At some point in 2010 or so, there was a sale on 30 Days of Nights trades, and I bought the whole collection. Everything. If Chuck Austen had written a run with Rob Liefeld and Greg Land splitting art duties, I’d own it.

I read the whole run, enjoyed some, shrugged my shoulders at others, and mostly forgot about it, except when telling people that the movie (which wasn’t bad) left out the most interesting part of the story, inter-generational vampire strife.

Last month, I picked up an issue of the new ongoing, and enjoyed it enough that I sought out the last two trades.

As someone who grew up loving The Maxx, I was disappointed in Sam Keith’s art. It just didn’t seem to mesh too well with the story. His creepy vampire pages were good, but his cartoony humans just didn’t fit the story.

Christopher Mitten’s art on this issue is exactly what the story needed. And Niles’s story is really coming together. He’s seven issues into the ongoing, but he’s been pulling story elements from every 30 Days Of Night story arc that I can remember. He’s also killing off an almost Shakespearian amount of characters.

While I wouldn’t put this in the same category as Unwritten or The Nightly News, there’s much more depth in this story than I gave it credit for a couple of months ago. If Niles and Templesmith had collaborated for the entirety of this series, it might have been nearly on par with Kirkman’s Walking Dead for well-written horror based comics. Alas, there’s been some mediocre to bad holes in the continuity, but this ongoing may make it all worth it.

Coming back to Mitten’s art: I’m not sure I’d like it on any other series. The odd angular faces, the greencentric palette. They work well here, but they’re an acquired taste. Something Niles appears to be attracted to.