IDW Publishing and the Fleet Science Center teamed up for a four-part event series that explored the art, science, and technology featured in some of our favorite comics. This conversation series paired comic book creators with scientists to discuss the plausibility & likelihood of comic book events actually happening. For example, the first event in the series featured Bob Gale, creator of the Back to the Future franchise and, among the topics discussed, were the science behind hover boards, time travel, and more.

On Friday, October 27th, the final event in the series was held in honor of the 15th anniversary of the comic, 30 Days of Night. The event was held at the San Diego Comic Art Gallery, which also exhibited some of Ben Templesmith's original artwork, which he created for the comic.

The panel featured Steve Niles, creator and writer of 30 Days of Night, Dr. Joy Phillips, Research Associate Professor of Immunology, The Donald P. Shiley BioScience Center at SDSU, and Nina Gao, Ph.D. Student, Microbiology at UCSD. The general topic theme was infectious diseases.





Among the things discussed were: how disease spreads, what the difference is between an outbreak and an epidemic, can viruses or bacteria lay dormant in ice sheets and then spread disease after being released due to climate change, can one survive on a diet of only blood, are vampires living creatures or dead, if dead - what is the difference between vampires and zombies, and so much more.





Because this event also marked the 15th anniversary of 30 Days of Night, Steve Niles talked a bit about the work and his writing process. He shared that, as a child, he was forbidden to watch any scary movies or TV shows by his parents. "Horror films freaked me out. I wasn't allowed to watch them because, when I did, I'd be messed up for a week afterwards." Ironically, when he got older, he fell in love with genre.





Niles shared that his scripts are very detailed, but he works closely with the artists on the story to make changes, additions, and complete the book - "It's a 50-50 creative process". With 30 Days of Night, Niles said that the whole look of the book, and the look of the vampires themselves, was all the idea and creation of Ben Templesmith.





Niles said that he and Templesmith created 30 Days of Night for free. The two had been working for Todd McFarlane on his comic, Spawn, which is how they met. Niles had the idea for the story, but nobody would publish it, so he and Ben approached Ted Adams, the CEO of IDW. Adams said he would love to publish the book, but he couldn't pay them, so they did it for free. The rest is history!

















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Labels: Comics & Graphic Novels