30 Days of Night: How one graphic novel shapes the femicides of Juarez, Mexico

30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales: Juarez or Lex Nova & the Case of the 400 Dead Mexican Girls written by Matt Fraction takes a true life horror story and puts a vampiric twist on it. The real life story involves the gang rapes, mutilations, and other atrocities that resulted in the violent deaths of over 400 girls and women in Juarez, Mexico between 1993 and 2005 (Diana Washington Valdez, Deaths That Cry Out, 2006).

Do I think that this novel was sensitive to the true life story: hell no! First of all, the artist, Ben Templesmith, did an interview with UGO.com in which he states that his continuing work on this arc involves "pinups" of the clown ladies but he has to figure out "what they would have on their nipples." When asked what he would do if he did not have to work, Templesmith replied, "Just sit around painting pictures of nude women." Was it his intention to bring light to this massacre and bring some dignity back to its victims? Based on the fact that his time could be better spent painting nude women than getting justice for dead ones, probably not. Was it the writer's intention to do the same? If you gauge it by what critics got out of the story...maybe. "Honestly, there isn’t much to the plot and it’s a little drawn out. The mystery is solved without any fanfare and, in the end, those responsible aren’t really punished, but make amends. Of sorts." Soooo the case is "solved" in order to get those who are left behind off the backs of those responsible for finding the killers. That is like saying it is okay to violently murder women as long as you "repent." "Except, the case is solved...in the shadows with hints that it’s never over — and all that’s happened really is that a lot of girls have died and a family has been broken..." Oh, so the murderers are never found or brought to justice, great. We'll just cover it up and brush it off. After all, it is only a bunch of prostitutes, right? It will probably keep happening anyway, so why make a concerted effort for such lowlifes. In their thin, and I mean VERY thin defense, as one critic who panned the movie adaptation about the Juarez murders writes, "You can't make a thriller about indifference." Essentially you have to throw vampires in to make things sexy enough for people to read them, but f*ck the real story. You gotta make things spicy, I get it, but to whose detriment? Clearly the victims in this case have not been given their due by the government, by the law, or by the media that profits from them.

There is little criticism on the novel with reference to the real life killings and what I did find made no connection to women's rights. This parallels the Mexican Federal Attorney General's report that was largely viewed by human rights groups as a whitewash. In both cases, the murders were "solved" and nothing was accomplished with respect to women's rights. I say "boo" to the writers and pretty much everyone who collaborated on this project. Whether or not they had good intentions when starting out, the end product did little to shed light on a disgusting oversight by the Mexican government.

P.S. I am going to be taking a break from writing for a lil' bit sooooo see you next year!