Comic book review
Written by Steve Niles
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz
Idea & Design Works paperback
Release date Out now

A thrill-seeking party find more than they bargained for when they visit Barrow during the winter...

The 30 Days of Night mythos has expanded considerably in the six years since the original graphic novel was released, and this new comic book is a timely return to the basics: vampires, winter, Arctic Circle, no sun – and terror...

Starting with a massacre of three vampires by something that even they quickly learn to dread, Beyond Barrow doesn't let up. Although Niles's script for part one indicates that Richard Denning is a Richard Branson-esque figure, at Bill Sienkiewicz's hands he's highly reminiscent of Richard Attenborough's John Hammond from the Jurassic Park series. Denning’s got the same "money can buy anything I want" attitude that gets a rapid readjustment as they encounter the nocturnal lifeforms.

It's clear that the native people are aware of something even worse than the vampires out there in the snow, and Sienkiewicz gives us a mutated form that looks like something H.R. Giger would have come up with if he'd used a leech as the basis for the xenomorph. With their basic language disguising a cunning, these are a great addition to the mythos, and Sienkiewicz manages to make them familiar yet different. Paul Simpson

VERDICT: 7/10
An effective standalone tale.