7 Days of Halloween Review: Day 2

Title:	I am Legend
Contributors:	Richard Matheson Steve Niles Elman Brown
Publisher:	IDW
Issue #:	1
Year:	1993
Pages:	243
Age Rating:	16+ (Violence, Adult Themes)
Story Grade:	A
Art Grade:	B

Richard Matheson's I am Legend, adapted by the writer of 30 days of Night, Steve Niles, is nothing like the I am Legend movie starring Will Smith, in any way shape or form. This book paints a true portrait of the loneliness and despair that would be on a man who was the last remaining human being on the face of a planet otherwise populated with vampires. This book is the "Night of the Living Dead" for Vampires.

This book opened my eyes to the distortion that Hollywood applies to the term Artistic License. If you don't know what I am talking about, read the book, then watch the movie. In that order. While the movie is good in it's own right, as a standalone story, to say that the movie is adapted from the book is a big fat lie.

So rather than continue comparing the book with the movie, let me do a proper review of the book, that is why you are here after all.

The chain-smoking, nightly emotional binge drinking Neville character in this story is the tormented last human on the face of the earth. Each night as the sun goes down, he goes into hiding in his mildly fortified house as vampires surround his property in hopes of getting one last fresh meal. He suffers through the torment of listening, nightly, to vampires attack his house, call out his name, attack themselves in order to feed as well as living with the memories of his wife and child, who died. These tormented memories are embedded in every object in the house, making his fortress also his asylum. Each following day he goes out, surveys the damage to the house, picks up supplies, hauls dead vampires to the burning pit, slays a few vampires as they rest and makes repairs to his fortress in preparation of the evening assault to come.

It is a repetitious. It is torturous. It is existence. It is the life of Neville and Neville is about to crack.

But Neville has a plan and the question is; can Neville stave off the vampires, can he overcome his weakened mental state just long enough for his plan to come into fruition?

This is a dark story, absolute darkness. This is likely the primary reason the movie was changed so much. Hollywood doesn't do absolute dark because most audience members don't enjoy absolute dark. There is no love in the form of Bob Marley in this book.There is no companion in the form of a dog in this book. There is no humor in the form of talking to mannequins this book. There is no joy in this book. Just darkness. Absolute and unrelenting darkness.

The vampires are true vampires. They fear garlic. They are revolted by crosses. They can only be killed by a wooden stake through the heart. They have the deepest of blood lust. And while they don't reflect in mirrors or turn into bats, they also don't glow in the daylight. They aren't loving, caring pedophiles just looking for love after centuries of loneliness. They are monsters that command fear, respect and hatred.

The artwork matches the story. The 256 shades of gray in this book paint true pictures of a bleak and hopeless world during the daylight hours and then things get downright morose after sundown. The artwork, each and every panel, reflects the story being told. The day time, while bleak, is stark, bright and almost inviting. And the nighttime is a perfect negative of the daytime world. What's white is black. What's black is white. This book will teach you what it means to be afraid of the dark.

I grade this book a solid A+. This is a must read. And if you are like me, and you too look forward to the end of humanity, look forward to the apocalypse where only a few survive, this book may change your mind.

Until next time... Keep one light on.