Boardindex Page Montage/aka 'Book 1'?

[Gothick]

MB, glad you got power back. The photo looks as if you were enjoying (?) your very own flashback to 1795....

I have no idea what the latest storyline twist is in the comic book--you have certainly piqued my curiosity!

G.

[Gerard]

MB, it's times like that when we wish they still made and sold manual typewriters (maybe they do; I don't know).  I still have mine going all the way back to my junior high days and it took me all the way through graduate college.  Of course, the major problem is they no longer make ribbons for them (as far as I know).

Gerard

P.S.  If someone here needs to ask what a "ribbon" is, you're really, really young.

[Josette]

Gerard - I think I bought a ribbon a few years ago.  I don't know if it's hard to find the right one, but I think they still exist!!

[Gothick]

I did a google search after Gerard posted and I saw something called a "universal typewriter ribbon" on sale. I don't know how that would work since different machines had different gears and/or gauges. There were also the more traditional ribbons that we used to have so apparently, the ribbons are still produced. But you'd almost certainly have to order one online.

We really are in alterna-verse land with where the book is going now. I always thought the 1991 Julia was British since if she had been American, I'm sure Barbara would have done an accent. Also, there were no Witch trials of the type described in 18th century Maine (which was of course a part of Massachusetts back then--as all DS fans know!).

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

We really are in alterna-verse land with where the book is going now. I always thought the 1991 Julia was British since if she had been American, I'm sure Barbara would have done an accent.

I don't recall them giving much of a background for Julia, which is one of the reasons the comics' writers wanted to do so. What you've seen so far is the plausible part. Remember back when I said IMO an upcoming plot development in Book One jumps a lot more than a mere shark? Well, this is it. Just wait...

Also, there were no Witch trials of the type described in 18th century Maine (which was of course a part of Massachusetts back then--as all DS fans know!).

Yes, Maine didn't secede from Massachusetts until 1820 so that sign should have said "Barrettstown Massachusetts" because Julia is talking about events of the 1700s. And the funny thing is that will sort of be brought up in an upcoming letters column, but the answer won't be particularly satisfying. But then, so few of the answers to readers' questions/complaints are addressed satisfactorily...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I should add that the jumping point doesn't start until the end of Book 1/Issue 2...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the seventeenth page -

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version (without any of the artifacts that the forum's system created when downsizing the image))

And take note that this page contains several bits of dialogue and a couple panels that weren't featured in the slideshow...

And apparently the full moon is no longer shining over the Collinwood estate - well, at least not in the top right panel on this page...

[Gerard]

The whole British accent thing reminds me of one of my favorite Roseanne episodes where her cousin Ronnie (played by Joan Collins, who I think would've made a perfect Laura Murdoch Stockbridge Weinerlodz Brzesinski Whatever Collins in the '91 remake) comes to visit.  There was bad blood between Roseanne and Ronnie for decades but they reconcile until old sores open again.

(Paraphrasing)  Roseanne:  "And where do you come off with that hoidy-toidy accent?  You're from Illinois." 
Ronnie:  "I'm sorry if I don't have your dolcent tones."
Roseanne:  "You've been talking that way ever since you were in that play."

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Time to share more from SG. This comes from Issue 59, February 1992 (and part of it will be a sneak peak of a Soap Opera Weekly article that SG reprinted, but I'll be sharing the actual article tomorrow or so, so that's why I cut it off...):

[Uncle Roger]

Interesting little tidbit about Dark Shadows novels, which did come to pass some time afterwards without any producy from Mr. Campiti. Has any information about those novels surfaced over the years?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I honestly didn't remember. But he said he'd have more info in the next SG, and so I just checked. He does. And we'll see what it is once we get into Book 1/Issue 2. And if you wonder how long that will be, Issue 2 will begin before the end of this month...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the eighteenth page -

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version (without any of the artifacts that the forum's system created when downsizing the image))

[Gothick]

I am not seeing any artifacting in the smaller scan here. I'm running some outdated version of Windows here and an outdated Mac OS X at home.  Looking via Chrome in both places.

Since Julia's own family members were among the "living dead" (or whatever), this begs the question as to why she was so obsessive in her initial pursuit of Barnabas. I can't recall if the script for the 1991 initial confrontation when Julia reveals her "research interest" to Barnabas includes the dialogue about her long search for someone who could span the worlds of the dead and the living.

That Barretttown storyline (one wonders if the town name is an odd tip of the cape to Nancy Barrett?) really slithered way down the cliff very quickly from what I recall of the issues I did see way back when.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The Soap Opera Weekly article, from the December 10, 1991 issue:

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Since Julia's own family members were among the "living dead" (or whatever), this begs the question as to why she was so obsessive in her initial pursuit of Barnabas.

I'm not sure exactly when it will come up, but I remember Campiti claiming that his reasoning for giving Julia the background that he does in the comic is to flesh exactly why Julia is so obsessive in pursuing Barn. Take that for what you will.

I can't recall if the script for the 1991 initial confrontation when Julia reveals her "research interest" to Barnabas includes the dialogue about her long search for someone who could span the worlds of the dead and the living.

I don't recall her saying anything like that then (or even at any point in the series) - but I'll check out the scene just to be sure.

That Barretttown storyline (one wonders if the town name is an odd tip of the cape to Nancy Barrett?) really slithered way down the cliff very quickly from what I recall of the issues I did see way back when.

Oh, so you do recall what's coming up. Though saying it slithers down a cliff very quickly is putting it mildly. But as I've said, thank heavens there are other plots in the comics that, well, if they don't exactly make up for it, they at least balance it and come across as much more satisfying from a perspective of what we're used to thinking of as an actual DS plot.

The comment Campiti relates in the SOW article above about Curtis' people saying that if they'd seen the proposed plots for the comic, Campiti and Rockwell would have been writing for the TV show is both interesting and frightening. All I can say is given which aspects of Book1 that Campiti takes credit for and which aspects Rockwell takes credit for (both of which we will learn along the way), all I can say is in certain respects thank heavens Campiti was nowhere near the TV show! Rockwell, on the other hand, might have made for an interesting addition. And the really interesting thing there is that Campiti is the longtime DS fan and Rockwell was never a fan until after he signed on to do the comics...