Speaking of vampires: last week I bought and thoroughly enjoyed the 30 Days and Nights tpb. Iffin' you like the vamp tales - I thought it was a pretty good one.

Definitely. Written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith, it is a really cool story with a premise (vampires take on Barrow, Alaska in the winter when it is perpetually dark for 30 days in the winter) that makes everybody go "why didn't I think of that?" A sequel to the series just finished in December that should be collected soon and was just as good. (There was also a collection of 4 short stories that came out last week se in the same universe). Templesmith was also the guy who created the cover for Tales of the Vampires #2.

Speaking of Tales, the Dracula story was prestty funny, and Jane's story was well done. The framing sequence (whitefonted to let everyone get to it) makes clear that it takes place in an earlier age, and the Tales are said to be "some that have yet been", so my theory that the protagonist is Gile's grandmother is still a possibility).

1602 was full of HSQ, and moved quickly, but I have a hard time figuring out how they are going to wrap things up in one more issue. The reveal at the end seemingly raises more questions, but I guess I'd still have similar questions if Virginia had been revealed to be the Traveller.

The bit about Neil Gaiman'sReed Richard's comments on stories was interesting, if a bit meta. His comment how a cure for Ben Grimm would be bad for a story rings particularly true after that past year in the Fantastic Four.

Jeff -

(There was also a collection of 4 short stories that came out last week se in the same universe)

Are they all drawn by Templesmith and was one of them Love Me Tenderloin ?

I picked up 30 Days and Night due to recognizing his name from ToV #2 and loving the cover. I am new to his work - but I bought the above oddly named comic and LOOOVED it - if this is one of the short stories - I gotta get the rest. Did Niles write the other ones? Sorry - I'm sure I could look this up myself. But ...you know, lazy.

Re: ToV:

I thought Roger might be Roger Wyndam-Pryce, but realized RW-P's childhood post-dates electric light by quite a bit (the girl writing by candle being the big time period clue we've got so far).

And yes -- JE's story was much the strongest in this one.

Duh, just realized that the 1602 twist should have been obvious

.... Because Steve Rogers aka Captain America entered the modern Marvel contuity by 'time travel' aka, being frozen in the Artic at the end of WW2 and waking up in the 60s Marvel era. Everyone's origin was talked about in the series but Cap's, because his origin (time travelling) is the origin of 1602. And Peter Parker has a pivotal role in the next issue, because Spiderman was the beginning of the Marvel era, so I suspect that Peter becomes Spiderman, that will be the signal of the end of the 1602 world, time will reassert itself ...

Excellent point, CaBil. Plus, Rojhaz (sp?) is the only one of the transplanted Marvel characters who came from the New World, where the anomaly seems to have originated.

Are they all drawn by Templesmith and was one of them Love Me Tenderloin ?

No, only one story was drawn by Templesmith (all were written by Niles), and actually relates more to the sequel Dark Days rather than 30 Days of Night.

Now that I think of it, 3 of the stories deal with the sequel, while one story can be read without having read the sequel.

Love Me Tenderloin was a one-shot Cal MacDonald story based on the series Criminal Macabre that Niles and Templesmith created for Dark Horse.

No, only one story was drawn by Templesmith (all were written by Niles), and actually relates more to the sequel Dark Days rather than 30 Days of Night.

D'oh. I didn't even have the title right.

Love Me Tenderloin was a one-shot Cal MacDonald story based on the series Criminal Macabre that Niles and Templesmith created for Dark Horse.

Oh. Well, then I'll check that out. Thanks for the info.

tina, I'm in your corner regarding the Dracula story. It actually made me angry (and I didn't like the art anyway).

Now, much whitefont for 1602: Is Otto Von Doom out of the game completely? Or will he show up in the New World with everybody else? Is James' man David Banner ever going to get angry? Where's Matt Murdoch? And what is with the tiny dinosaurs?

Raquel, I really hope all your questions are answered in #8.

And, I gotta say, I wasn't too crazy about Tales of the Vampires. Particularly the Dracula one.

The artwork on the Dracula one threw me off. I liked the first story. What surprised me there was how serious it was. It was weird to not have Jane make with the funny.