Written by: Steve Niles & Kelly Sue DeConnick
Illustrated by: Justin Randall
First Published: 2007
Contains spoilers
Eben and Stella is the seventh graphic novel release from the 30 Days of Night series and is a step back in time for fans of the series. It chronicles the events between the end of Dark Days and 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow, specifically around what occurred after Stella was bitten by the resurrected Eben and how they ended up back at Barrow.
The story itself is okay, with a newly introduced piece of lore surrounding the oldest of the vampires – which I won’t spoil further – plus introducing a new human character, Alice, a woman from a long line of vampire hunters.
The artwork works well enough, though I felt that was perhaps a little lack of distinction between the primary female characters visually. However, the biggest problem with the graphic was that whilst it filled in the blanks for fans of the series it felt as though there wasn’t that much there to keep a new reader interested. The over-arching story was functional but, in the end, didn’t really go anywhere.
To be fair, it is always difficult when we already know the beginning and end of the story, but the middle (in other words, the new material) maintained a solidity storywise and yet it ultimately proved itself to be nothing really special. Alice's presence served to be little more than a cipher for the story and I felt more could have been done with her and her husband.
Never-the-less, interesting enough for those of us with a series investment and it opens a new thread, with the oldest of vampires, that can (and needs to be) explored in more detail in the future. 6 out of 10.
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