Boardindex Page Montage/aka 'Book 1'?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the third page of the letters column (twenty-seventh page):

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

As we can see as more letters show up in the column, we're not the only ones who had certain problems with Book 1, Issue 1. In fact, some people had problems that we didn't even bring up. And we're also starting to see how those problems were addressed. But I'm going to hold off on getting into that issue until after we've seen more of their answers...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here are the second and third pages:

(Click here for a 2656X1996 version)

Unfortunately, the pages didn't line up correctly in the comic, so they don't line up correctly here.

And as is more often the case than not, notice that there is some dialogue that wasn't included in the slideshow...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the fourth page of the letters column (twenty-eighth page):

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

[Uncle Roger]

Obviously, the Michael Woodard back story didn't get told. Though I'm not entirely sure that anyone was waiting on bated breath to read it.
I do know two of the letter writers in the post. Without naming names, one is someone that I have known since 1982. The other is a more recent acquaintance via Facebook.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

This might sound odd given that we're doing a slideshow on Book 1, but I haven't reread all of the comics in a very long time. My comments thus far are purely based on what I remember. And as far as breaking down Book 1 for the slideshow goes, I've simply counted all the dialogue in the 4 issues of Book 1, divided the total by 365, and then multiplied that number by how many days are in any given month so that the potential dialogue for the slideshow's quotes gets spread out evenly over the 12 months. As far as specifics go, I'm only slightly ahead in the story than the slideshow is. I didn't honestly remember if the explanation about Woodard is going to come up or not - though if it did, I have no memory of it in Book 1, Book 2, or what we have of Book 3. And given what David Campiti has led us via SG to believe Books 3 and 4 were to be about, I don't see where an explanation about Woodard would have fit into either. But who knows? Though I will say that based on some of the ways they've tried to explain other issues, I have my doubts that whatever explanation they came up with would have been completely satisfying or would have fit in perfectly with the canon of the actual show because so little of what they did get to does. (And actually, once I share Page 4 of Book 1, Issue 2, we'll see that the subject the slideshow is currently dealing with was completely unnecessary to get into at this point in the comic's timeline. It appears it was done purely for the comic's storyline purposes even though aspects of it fly in the face of the show's actual canon. But more on that then...)

[Gothick]

Now, wait a minute! In the 1991 DS, Julia was writing a history of her own family IN COLLINSPORT, but for some reason, Woodward got Elizabeth to accept that the good Doctor needed to be at Collinwood to work on this task?

I really think I would have remembered that if only because of its innate absurdity, had that been thus stated in one of the original shows.

Is this another instance of the comic book writer making yet another major gaffe??

The letters pages are amusing. I have only had time to glance, but have seen a couple of familiar names.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the fifth and final page of this letters column (twenty-nineth page):

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

I'll hold off on commenting for a bit longer to give people more time to digest the letters and responses. I also know some of the people who'd written in, or at least know of them.

Given some of the prices, I would love to know how many pieces of E. Silas Smith's original artwork were sold. Though pretty much all of it is spectacular.

And did Issue 3 actually come out in September? (Hint: Fans shouldn't have been holding their breath...)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here are a few clippings that SG #60 shared:

(Click here for a 877X810 version that's easier to read)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the fourth page:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

And notice that it features dialogue as well as a whole panel that the slideshow skipped over. And it's also worth pointing out that a line from Barnabas questioning why the Collinses allow Julia to stay on at Collinwood even though Daphne, who was Julia's patient, is dead is perhaps one of the worst blunders in these comics. They have Barnabas saying "But now that she is dead, as far as they are concerned, there is no reason you should stay." Well, how quickly they have Barnabas forgetting Joe, who is very much alive, and who at this point in the timeline of the show is still being treated by Julia at Collinwood in the aftermath of Daphne's attacks on him! To anyone who remembers that, Barnabas comes off as a callous idiot who thinks Joe's treatments are completely incidental.    And we know that Joe is still being treated at Collinwood at this point in the comics' timeline because they are supposed to take place between hours three and four of the series and in hour four there's a scene between Joe and Carolyn on Collinwood's terrace in which he laments among other things that he's "gotta get out" of Collinwood because there are too many memories there. (A clip of the scene was even featured in several of the series' promos, one of which can be viewed by clicking here. Not to mention we also get to see Gloria screaming - and one can never see that too often! ... Yeah, right!!  )

It's definitely nice that they came up with a reason for Julia to stay at Collinwood. But doing so in the manner that they did and at the time frame that they did is regrettably premature, to say the least...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Now, wait a minute! In the 1991 DS, Julia was writing a history of her own family IN COLLINSPORT, but for some reason, Woodward got Elizabeth to accept that the good Doctor needed to be at Collinwood to work on this task?

I really think I would have remembered that if only because of its innate absurdity, had that been thus stated in one of the original shows.

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but as you've probably already figured out by now, the excuse that Julia's writing a history of her own family is an invention of the comic.

[Uncle Roger]

If the Hoffman family is from Barrettstown, that was going to be an extremely short book.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   Apparently we're not supposed to think about that (though I had the exact same thought )! 

What might have been interesting to see is if, like Julia on the daytime show, years would have gone by without the comics' Julia ever referring to her supposed book and no one even questioning it or would working on it have actually come up? But we'll never know...

[Uncle Roger]

I was always waiting for someone to ask Julia why she and Barnabas were working on a book about Eric Lang when she hadn't finished her first book.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   That's a thought I never have had but should have had because it's hysterical and so true!! 

Interestingly enough, had the '91 Series continued, they had no plans to reimagine the 1968 storyline. They were planning to go from 1790 to the werewolf/Quentin story (with Adrian Paul as Quentin and Michael T. Weiss as some sort of combo of Peter Bradford and Chris Jennings). So, chances are the show would have never had a Dr. Lang...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the fifth page:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

And notice that once again a page features dialogue and a panel that the slideshow skipped over. And yes, the panels are actually printed a bit askew on the page - at least in my copy.

And this page pretty much concludes (there's just one line of dialogue (also not a part of the slideshow) that will pop up on Page 6) an extended scene between Julia and Barnabas. With the one exception of that unfortunate remark from Barnabas, I think it was really well done and certainly captured the dynamic between the two characters at this point in their relationship. I can really hear Cross and Steele delivering most of the dialogue as if it was a part of the actual show.

Today's slideshow features the first lines quoted from an extended period in the comic that's focused on events at Collinwood. It actually begins on Page 6, but once I post Page 6 you'll understand why nothing from that page was included in the slideshow...