The Dark Shadows newspaper strip collection is at the printers

The Dark Shadows newspaper strip made its debut on this day in 1971, so it seems appropriate to share some news about a collected edition of this series: the hardback, restored collection that's been promised by Hermes Press since 2014 is now at the printer!

Hermes Press has been fighting to get this book published for almost as long as this website has been around. The company successfully reprinted the entire run of the Gold Key comics line, but pre-orders for this particular title have stalled on several occasions. This has been disappointing to me, personally, because the Ken Bald illustrated newspaper strips are among the best of the licensed materials ever spun out of DARK SHADOWS.

The 224-page hardbound collection looks to be a keeper. Not only is it chock full of bonus material, but this edition reprints Sunday strips in color for the first time. While the various DARK SHADOWS comics that have appeared over the years have featured some terrific artwork,  Bald's linework on the newspaper strip might the best of the bunch. It's reportedly Bald's favorite work of his career, which is no small statement given that Guinness World Records has crowned him as the world's "oldest comic book artist." The man has worked on everything from "Doc Savage" and "Captain America" to "Dr. Kildare."

A paperback collection of these strips was published in 1996 by Kathryn Leigh Scott's Pomegranate Press. For whatever reason, those strips were published in format that emulated the dimensions of traditional comic books. This meant shrinking the strips down to sizes that weren't always pleasant to the eye. The Hermes Press edition presents the strips in a landscape format, two strips per page to better appreciate Bald's artwork. (Note: The Sunday strips have three-deck layouts and get entire page to themselves.) Also, this collection presents the Sunday strips as they were original published ... in color.

Amazon is predicting a July 10 release for "Dark Shadows: the Complete Newspaper Strips," and has the book available for pre-order HERE. (It is also available for pre-order directly from the publisher HERE.)

You can get a look at the cover and interior samples below.

Barnabas Collins is black and white and red all over

It's vaguely ironic that comic books, the source for the 20th century literary tradition of "origin stories," had so little use for the history of Barnabas Collins. When Gold Key introduced its adaption of DARK SHADOWS in 1969, the character's epic backstory was relegated to a one-page introduction, an obligatory gesture needed by the book's creators to tell the stories they wanted to tell. The production schedules of a comic book and a television series were never going to be compatible, so it's difficult to find fault in the decision to dissociate the properties. That decision left a lot of great characters and stories on the table, though, replaced in their stead by viking ghosts, Egyptian sorcerers and an endless parade of shirt tale Collins family relatives.

The DARK SHADOWS newspaper strip adopted the same policy, but to different results. If Gold Key's quarterly schedule for its comic book adaption was incompatible with a daily television series, the rigid parameters of a daily newspaper strip were even more confounding. There was little choice but to extend the misadventures of Barnabas Collins in yet another direction, cutting a path away from the television series, comics, Marilyn Ross novels and HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS.



And the comic strip pruned the floral Collins family history with ruthless efficiency. Gone from the scene were Roger Collins and his son, David, leaving Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and her daughter, Carolyn, the only inhabitants of Collinwood. The mansion seems a little sparse without the rest of the family drinking and plotting in the background, but writer Elliot Caplin and artist Ken Bald recognized their limitations and tailored the strip around them. (This is a lesson that Tim Burton and Seth Grahame-Smith might have learned from their 2012 motion picture, which was a wasteland of underdeveloped supporting characters.) With three panels a day — and as many as eight on Sundays — to tell their story, there was no space for inessential players. It might have sometimes felt like a plague had descended on Collinwood, but at least Barnabas wasn't tripping over his supporting cast every time he left the room.

Caplin and Bald took a classic approach their introduction of Barnabas Collins. Again, we get the vampire's iconic arrival at Collinwood, bathed in mist, moonlight and lies. Here, he also borrows from Julia Hoffman's playbook, not only identifying himself as a British cousin of the family, but also as a writer researching the family history. "Never — under any circumstances — am I to be disturbed during the daylight hours," he suspiciously tells Carolyn and Liz.

All of this is intercut with his origin: spurned by Barnabas Collins, Angelique casts a spell on her former lover, transforming him into a bat. This is a truckload of exposition, but Caplin and Bald manage to convey this data in just eight color panels. See for yourself, below.



