Ben TemplesmithRecensioni

I'm not the biggest fan of Templesmith's art, but it actually suited this series quite well.

But, of course, the biggest star here is the now-tarnished one of Warren Ellis. I know I say this in damn near every review of his work, but man, this guy is a talented storytelling and wordsmith.

And this short series does nothing to change my mind about that. There's very few characters populating this one, but it's essentially NYPD Blue, if that show was focused on a single cop and the city was FAR darker and more gritty.

The less said about this prior to reading it, the better. Just...read it.

I really love Templesmith's art (here, in Fell, in the peeks I've taken at 30 Days of Night). It's like doing mushrooms, then listening to Tom Waits while reading HP Lovecraft. But neither Fell nor Wormwood really have a story or characters worthy of the pictures.

Beach reading for people who have been completely desensitized to violence. The stories are an adequate vehicle for the unsettling, eye-popping art.

30 Days of Night gives you the vicious, violent vampires you know and love, but puts them in a setting you may not have seen before. The swirling, freezing cold of winter lies heavy on every page, brilliantly illustrated by artist Ben Templesmith. I’m a huge fan of his work (something of a cross between Dave McKean and Ralph Steadman), and it’s showcased wonderfully in a backdrop of ancient evil and dripping viscera. The stakes are clearly set: a horde of vampires versus a band of small town residents who must find a way to make it through the next thirty days of darkness. Will they survive to see the light of day?

As interesting as the story is, I found it incredibly rushed and even hard to follow at times. Really wish it had taken its time with everything because the set up/story ideas are great.

1683

Having serious Firefly-level "Why isn't there more of this?" feels...

What a wonderfully bizarre and hilarious book. I love the bold colors he uses and the distinctive look of each character.

The thing about Ben Templesmith's style is that even when you know something gross is happening, you aren't really grossed out because you're kind of shielded from it by the art. Wormwood and his sidekick Pendulum have to fight lots of things with tentacles, and there's blood aplenty, just like in the 30 Days of Night books. But it all comes out looking great.

As much as it appeals to me visually, I like the humor even more. Lines like, "You can't go spawning these things out of innocent human wombs without their permission. It's just not done. Gives them a rather bad case of instant death, it does," make me giggle.

Definitely will go looking for more.

Update on 12/15/14: I did go looking for more and hated the second volume so much I didn't finish it. Wish I'd stopped with volume 1.

As much as I liked the first volume, I disliked this one. I should have known it was no longer the series for me with the Jesus corpse suit at the beginning, but I figured I'd see if there was anything redeeming after that. It just wasn't as funny as the first one, and the leprechauns are too gross, even with Templesmith's artistic style (which I still do like). When I got to the masturbating pope, I was done.

Still one of the best modern vampire novels (not just graphic novels). Artwork is perfect and perfectly unconventional.

The performances were great. And the original story is great. This audio adaptation? Not so much. The graphic novel depends on the visual to tell the story. When you just pull the text from the book, it sort of loses a lot. While they add sound effects, it's difficult to follow the story. If you haven't read it (or haven't read it in years, like me), it's VERY difficult to follow the story.

I didn't pay for this copy, thankfully.

Probably not the best thing I've read, but most certainly not the worst. The art, while perfect for this tale, is off putting at times. And the story felt a bit lacking.

I'm one of those people who saw 30 Days of Night the movie before picking up a copy of the graphic novel - written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. And while the movie is rather vague now - I must've watched it at least two years ago - I have to utter the unholy phrase of "I liked the movie better."

Don't get me wrong, the graphic novel's a must read - dare I say, a part of the ever growing canon of Vampire Literature. But it's lacks something that the movie offers: Build up.

Sure, I'm not a fan of plot devices, stringing the audience along and what not, but this leaves us hungry for more. It gives us little to work with. There isn't much character build up, isn't much plot build up and the climax is like an erection that grows flaccid immediately.

And I'm not cutting down on Steve Nile's story. The story is great, which is why I feel starved myself. If he didn't have the ability to tell it, or I felt that he was a hack, I wouldn't be here wishing there was more to this book than what was offered to me.

The edition I have - because I'm not certain that all the editions have this - also features the comic script written by Niles. It's pretty detailed for only a portion of the book. It also bears witness to the fact that he is a great and talented writer. So why is 30 Days of Night leaving me feel incomplete? I read a beginning and an end, but the middle was thinner than an bulimic prom queen.

I'm aware there are other books to the series, not just this one. But shouldn't I have been treated with something more in this novel? Or perhaps the novelization might come in handy, which I doubt as most of them suck anyway.

But to make up for the hunger of more story, I must admit that Ben Templesmith's artwork is beyond anything I've ever laid eyes upon. The man, like his writer counterpart, is a genius. These to are the dream team of Vampire graphic novels.

Really enjoyed this. Definitely one of Ellis' better works, and I wish there were more in the series.

And, just like that, the undead stop laughing

30 Days of Night is one of my favorite vampire horror movies, so when the Film at 11 Halloween Bingo square got called, I knew exactly what I wanted to read for it. It turned out to be that rare creature of the movie was better than the book (graphic novel) for me.

I can't really review this without comparing it to the movie, I found the origin story to be very stark and more of an outline of the movie. Eben, Stella, Marlow, and a few of the others are all there and more or less match up with their movie characters. I will say, knowing the ending of the movie, which they kept original to the novel, made the beginning of the novel more poignant. However, I felt like the movie focused more on the humans and did a way better job of setting the tone and slowly bringing in that sense of horror and fear as the residents of Barlow, Alaska realize who is visiting their town.

