Do the Work of Day Men

My mind works against me. You might know the feeling, the situation. Let me see if I can describe it. See, it goes like this. I read or see something that lights a spark. And I really want to talk about it, but things happen. I completely forget about it all and then the spark is gone. And that feeling, that need is forgotten. I mean, you’ve felt this, right?

That’s what happened with this story. Day Men (Boom! Studios 2016) is one that happened with for me. I’ve been meaning to talk about this one for a little while but things get in the way. And it wasn’t till I was reading the forward on the first volume that something really clicked. Momentary digression coming now…

The story itself had an 8 issue run collected in two volumes. I read them in the collected volumes, which was a good thing. I am not sure I would have made it if I had been reading them and waiting for the next one. And now this is where everything clicks.

In the forward to the first volume Mike Carey starts one of the last paragraphs with this sentence “There’s usually a moment in a story when you make the decision to commit, whether consciously or unconsciously – or else you bail and go try something else.” He goes on to say when that moment was for him within this story. It wasn’t the same for me, but I knew exactly what he was talking about.

There were a couple different aspects of this for me. The first had been that at one point I had started reading and then set it aside as I ripped through a few other comics. And by a few other comics I mean compilations of series. I don’t even remember the point where I had set this one aside, probably right around the opening solvo of the first comic in the series. But I picked it up again and pushed through. I wanted to know what was going on.

Somewhere in that time, the story had its hooks in me and I couldn’t put it down again. This story gives a whole new look at an age old trope (I still hate that word). It is more than just the political intrigue and bloodfest of vampire lore.

Which brings us back to the overall story. It all comes down to vampires and their need for workers to guard them during the daytime. The concept is something more than simply mindless drones that simply watch over the undead. These are the people who perform essential functions of their estates and life outside the vampire politics.

We focus on the character Danny Reid and a bit of intrigue he has fallen into. As protagonists go, he isn’t exactly what we expect. He is older than what we might see out of Hollywood. The dood has grey at his temple. Isn’t there a law in movie land that all leading characters must be 20 something or at least appear that way? But I digress… Yeah, I thought that a fun approach to someone new to the game of protecting a family. How many years would he have functionally left to protect creatures that may never die?

Overall, there are plots and subplots all around that leave us guessing what might actually be going on. As new layers of the story were revealed I found myself mesmerized, unable to pull away even if I wanted to. It’s that moment, right? First you make the conscious decision to follow through, and then you find that time when it is too late to turn back, even if you wanted to.

And now we come to the second part of the whole thing with this. By the time I had finished I knew I wanted to share the experience. Well, at least enough to let you know you should experience it for yourself. But as we dig into something like this, it just isn’t the right moment to touch on it right after you go through it. You need a bit of time to let the experience settle in and germinate in your mind. Otherwise, all you have for it is the sensation and slobbering excitement that ends up little more than word vomit. No one wants to experience that. Drool is icky.

It’s the ones like this that sneak up and grab me, that I want to take a minute to think about before I say anything. And then something shiny finds purchase to where I completely forget about everything else for a while. It sucks when trying to share but at the same time we are left in a glut of riches that continue to give us more things to enjoy. The effort to focus in all of it can be superhuman to say the least.

With that all said (probably too many words for so little), go out and find a copy of this story to assault your brain. You’ll find that moment for yourself where you can’t put it down as well. Hell, you won’t even notice when you reach the point where you want to keep reading for the sake of finding out what happens next.

###

If you enjoy these stories, consider leaving some coffee money in the jar or you could buy a book or two. Either way helps keep the stories flowing.