Cover of 30 Days of Night Deluxe Edition by Australian artist Ben Templesmith – also used for the original comic mini-series (fair use)

(14) STEVE NILES & BEN TEMPLESMITH –

30 DAYS OF NIGHT (IDW 2004 – 2009)

This comics series came to my attention through its film adaptation, which is ironically fitting as the comic was initially an unsuccessful film pitch, only to turn full circle back into film adaptation after it became a breakout success story for writer Steve Niles and intense Australian artist Ben Templesmith (which it also brought to my attention).

And what’s not to love about a comic that brought some raw bloody horror back to vampires in comics and film? No Twilight vampires here – these are sharks on legs, even in their pale-skinned black-eyed blood-smeared shark-mouthed appearance.

Mostly invulnerable to all but sunlight, the plot of the initial series followed vampires to the Alaskan town of Barrow – who then use the month-long Arctic night for a literal feeding frenzy. A small and dwindling number of town’s residents survive by hiding, led by the town’s sheriff Eben Olemaun and his estranged wife Stella, but face increasingly desperate choices to survive the titular thirty days of night.

Oh – and it did indeed make a fine horror film. And also a franchise, which expanded the mythology of the vampires (and human characters) within the series. My favorite sequel (or more precisely prequel) used the Arctic night in a different setting – the Eastern Front, where the German and Soviet soldiers have to band together against a more deadly and ravenous enemy…