(*PAGE EXAMPLES - reply #31*) "Dark Shadows" Returns in October (in new comic form)

i was starting to think i was the only person here who got this...

i'll start by saying i'm not a comic book person...or in this case "graphic novel" i believe is the proper name. but this is very well done.

it is like watching a new episode set in 1971. the 'feel' of the series is very much captured unlike the preposterous and juvenile 'gold key' comics. i was instantly engaged and look forward to following this story. it actually feels more DS than the audiodramas.

as CB mentions most of the character introductions and plot setups are perfunctory. especially roger, david and quentin. but since "we" already "know" them it's not a problem although a newcomer might have pause. maybe they'll actually integrate quentin into the storyline better than on the original series. in the "present" he always just stood around with little to do.

the artwork is very well done. the original actors well represented. of course several of them are deceased(bennett, edmonds, hall)but do the living actors get some sort of compensation for their likenesses being used?

speaking of the old 'gold key' comics from what i've been able to gather only barnabas, julia, liz, roger, quentin and professor stokes are featured. the rest of the characters are made up and do not correlate to the series. is this correct?

as an aside i'll add that the comic book store where i purchased this..."forbidden planet new york"...was BUSTLING.

like everything else i assumed that comic book purchases had largely gone online so it was great to see a thriving brick and mortar business for this type of novel.

michael--Angelique (and briefly, Cassandra--I think only in issue 1) was also featured in the Gold Key comics.  Or rather, some garish shrieking thing that was called Angelique because Joe Certa couldn't draw real people to save his soul...

I got the issue too yesterday but haven't read it yet.  I have been sidetracked by Gary Rhodes' brilliant analysis of the original 1931 Bela Lugosi Dracula film in the new issue of Monsters from the Vaults which I also purchased, and issue 4 of Alan Moore's fascinating Dodgem Logic project.

My local comic book store is also very busy.  And what you wrote makes me jump on my current hobby horse/bete noire--supposedly print is going the way of the dinosaur, but every bookstore and mag shop I visit is always PACKED.  I think in this age of nonstop inescapable glowing screens, people are craving print more than ever.  Granted, I live in Mass which has a very high literacy and habit-of-reading rate.  Interesting discussion here but of course way off topic for DS.

I do look forward to reading the comic.

G.

does anyone know why key characters like carolyn, maggie and david were not included in the 'gold key' series?

it is like watching a new episode set in 1971. the 'feel' of the series is very much captured unlike the preposterous and juvenile 'gold key' comics. i was instantly engaged and look forward to following this story. it actually feels more DS than the audiodramas.

You hit the nail on the head.  I think this is the best format they could have opted to go with to continue the original series.  It captures the feel of the original show exquisitely.  I hope these sell well enough to continue the line for many years.  Unlike the original show, we have to wait a whole month for a new "episode", but I feel that it's going to be well worth it. 

michael--you should be grateful that most of the personnel of the series were absent from the Gold Key comics... given that Certa's attempts to render Quentin, Julia, Stokes et al. resulted in some really unspeakable caricatures... Quentin always looked like a bad cross between pop star Engelbert Humperdinck (who I believe hailed from Tasmania) and the WB's Tasmanian devil... sigh.

I have just read issue 1 of the Dynamite DS comic--excellent work over all!  Given Liz's terse reference to David's "pyromania," I would guess that a certain former Mrs Roger Collins may be lurking in the shadows, or should I say, the embers...

I don't see the Julia or Carolyn episodes as references to the 1991 series, personally, but I did catch two visual references that may possibly be a nod at Depp Shadows--[spoiler] in the scene of Carolyn driving out of the estate, the gateway her car drives through looks *a lot* like the gateway for Collinwood created for the new movie (we never saw the Collinwood gate in the original series)--and when Barn vamps out on Julia, not only does he bare his fangs, but he sprouts Fu Manchu fingernails, too, just as Depp does in the new feature[/spoiler]

Of course, the inclusion of these images could be coincidental, but given the delay in the book's production, the artist may well have seen these photos--or may even have been shown material from Depp Shadows before some of it was made public...

I don't see these references as attempts to somehow incorporate this story into the canon of Depp Shadows--which, by the accepted standard definition of canon, will have ITS OWN canon, not somehow an extension of the canon of the original series (which is CLOSED).  These books, the Dynamite series, will also establish their own canon for the story of Collins family, the curses they suffer, Barnabas et al.

