Reviews

It's 16 months later and Stella is on a book tour talking for her memoir about the events of the last volume. She's got herself a group of bodyguards that resemble Matrix character rejects.

She's written this book to antagonize vampires. What I liked about the first volume was the vampires showed immense restraint. These were not rabid dogs but a sophisticated organization focused on staying hidden. VOL 1 SPOILERS

Spoiler

Whatever the method vampires use to feed, it is clearly foolproof. The Barrow attack was deemed an unnecessary risk by leadership and the organizer was killed.

But I guess Niles decided vampires showing restraint was boring because in this novel they're going full vampire apocalypse.

And yet the authors want to have their cake and eat it too. So, despite the ludicrous amount of destruction and mayhem going on in public places, no one takes any notice.

One scene, in particular, bothered the hell out of me.

Spoiler

In it a crowded speaking engagement turns into a blood bath with innocent bystanders caught between a group of vampires and our heroes with all their guns and bombs. The fight is cut short because cops show up. They immediately decide it's all just a publicity stunt for the book. And we find out that there were no serious wounds. How is that possible, people were shooting guns and vampires were ripping out throats?

One other gripe

Spoiler

our hero meets a "nice vampire" (and by nice I mean he doesn't immediately kill her) and within a couple of hours she ends up in bed with him.

It's something I would expect from a comedic slasher or a YA romance novel.

slipperbunny's review

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2.0

Our library hadb't marked that this was a second volume and that's why I've missed the first volume... But I didn't feel like I didn't understand anything because of it. I gave only two stars maybe because this comic is so dark and I'm having trouble finding a favorite character. Even though the characters are somewhat interesting. I'm not sure if I'm all that interested about reading the other volumes.

caitlinxmartin's review

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4.0

Although I was a bit lukewarm on the story of 30 Days of Night, I was anything but lukewarm about the art. Great concept altogether and I'll put up with a little bit of hokieness in the story for art of this stellar quality.

Dark Days follows Stella Olemaun and her crew as they try to warn the world about the vampires. The story here is much much better. Taking characters out to play in twilight Los Angeles and letting them blow things up, battle vampires, and generally kick some major ass is highly entertaining. Again the art is absolutely gorgeous.

Templesmith renders the work in tones of sepia that add to that feel you get if you're walking at night in L.A. Everything's kind of smoggy and brown and fuzzy and the streetlights barely cut through the mess of the atmosphere. It's very noir and the usual big red splashes where you can't quite figure out what's going on punctuate the rhythm of the story. Templesmith makes great art - I'd put up with no story just to feast my eyes.

This one reminded me a lot of the game, Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood Lines, a vampire RPG that takes place in Los Angeles. There's a gritty downtown feel to both. This isn't the pretty part of L.A. - all sunshiney beaches and smiling plastic people. This is the seamier side, in some ways what's always felt to me like the real LA - what's left when you strip away the fingernail scrapings deep surface.

Great horror comic. Highly recommended.

ashtheviking's review

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2.0

More or less same feeling with this one. It took place over a much shorter period of time of maybe a couple days but many things still felt rushed. Characters are still rash. meh. I likely won't be continuing with this series.