Sunday, July 17, 2011

Going to Comic-Con? Don't give up your 'Twilight' book for this

If you're planning to attend this year's Comic-Con event in San Diego (can you believe it's next week?) in support of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 and all of the other panels of Twilight fan interest (see here), there's one station you will probably want to avoid.

According to ComicBookMovie, the author of 30 Days Of Night, Steve Niles, is offering Twilight fans the "opportunity" to trade in their copies of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer in exchange for a volume of his book. Apparently, the animus for this promotion is that he finds the Twilight Saga's take on vampire lore to be astray from his own, and he hopes to put the "real" vampires, like those he's written about, back into business.

"Real horror fans have watched vampires systematically turned into wimpy fodder for years now. It's time to fight back. I'm happy to be working with IDW on the 'Sparkles for Blood' event. Hopefully, working together we can put an end to this nightmare."

Couple of thoughts on this, from Amanda of Twilight Examiner:

As Pel from Twilight Lexicon points out, many Twilight fans have seen the film adaptation of 30 Days Of Night, if for no other reason than to support The Twilight Saga: Eclipse director David Slade and/or to learn more about his technique and style in preparation for Eclipse's release. Some of us, in fact, saw and loved the movie long before Slade was ever attached to the Twilight Saga . . .

The same goes for other, to borrow a term, less "wimpy" vampire books, movies, and shows as well: True Blood, Interview With The Vampire, Dracula, etc. So, I think Niles is remiss in assuming Twilight fans are unfamiliar with more gritty vampire stories - including his own - in this campaign.
It should also be noted that many of the vampires included in the Twilight Saga are not the "vegetarian," human-friendly ones who are focused upon in the story. Many are just as seething and dangerous as what you'd find in these other stories, and they serve - as Niles seems to think they should - as the villains of the story . . . each and every installment of the Saga, in fact. In Eclipse, there was a whole army of them. The difference between the central characters of Twilight and these are that they've grown conscious of their natural urges and choose - yes, Twilight vampires, like many in popular vampire lore, are given a sense of self and consciousness - not to abide by their instincts to kill and pillage humanity. True Blood offers the same. So, if the big problem with Twilight is that the vampires sparkle, well, it seems like a pretty pithy ground to bicker from.

A final point, and this is a good one, comes from Pel: "Apparently someone in their marketing division fails to realize that Twilight fans also like Doctor Who, Star Trek, True Blood and several other of their products. They had an amazing opportunity to reach out to a franchise, especially since David Slade directed the 2007 movie 30 Days of Night. But I guess it’s easier to insult us with the same-old-same-old that we’ve all heard before."

So, it's up to you, as an attendant of the convention, whether you'd like to participate; however, if he receives little to no reponse to this endeavor, it'd speak volumes over anyone showing up to protest his claims.
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