• sharp, pointy teeth

    As someone with an abiding interest in vampire fiction and movies I generally get around to seeing every film that is added to the canon. The other evening 30 Days of Night was on TV, so I finally caught up with it. Most people are aware that this is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name, which was written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. The comic disappointed me, which did not incline me towards the film. As I said before, Templesmith’s artwork was wonderful, but there was a shallowness to the story that left me cold. Niles writes well, but the action happened rather…

  • less blood more fear please

    With the advent of 30 Days of Night on the big screen I thought it would be a good idea to read the original graphic novel, which was written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben Templesmith. The problem when approaching the vampire myth is how to do something new with it. The focus needs to come down to an original execution of a story about the blood-sucking monsters. As someone who has read and watched a great deal of vampire canon there are few permutations that I consider genuinely fresh. It can be done, but in many ways the story cannot just be about vampires. There must be an…