Vampires shouldn’t be sparkly or desire to swap spit with teenage girls. Steve Niles with his breed of vampires in his 30 Days of Night comics and movie are pushing vampires back to the status of being a scary monster again. At Dallas Comic-Con, Niles and I discussed what defines a vampire, the Deadliest Warrior episode of zombies versus vampires, and the exciting re-launch of his 30 Days of Night comic monthly. Check out our conversation below:
SciFi Mafia: Let’s talk about 30 Days of Night. I really admire you for how this has helped re-shape the popular image of vampires from pretty-boy-I want-to-love back to the monsters that want to kill you.
Steve Niles: Exactly. Yeah, remember when vampires were scary like in Nosferatu? I think that was the last time? [The move away from scary vampires] really started with Bela Lugosi (1931). He really started the suave vampire… and if you track it from there, once we ended up with Frank Langella (1979) and it just got worse from there. When I was writing 30 Days of Night, Buffy was dating a vampire…
SFM: I know…
Steve Niles: …everything was kinda light and Count Chocula.
SFM: I am a fan of Buffy though.
Steve Niles: Well, as a show it’s fine but I’m not scared of those vampires.
SFM: That’s true. They didn’t strike fear in my heart as a Nosferatu would have. Although the Master was much more of the old school vampire.
Steve Niles: Yeah, great make-up there. I just wanted to take away the seduction and the romance.
SFM: It’s not necessary.
Steve Niles: [People] are a food source.
SFM: I liked your comment in the Q&A session how vampires should see humans as food, as cattle for the slaughter. We don’t want to make out with cows. Why should vampires want to make out with us?
Steve Niles: Well, it’s true though! It’s as simple as that. It’s how I think their world view is.
SFM: Thank you for making vampires scary again!
Steve Niles: Of course!
[Above: 30 Days of Night vampires]
SFM: You and Guillermo del Toro with his The Strain series are making vampires scary again. Del Toro’s using his Reaper-type vampires that he started in Blade II to this new trilogy with Chuck Hogan. Both yours and del Toro’s vampires are not sexual creatures.
Steve Niles: [Romanticised vampires] are boring and as a horror fan, I want to be scared.
SFM: And you are on the expert panel for an upcoming Deadliest Warrior episode on Spike featuring zombies versus vampires.
Steve Niles: Yes, zombies versus vampires. Me versus Max Brooks (World War Z).
SFM: Can you say anything about the episode yet?
Steve Niles: We don’t even know who won yet. They didn’t tell us who won but I still more than ever after watching [the tests] know that vampires would hands down, take out zombies in two seconds. I actually went into unsure, but once we ran all the tests and did all the debates and I looked at Max’s evidence, I am absolutely convinced that vampires are the superior monster.
SFM: I must agree with you and admit that I am rooting for the vampire side of this equation.
Steve Niles: And I’m starting back on doing 30 Days of Night monthly. We’re bringing it back.
SFM: Yes, you’ve said! I’m so excited!
Steve Niles: So these new characters know nothing about what happened ten years ago [in Alaska.] They have no clue.
SFM: Can you say where it’s going to be set?
Steve Niles: The first part is set in three or four different places because a big part of it is the old guard vampires from the old world in Europe are upset with the American vampire for…
SFM: Being dicks?
Steve Niles: Yes, for being such brash little dicks. So they want to come over and there’s a war breaking out between them and basically there’s this woman who has started this website called “Desperately Seeking Vampire” is about to get a lot more than she bargained for. But she’s not who she seems.
SFM: Will there be some anti-Twilight vampire action going on in there somewhere?
Steve Niles: Just the notion of it. You know what? It’s almost too easy of a target. I do feel like I’m picking on Sesame Street sometimes. It’s for kids. I don’t know how forty-year old women wound up into it, but I just know that if they were a forty-year old men, they’d all be in jail. I find it really creepy.
SFM: You know, I picked up one of the Twilight books and read a paragraph of it and just threw it down. It was terrible.
Steve Niles: And that’s my problem with it. And there’s True Blood. I have nothing against True Blood, it’s just not for me. To me actually, True Blood seems like a comic book.
SFM: You know, it does!
Steve Niles: A soap opera comic book.
SFM: It does have a high soap-opera factor.
Steve Niles: I don’t like that. If I’m watching anything and I can tell that they’re drawing something out, I’m out. I like my stories delivered as soon as possible. I’m very impatient that way.
We’ve got more from Steve Niles and Dallas Comic-Con. Did you miss the Making Macabre Q&A with Bernie Wrightson and Steve Niles coverage with audio? Check it out HERE.
