I had a very hard time figuring out what the monsters were in 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles. I assumed they something like the hybrid zombie vampires in I
Am Legend, especially because the zombies in I Am Legend couldn’t withstand
being out in sunlight. But everyone else who has read this seems to
definitively define them as vampires. I realize that is what they are now after
Googling the book, but I was very confused. Instead of a set of fangs, they has
circular jagged teeth like a leach, and they clearly call them undead. Yes,
vampire are also a kind of undead, but in general that specific term is used to
define zombies. It was unclear to me, but since they drink blood, I suppose vampire
was the right answer. The art style didn’t make my confusion any better.
I like visual novels. I read Webtoons and online comics all
the time. I’ve liked the visual novels we’ve read in this class so far. Until
now. The art style in this novel was so messy and blurry. Maybe the story would
have been better in the text form versus the comic, or maybe the movie makes it
better, but I found myself unsure what some of the panels were depicting. While
this helped create a very distinct aesthetic and showed off the mood of the
comic through the frazzled style, I really hated it. It was distracting and
made the story much harder to digest than it needed to be. I don’t want to have
to question whether a scene is blood or not because of how sketchy the image
alongside the text is.
I will say that the plot pacing of the comic was good
though. It all flowed nicely together, and was very quick in the parts that
weren’t slowed down by the artwork. Though I knew from the setup that the novel
was 30 days of night with no sunlight, I also would have believed you if you
told me the novel was only one long evening. I think that is both a pro and a
con to this story. It means the flow was very smooth, but it also kind of made
it difficult for me to rate the stakes of the story. They kept talking about
the hidden humans being hungry, but I didn’t see that in the pacing. I wish the
time had been more exaggerated in the comic. I didn’t feel the suspense build.
As for the actual vampires themselves, I loved that we
assumed the original guy killing everyone was the big bad, then Vicente arrives
and they assume he’ll be pleased, only for him to wreck shop with distaste. I
love the idea of creatures exploiting their being myths and fairy tales. I
thought that part of the story was the most clever. However, I didn’t really
understand the guy coming in with the helicopter. I’m sure it was more vital in
text or movie form, but it felt out of place in the graphic novel version and unnecessary.
I also thought the ending was a cop out. The sheriff turns and is somehow able
to control himself when the other infected guy wasn’t able to, and then after
he wins the fight he just drifts off into dust and doesn’t bite his wife.
Anticlimactic to say the least.
Not the worst story we’ve read in this class, but definitely
the worst graphic novel assigned.
I also felt like it was just ONE LONG night. I think in the film it was spanned out only a few days? Or they only noted times sparingly. I agree that the art style was not my taste. I wanted more HD gore. (Though, the little girl scene was probably my favorite. She was a creepy little shit.)
ReplyDeleteOnto the pacing with the night, I agree. It moved so fast, I hardly felt the desperation of the stakes much. They are in pitch black in Alaska. You can't tell me that 30 days ONLY felt like one night. But, as a reader, that is what I also got. There wasn't much desperation. The bickering between the vampires was great though. I also loved their teeth being styled the way they were. It was nice to catch a different vampire with more than mere fangs. Their teeth amped up their terrifying, undead vibe.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that the specific term undead is more associated wtih zombies, but that's not true. Vampires are most certainly considered undead, as much, if not more so than zombies. I do get what you mean about being confused about the teeth though. I've always seen the association of two large fangs with a vampire.
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point about how the story was 30 days, but could have been written as one regular night and not really suffered for it. I agree with you on that. I listened to the audilbe version of this story, and the time span wasn't any easier to pick out there either. What you said about the people being hungry over all that time, you're spot on. It was just kinda mentioned. We didn't really live through any of that desperation in the story, and it could have really upped the ante on tension.
Also agree the whole New Orleans part, and the guy with the helicopter... I don't think it was necessary, because it ended up not really mattering, outside of giving Vicente a scape goat to blame the destruction of the town on. But I don't know that even that was necessary.
Wow, we really had the same takeaways from this one! I agree completely on all counts: art style, pacing, random dude in the helicopter. I also had some confusion around what the monsters were supposed to be. I went with vampires because they mentioned blood a number of times, plus the aversion to sunlight. Still, the teeth confused me, as did the fact that they seemed to eat the bodies (referring to them as "meat") in addition to just sucking their blood. Once again, a fascinating look at the elements of monster legend we accept as canon (I'm looking at you, I Am Legend).
ReplyDeleteI thought I was going to be the only one that really didn't like this novel but yay, I'm not alone. Just FYI, anyone named Vincent or a variation of is evil or a vampire, or both. Maybe there is a Vincent entity that spits itself into all the Vincents and corrupts them. Even the fictional ones.
ReplyDeleteI have seen quite a few vampire interpretations that eat flesh to get the blood. I guess the blood is like water for them and flesh is like regular food.