Dark Shadows comic strip artist Ken Bald

[Uncle Roger]

Ken Bald, the artist on the Dark Shadows newspaper comic strip, will be attending the East Coast Comic-Con at the Meadowlands in New Jersey April 29 and 30. eastcoastcomicon.com

No other DS guests booked at this time but it is still early.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks for the heads up, Uncle Roger. 

[Uncle Roger]

You're quite welcome, MB. Mr. Bald is 96 and still active as an artist and spry enough to attend conventions

[Gothick]

That's amazing about Ken Bald.  I never did hear about the planned book of his DS strips being published.  It seemed as if the publisher did not have access to the materials needed.

G.

[Gerard]

Gothic, the book was published quite a few years ago.  I purchased it at the '03 Festival in Brooklyn.  Maybe check Amazon.  His art work is impeccable; the story lines, not so much.

Gerard

[Uncle Roger]

Gerard, you are correct. Pomegranate Press did reprint the comic strip stories some years ago in paperback form. But Hermes Press announced plans to reprint them in a hardcover format, similar to what they did with the Gold Key comics. The project got stalled for a couple of reasons. The main one is that as of 2014, Hermes hadn't gotten enough preorders to justify what was going to be an expensive project.

[Gerard]

Thanks, Uncle Roger!  I didn't know they were trying to re-publish it in hard-cover format.  My question, of course, is for what?  I think the paperback edition would be enough for aficionados.  It probably was.  Like I said, his artwork is incredible.  Unlike the Gold Key comic books, it doesn't look hokey.  The characters actually look like the characters.  But the plots were hokey.  I'm glad I have the book.  It's a keeper because it extended DS after it vanished.  We still got our "fix" (like the Marylin Ross novels and the Gold Key comics).  But it certainly wasn't of literary height.  Hoping to make money by charging a lot for a cardboard cover as opposed to a glossy paper one doesn't make it worth it.  People should search on Amazon or e-bay for the paperback original if it's at a reasonable price.  If they can't find it, other than seeing his illustrations, it's just not worth it.

Gerard

[Gothick]

Hi Gerard, I might be misremembering, but what I recall about the Hermes Press edition is that they wanted to print all the Sunday strips in full color.  However they were having trouble getting a complete set of the original prints of the strips for reference purposes.

In the early 1970s I cut out all the Sunday strips and pasted them into a scrapbook I kept.  However, the local paper stopped carrying it before the strip had ceased.  I almost never got to see the dailies, either.

I did have the Pom Press book but gave it away to a friend several years ago.

G.