G.

i didn't catch the "pyromania" reference the first time around. although it wouldn't properly correspond to the 100 year life cycle of the pheonix i wouldn't be surprised to see mrs.roger collins make her presence known. in fact it would be great.

i'm not catching any references to the 1991 series either. in it's tone and sensibility this story seems firmly planted in the traditions of the original series. as for any references to "depp shadows" it's impossible to say since we haven't seen it yet but i suppose they could try and tie the two together somehow. that doesn't seem likely though given the presence of quentin and the references to maggie and hallie who will have no presence in the movie.

at least via this first effort it would seem that the "canon" of the original series is the launching pad for the series much more than other recent offshoots like the audiodramas and certainly fiction by lara parker which seem to exist in their own DS universe.

michael--I agree with what you say. What I was trying to say in my original post was that the two little visual referents I caught to Depp Shadows seemed more like playful nods to fans, certainly not in any way intended to somehow present a tie to this world and the world of the Depp/Burton feature.

I also agree that this redaction is the most firmly rooted in canon of ANY previous DS spinoff I have seen, including the excellent Ken Bald newspaper comics of the early 1970s.  This comic series has the makings of a for-real sequel to the original series, which products such as the Joe Certa Gold Key books and the Marilyn Ross novels certainly were not.  (I've only heard one of the Big Finish dramas to date and it felt more like "alternate universe" or Parallel Time to me than the world of "our" DS--the tone and flavor felt markedly different from that of the OS, despite a cast that included original series actors and some music cues.)

I was thinking that one difference between DS and Star Trek is that the Star Trek fans seem to treat all the different redactions of the series as part of the same canon.  That's very unusual.  With DS, I would go so far as to say that to me, each of the two feature films feels strongly as if it establishes its own canon, but that position might strike most as too extreme--that IS how it feels to me though.

G.

i'm a very visual person so for me this series has the potential to feel somehow more "real" than the audiodramas do.

i've only listened to a couple of them and yes they do feel like some sort of parallel time universe despite the presence of so many OS actors. it didn't seem "real" to me if one can accurately use that word to describe a completely fictitious situation.

in fact after the initial "goosebumps" from hearing those iconic voices together again i promptly drifted away from the series. i actually couldn't tell you a single plot detail of them.

fiction by lara parker which seem to exist in their own DS universe.

Gee, ya think.    Especially when, in one blatant instance, she took a scene word for word, action for action from the original series BUT also added a few lines of her own dialogue to it - and her little addition managed to completely changed the way the scene originally played and what it was originally intended to convey to the audience. That made laughable any initial claims that her books would be faithful renditions of the original series and could easily fit into it.  

I would go so far as to say that to me, each of the two feature films feels strongly as if it establishes its own canon, but that position might strike most as too extreme--that IS how it feels to me though.

I can see that. For example, I've often wondered why David didn't inherit Collinwood rather than Quentin. But then, I can also see why David may not have wanted to ever inherit the house, given what happened there in the first film, and perhaps he told Liz as much, so she put Quentin in the will. Though we'll never really know because it's a subject that's never touched upon...


As for the comic, I haven't received my copy yet. It was sent out several days ago, but it still has yet to arrive...

Its hard to believe that it took over 40 years for a DS comic book to actually use the TV series as it's background.  This does have the feel of the series more then any other comic or fan fiction.  I thought I was the only one who thought the audio series was someway off the track from the original series.

Quite pleased with the first issue. I enjoyed seeing a comic book/graphic novel depiction of the original series that actually resembles it.  Light years away from the Gold Key series, which I enjoy in spite of (because of?) its many flaws.

Speaking of the Gold Key books, Willie appears in the first issue, and you know it's Willie because he's wearing a vest.  Also, there are mentions of Trask and Victoria Winters.  And one of the characters in one of the stories (the one with the glove) appears in certain frames to have been modeled after Roger Davis.

I liked it.  I've been keen on the idea of a DS comic continuation of the classic series for some time, so I'm happy to see this is finally happening.  I liked the pyromania reference and agree this is setting up some Laura-related incident.  Perhaps David has inherited mommy's ways. 

It's too early to tell how this new series will turn out, but I think this is a promising start.

Well, this is certainly interesting:

CarlosAle Carlos G
#comicmarket show some love to @DynamiteComics! 3 titles sold out, going back for 2nd. Printing: Game of Thrones, Dark Shadows & Bionic Man!
46 minutes ago

besides the "pyromania" remark we might have another clue...

[spoiler]that a visitation from laura collins might be on the horizon. on the last page liz and roger spot a bloody warning on the foyer wall..."she approaches". now that could refer to angelique(or somebody else for that matter)who at this point is already on the canvas. so that's not that suspenseful. and with the exception of the 'cassandra' moment ang concerned herself little with roger and liz. to me this seems like a possible setup for a return of laura.[/spoiler]

just a thought. i'm glad everyone is enjoying these.