tell you. I get that the art style was going for "atmospheric," but that atmosphere turned out to be a thick fog at night, and boy, I could have used a flashlight.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I like when authors use words to tell me what's happening. I like verbal description. I like the subtleties of language that can shift a mood or impart an atmosphere. I know that's not the point of graphic novels, but... Hmph.
It's hard for me to separate my critique of 30 Days of Night as a story from my qualms and confusion about its visual elements. The story seemed to progress too rapidly from scene to scene, to the point where I kept having to flip back to check page numbers to make sure I wasn't missing any (turns out I was, but only from the very beginning—and don't worry, I found the missing pages online). I'm not sure whether to blame the jarring transitions on the writing, the illustrations, or the limitations of the format. But any way you slice it, I was confused.
Alright, before I leave you with the impression that I didn't enjoy 30 Days of Night at all, let's back up a minute and talk about premise. Because it's a good one. A town in northern Alaska where the sun never rises for a month each winter—a town where the inhabitants must survive through thirty days of night. (Yes, the title makes sense now.) This year, however, a coven of vampires has come to feast, gathering thanks to the modern wonder of email to gorge themselves for thirty days without ever having to fear the sunlight. It's a terrifying thought, and brilliantly plausible. Like the vampires themselves say, it's a wonder nobody thought of it before.
I thoroughly enjoyed the two major plot twists—one, that the long-awaited head vampire actually hated the plan all along because of how hard they'd worked to achieve the status of myth and legend, and two, that the protagonist would have to become one of the monsters in order to defeat them. Still, it took a measure of suspending my disbelief. Like, why would the sheriff have thought to grab a syringe when he was raiding the police station in the first place? Mighty convenient, if you ask me.
Also, what was up with that vampire-hunter from New Orleans who came looking for video evidence? He just ends up dying in a fiery helicopter crash. Why introduce him at all, other than as a convenient excuse for the vamps' planned arson? It would be one thing if the recorded footage had inspired a rescue mission, but no such luck—no mention ever comes again of "Momma" back at HQ or what she does with the footage now that she has it. I guess it could be setting up for a sequel—I know there is a whole slew of related graphic novels that Niles and Templesmith have published, but none of the Wikipedia summaries seem to mention Momma or New Orleans at all.
Anyway. I think most of my ambivalence about 30 Days of Night comes from the format of the storytelling, rather than the story itself. If you like graphic novels, I'd highly recommend it. If you're like me and prefer the simplicity of the printed word, I'm sure I could find you a different book to fill your time. This one ain't gonna make you a convert.
Citation: Niles, Steve. 30 Days of Night. Art by Ben Templesmith. IDW Publishing, 2003.
I didn't find the fact that the sheriff had to become a vampire to beat them much of a twist. I kind of expected it, and thought how he died was anticlimactic. However, i ADORED the twist where Vincente was pissed they had made them not seem like legends anymore. Vincente was by far my favorite character. The vampire hunters however didn't even need to be in the story, they were so irrelevant to the plot.
ReplyDeleteAs for graphic novels, I find they do often read fast, much like comics do. I really like comics and graphic novels, but I agree with you on this one, and I feel like most of us do, in the fact that this comic was bad. The art style was too distracting. It did help get a certain mood across, but it was just too blurry for anything to be clear.
I was glad to see that pretty much everyone seemed to agree about the art! I do enjoy comics a lot, but for some reason graphic novels have never really clicked for me. Maybe because serialized comics can take more time to tell a story, like episodes of a TV show, whereas graphic novels can come off like they're trying to do too much too fast, like cramming a whole movie into 90 pages?
DeleteSo I didn't actually read the graphic novel... didn't really realize it was one. I Audibled it, and on Audible, it was a full cast (meaning many readers) and there were sound effects, so I guess all that extra hoopla is the audio-only equivalent to a graphic novel. I found it distracting as well.
ReplyDeleteI think you and I finally found some common ground! I loved the fact that Vicente was angered by the gathering and brought up the whole myth thing, and I found it far too convenient about the whole Eben-intentionally-turning-into-a-vampire thing. And I didn't even consider the syringe, but you make a great point about that. But him fighting off the overcoming effects of the change for so long so he could defeat the vampires was too convenient. Especially since he actually planned it. Like, everyone else loses that batter really fast, yet somehow he bases his plan on being able to keep his wits waaaay longer than anyone else has shown possible, and then actually does it according to plan. Not a fan of that.
I also agreed with you 100% on the New Orleans stuff being completely unnecessary to the story. I didn't mind the characters or what they were doing, but if it isn't going to really impact the story, then don't add it in. The vampires did not need the excuse of the crashed helicopter to sell the story of the destroyed town. Who cares if it doesn't seem completely natural (the bodies all being burned together at one site). As long as there isn't anything that specifically says "Vampire Alert," the humans would have a tough time unraveling what happened to the town.
But, like you, I did find overall enjoyment in the story.
Ha! Only took us the whole semester to finally agree. I hadn't even really considered just how ridiculous it is that Eben stays lucid so long when I wrote this, but now that everyone's pointed it out, I couldn't agree more. Even if he somehow knew that the syringe might prove useful, I wish that something had gone wrong—either that he started massacring the humans or... I don't know, *something.*
DeleteGraphic novels should be visually stunning, if they're not then they've missed one of the most important aspects of their version of storytelling. I think the best graphic novels are the ones which are originally novels that become illustrated. The art compliments the story instead of telling it, which is what I think it should do. But that also doesn't mean it should just be talking heads. Basically what a graphic novel does is supplements exposition for art. The parts of the story that should be shown are literally shown.
ReplyDeleteNot to be too weebish, but growing up I only read manga, which are a very perfected art form. Each image is drawn and detailed as a full picture, approved by the publisher, then adjusted or cropped to fit into a panel. It's really hard to go from the amount of detail seen in manga to non-Asian graphic novels. I also say this knowing there are some amazingly well detailed non-Asian graphic novels and some pretty cruddy manga.