30 Days of Night.
Welcome to the second in my series of illustrations featuring my favorite pop-culture vampires. My inspiration for today: After an Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month, it is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires (from IMDB). Who wouldn’t want to watch that, eh?
Danny Huston, who you might know from season three of American Horror Story: Coven, plays Marlow Roderick, the leader of a group of vampires who are understandably drawn to the town of Barrow, Alaska, where their food is plentiful 24/7. And Huston plays his role masterfully. Josh Hartnett is the sheriff who comes to the rescue, and he does a fine job as well, but this post ain’t about him (he’ll get his day when I do my Penny Dreadful posts). The movie is based on a graphic novel of the same name (written by Steve Niles and Illustrated by Ben Templesmith), and while the movie deviated from the novel at some points, it was fairly faithful to the overall concept of the comic (a very noticeable change being the merging of two characters, Marlow and Vicente, into one character, the aforementioned Marlow Roderick). Which brings us to my illustration.
Marlow Roderick
Loved this character. Gore-loving, bloodsucking, devilish–an all-around joy to watch on the big screen. And it was Danny Huston who brought the character to life. That’s what I attempted to capture here, and I’m pretty happy with the outcome.
The movie has a sequel, Dark Days, which I’ve yet to see, though as I understand, it follows the comics more closely than the original film. The sequel doesn’t have the most favorable rating on IMDB, though I’ve never let something as silly as a rating get in the way of my enjoyment of something.
That’s all for today. Trying to keep this short, since–like me–you’re really just here for the pictures. Enjoy, and stop back soon for Drawn to the Vampire, Part 3!
The Well of Mike 