The vampires in the novel get more speaking lines and this “humanized” them more, which made them less scary to me. This is a series, so I can see how creating storylines for the vampires makes sense and why the focus was on them more.

I did read this on Kindle, so maybe I didn't get the best effect of the drawings but I can't say I thought they were the greatest and added emotion to the story. The style came off as watercolor dark shadowy Monet, except with less clear humans instead of plant scenery. You can see the inspiration for the movie vampire looks from the renderings in the novel, though.

Was a little disappointed because I thought the novel would dive deeper into the story, this is Vol. 1 in a series, so I guess I'd have to read on for that. I hate to say it, but choose movie instead of this.

Really enjoying the "Hell Noir" story. Staczynski really can put together a compelling story when he tries. And Templesmith's art is very good. You don't realize precisely how good an artist he is, until you're shocked into mediocrity with the abrupt change from his style to C.F. Smith's which is quite dull, undynamic, and really unsuited to this story, and the reason for the one star off.

This was a whole lotta fun. I don't necessarily thing Templesmith delivered on the initial promise of Ray Delgado, but overall, the characters, the story and the art were great.

Just a fun, simple little story of some prison inmates and some werewolves. What could go wrong?

worm animated corpse infected by leprechaun plague must find queen and get cure

worm animated corpse and mechanical sidekick save earth from squid creatures set to open interdimensional door and let it demon

Really don't know why I downloaded this freebie. I'm not a fan of zombies. The art is dire and the colouring is a mess that makes it hard to see what's going on.

I couldn't even finish it.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a graphic novel, but delving back into the strange and macabre world of Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse was a perfect re-entry. It was only a matter of time before Wormwood had to be dug out of his self-imposed retirement to save the world again, and considering the state of the world during the current American administration it was about time. Obviously the story is set in an alternate universe, but it’s clear that the story is based on and inspired by the Tr*mp administration and its poor behaviour. I mean how else can you explain the psychotic and unacceptable policies, except that the government has been taken over by an alien spore fungus bent on ruling the human world? It doesn’t seem that outlandish to me (lol)! In true fashion, Wormwood puts together a team and in the most haphazard way possible manages to rid the world of the fungus, but he (and we) are left wondering if he actually did the world a favour or if the fungal overlord was a better option…

Added into the collection was a macabre take on a Christmas story - which is perfect timing, since it’s just about Christmas now! The North Pole is in chaos since the capitalists have taken over, so Wormwood allies with the pagan originator of the winter holiday, Saturn, to set things right. I particularly liked this story not just because it’s a cynical but truthful depiction of how far Christmas, Yule, and the Winter Festival have come from their origins, but also because the artwork was absolutely stunning. Sure, Templesmith tends towards the dark and grisly, but I found his dark take on the North Pole and its denizens unique and wholly enjoyable. I hope that he continues working on the Wormwood universe, because it’s one that I highly enjoy coming back to time and again, especially in short but pithy snippets like this.

Seriously, whose bright idea was it to cancel this brilliant series after only three graphic novels' worth of material? It just seems like such a bloody waste, because these characters could have gone so many interesting places, and they are relatively uique within the genre. But I guess it's good that they went out on a high note after having saved the world from the squid legions and ahving revealed some of Wormwood's major character secrets than to drag on from crisis to crisis. Wormwood is't just any ordianry supernatural worm, don't you know, and even he gets tired of having to be the protagonist all the time.

A great second volume in what is still the weirdest graphic novel series that I've ever read - and trust me when I say that I've read some weird stuff. This volume is slightly more disturbing than the first, if only because the leprechauns in this universe are incredibly disgusting little creatures. Not only do they speak in a ridicule-laced gibberish, but the lone female of the species, the Queen, is really a whole other level. So of course, Wormwood and company have to track her down so that she can give him a magical restorative kiss (eughhh) to cure a leprechaun bite. To make matters more complicated, while on thnis quest for the Leprechaun Queen, the crew run afoul of the squidders - beings hell-bent on colonizing the universe. The crew manages (just barely) to evade capture and to shut down the portal to Earth, but I have a distinct feeling that the swiod-men have set their gaze on anywhere that dares to house our esteemed protagonist...

This might just be the oddest and most macabre graphic novel that I've ever read, and yet it might also be one of the most satisfying. Temple smith is known for his off-kilter protagonists (see his knock-off of John Constantine in Fell), but a re-animated corpse, driven by a talking worm (who lives mostly in the eye socket) is a whole other level of weird. And yet, Wormwood lives up to his titular monicker, as he spews ascerbic monologues, flirts with the ladies, and uses his prep-school connections to save the day. Jolly good form, I say!

To make this book even more astounding is the quality and unique stylings of the artwork. If this story (and these characters) had been done in any other way I doubt that it would have worked even half as well as the vivid splashes of tone and stylized linework portaryed here. I absolutely can't wait to feast on eyes on more of Wormwood and his pals!

I'm not sure if Ellis wrote this series before or after his stint on the Constantine franchise, but the similarities are pretty obvious. Fell is more of a regular police detective, but add in some supernatural elements, and he and Constantine could be brothers. Chances are that's why the series dead-ended after this run, but I did rather enjoy it. Ellis is really good at getting down to the grittier aspects of crime and police work, and he's not half bad at character development either.

Really don't know why I downloaded this freebie. I'm not a fan of zombies. The art is dire and the colouring is a mess that makes it hard to see what's going on.

I couldn't even finish it.