30 DAYS OF NIGHT: Red Snow by Ben Templesmith
© IDW
Mania Grade: A
Issue: 3
Authors: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
Issue: 3
Authors: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
30 DAYS OF NIGHT: Red Snow
By: Kurt AmackerReview Date: Friday, November 09, 2007
Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night: Red Snow relates a wartime vampire story, in which an uneasy alliance of Germans, Russians, and an Englishman hide in an underground tunnel, as the piranha-jawed vampires of the series wait for them above. While the miniseries bears an uncanny (and likely intentional) resemblance to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, it defines itself through the forced collaborations between the soldiers of different countries (though the Englishman already works with the Soviets). The group bickers and waits, eventually deciding to take a nearby truck to escape the vampires outside. But, like its cinematic predecessor, all does not go as planned and all sides ultimately suffer – some to greater degrees of satisfaction for the reader, I might add. After two issues of build-up, this third and final installment throws its balls to the wall with a tense argument, followed by several pages of carnage. Templesmith concludes the story with nary a smile or hint of a happy ending. It’s all darkness and blood in the snow.
I should point out that Ben Templesmith owns 30 Days of Night, along with Steve Niles. Red Snow stands as his first authorial work for the franchise. His return to the art on the series makes this story uniquely his. Any doubts as to his dedication or understanding of the franchise should evaporate immediately, as he turns in one of the best entries of the franchise thus far. More significantly, he forces the reader to recall the integral and essential quality of his work to the original trilogy of stories penned by Niles. Niles gets most of the press for his authorship of those stories, but it wouldn’t be the same without Templesmith’s contributions. As the climax of the miniseries and, thus, mostly action-orientated, this issue allows the reader to dive headlong into the artist’s moody vision. It’s a dark, beautiful, claustrophobic horror story that explodes from underground passages into a bloody winter night.
Templesmith has knocked this one out of the park. Pick this up and grab the first two, while you’re at it.
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