30 Days of Night: Red Snow

By Ben Templesmith (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-6001-0149-6

Although I wasn’t a great a fan of the first 30 Days of Night graphic novel it didn’t stop it becoming a comics and movie sensation, but with this sequel (or to be exact, narrative prequel), writer artist Ben Templesmith finally struck a cord with this jaded old reviewerâ€¦

That first tale detailed the last days of Barrow, Alaska: a contemporary American town near the Arctic Circle where the sun sets for an entire month at a time. What happens when a posse of roving vampires came for an extended overnight stay one sundown is a simplistic but highly effective exercise in visceral slasher-thrills. No real depth or explanation, just easily explained motivations (eat and/or kill vs. run and/or fight) and lots of evocative action. A perfect, uncomplicated video game of a taleâ€¦

Now, in Red Snow a little glimpse into the history of that nomadic band of Nosferatu is offeredâ€¦

Russia 1941: bleak black bitter winter is decimating both the Nazi invaders and the hard-hearted vengeful Russian troops in the hinterlands beyond Murmansk. The German-Finnish Operation: Silver Fox has collapsed (a bold, doomed attempt by the Nazis to capture the port and end Allied aid into Russia), and roving bands of Germans are freezing and starving in the permanent blizzard-bedeviled arctic night. Equally hard-pressed are the Soviet and Cossack patrols hunting the surviving invaders.

Among the pursuers is Charlie Keating, British Naval observer, military liaison and war-weary polyglot. As the Soviets are slowly advancing despite the deadly temperatures, they come across a vast underground storage compound where a family of peasants has been hoarding food, ammunition and fuel â€œfor the War Effortâ€. At the same time the Nazis have made their own discovery – a small band of blood-stained travesties, immune to the cold and dark, ravenously hungry for human flesh and hot red bloodâ€¦

Old animosities are soon forgotten as the surviving Nazis are invited into the subterranean citadel, but the unstoppable bloodsuckers besiege and rapidly deplete the defenders’ numbers and resources. Soon it’s clear that the only possible chance lies in outrunning them in the one remaining truckâ€¦

Templesmith’s first outing as scripter is clear-cut and a little short on sophistication, but wickedly effective as the vampires relentlessly attack, and even though the team-up of human enemies, complete with inevitable betrayals, is nothing new in this genre it is extremely well-executed and graphically enticing.

Although many British readers might compare this unfavourably to the similar scenario of the classic 1980 2000AD strip Fiends of the Eastern Front – and in terms of sheer suspense the Gerry Finley-Day/Carlos Ezquerra serial is certainly superior – (note to self: must review some 2000AD collections soonestâ€¦) there is a splendidly visceral brevity to the blood-soaked events of Red Snow that carries the tale along at a breakneck pace and always delivers its promised punch.

Templesmith is an accomplished illustrator and works well in his painterly manner, blending Kent Williams or Jon J Muth’s watercolour vivacity s with Ted McKeever’s angular, expressionistic figure work. Of course there’s also heaping helpings of splashy reds against the cool icy blues – and remarkable amounts of gruesome violence which is, of course, exactly what the target audience expectsâ€¦

This collection of the three-part miniseries also includes an interview with Templesmith and an extensive gory gallery section of art-pieces.

Share this: