The conclusion of Steve Niles and Ben Templesmiths excellent vampire series, 30 Days of Night issue 3 turned out to be a real tearjerker. At the beginning of the series, the local husband and wife sheriff team of Eben and Stella Olemaun are sat together watching the sun go down, knowing that their hometown of Barrow, Alaska would not see sun again for a month. Of course, a gang of unruly vampires invade the night-stricken town and engorge themselves on the local townspeople (such things tend to happen in comics), with Stella and Eben attempting to rescue this remote, isolated community from certain destruction by any means necessary... In the end, the only way Eben can save his wife, his community and the town he loves, is by injecting himself with a vampires blood and challenging the lead bloodsucker to a fight. After this, the pair set down to watch the sun rise again, each knowing what will happen if Eben looks directly at it. When Stella suggests that he try to live as a vampire, Eben refuses and, in one of the most romantic and heartbreaking lines ever published in a comic book, he strokes her face gently, before saying I could live forever, sure, but I dont want to live another second...If I cant remember what it feels like to love you. Tearfully, the pair kiss one final time and the sun rises, after which we simply see a plaintive, full page shot of Stella sitting alone next to a pile of ashes and burned rags.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
