Years following a vicious vampire attack on Barrow, Alaska, the reverberations can still be felt as far off as sunny Los Angeles. A letter from Barrow, Alaska, carries a cryptic warning to a young, curious woman known as Alice Blood, which leads her down the rabbit hole and face-to-face with her desire and likely her demise. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, a vampire resurrection ignites, which could threaten the very way of life of all mankind. 

The story is pretty interesting following one woman’s obsession with vampires and a group of vampires trying to usher in a new age where vampires aren’t hiding. It’s a nice story but something we’ve seen a dozen times. There’s also a strong sense of mystery with the story foreshadowing some pretty intense shit.

The focus of the story is on Alice Blood who’s an alright character. She kind of reminds me of Lisbeth Salander, main protagonist of the Millenium series. I would’ve liked to have seen more of her motivation for what she’s doing. Hopefully, there will be more on her character in other issues.

Two other seemingly antagonistic characters are Paul and Jill who’re leading vampires against the older vampires and older ways. I think it’s a pretty interesting subplot and am interested in seeing how these two going about accomplishing this.

I don’t have anything against Sam Keith but the art style wasn’t really my cup on tea. I didn’t like how it lacked consistency with some scenes having a high level of detail while others lacked it completely. A lot of the character designs do come out comical especially when the focusing on someone from a distance. Now I did appreciate the dark and gritty look which helps the dark tone of the comic.

I didn’t mind the writing and Steve Niles does a good enough job (admittedly I haven’t read much of his work). I like the vampires from the film and I like how well the creatures translate to the comic. Their dark eyes make them creepy and their sharp teeth make them threatening. I didn’t mind the dialogue which was pretty straight to the point.

In the end, 30 Days of Night (2011) #1 wasn’t a bad issue but it definitely teases a lot, foreshadowing events for later issues. I thought the artwork was okay but it was as cartoonish as it was good. The writing was okay but I wished there was a bit more to weigh the story down. I don’t know much about the series but I’m looking forward to seeing where the series is going. 30 Days of Night (2011) #1 gets 3 out of 5.