The strip made its debut on March 14, 1971, and it was an uphill battle for success from the very start. DARK SHADOWS the television series would tape its final episode just 10 days later, while many newspapers in the Bible belt found the strip's tales of vampires, witches and warlocks too distasteful for print. Caplin and Bald would finish their one-year contract on the strip, publishing its final installment on March 11, 1972. It's probably the least-scene DARK SHADOWS spinoff, but is also among the best loved. Ken Bald is the reason the strip worked as well as it did; he has a gift for both atmosphere and likenesses that makes the strip feel downright cinematic at times.

Pomegranate Press press collected the series in a well-researched, poorly conceived edition back in 1996. Hermes Press made a run at collecting the strip in a landscape-shaped hardback in 2014 without success. The publishers are revisiting the project and expect to have their collection, complete with the Sunday strips in color, available in early October. You can read more about that project HERE.

Dark Shadows: The Missing Color Strips

Back in May, Hermes Press announced its intentions to publish a new edition of the DARK SHADOWS newspaper strips. The concept differs in two significant ways from the 1996 black and white Pomegranate Press edition. First, Hermes intends to reproduce Ken Bald's original strips in a landscape format in keeping with the dimensions of the original art. Second, the new edition will present the Sunday comic strips in full color.

The second point is presenting something of an obstacle, though. Hermes is missing a number of the color installments from the final months of the strips run. This is where YOU can help.

DARK SHADOWS fans are notoriously meticulous and have managed to hold onto even the most ephemeral aspects of the original series. Hell, when a single episode of the original series was discovered missing from the archives, a fan stepped up with an audio recording made in their living room back in 1971, helping MPI Home Video recreate it for VHS and DVD releases. STAR TREK fans ain't got nothing on us.

So this task ought to be super easy. Hermes Press needs color scans of just 17 strips to complete the book. Below is a list of the dates of the missing strips. If you have copies, contact the publisher at info@hermespress.com to see how you can help make this project happen. The publisher needs high-resolution scans of the original strips, so a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, please.

Contributors will also get a "thank you" in the finished book!

You can preorder Dark Shadows the Complete Newspaper Strips on Amazon HERE.

Hermes Press still wants to publish the Dark Shadows strips

Hermes Press might still be interested in publishing a collected edition of Ken Bald's original DARK SHADOWS newspaper strips.

Syndicated during the waning years of the original television series, Hermes originally planned to collect these strips into a hardcover edition back in 2014. The plan was to not only collect these strips into a landscape format (to better display the art in its original dimensions), but to also publish the Sunday strips in color for the first time. Hermes did quite a bit of research into the original materials, going so far as to call on fans and collectors to help them match the colors of the original strip.

It was a wasted effort, though. DARK SHADOWS fans met the announcement with a collective shrug (which happens a lot these days.) Preorders for the book were so low that Hermes was forced to cancel it.

Ken Bald and his wife, Faye, served as models for the DARK SHADOWS comic strip.

But all may not be lost! While I'm still waiting on a confirmation from Hermes Press about their intentions for the book, it was recently solicited again on Amazon with a targeted release of Oct. 10 this year. This might be a meaningless date, though. Those of you who have been following the farce that is the second collected edition of Dynamite's DARK SHADOWS comic series already know that these dates can be meaningless. (Volume 2 has been consistently solicited on Amazon for several years now, with the goal post being moved farther down the line every few months.) Hermes might be doing nothing more than keeping their publishing options open.

This isn't Hermes' first foray into the world of DARK SHADOWS. The company successfully published hardback and softcover collections of the entire run of Gold Key's comics, including a "best of" collection and the 1970 "Dark Shadows Story Digest." I still hold out hope that they'll be able to publish Bald's newspaper strips. While the Pomegranate Press collection from 1996 gets an "E" for effort, a landscape edition of the original art is clearly a better format in which to present Bald's original art.

Here's where things get tricky. The first attempt to publish this book failed because the advance orders were low. If you wait too long to pull the trigger on ordering the book, you might find yourself reading yet another story here about its failure to launch. But if this new solicitation is nothing more than an opaque publishing strategy, you might be wasting your time. My advice? Wait for an official announcement from Hermes Press before placing your order. You can find the current listing at Amazon HERE.

Stay tuned!

UPDATED–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Hermes Press has confirmed that they intend to publish the DARK SHADOWS newspaper strips in a hardcover collection this year. The company still needs access to some of the original color newspaper strips for reference, though. If you have copies of the original strips, contact the publisher at info@hermespress.com to see how you can help make this project happen.

Dark Shadows artist picks up second Guinness distinction

The artist of the classic DARK SHADOWS newspaper strip has been named the "oldest artist to illustrate a comic book cover" by Guinness World Records.

Ken Bald illustrated DARK SHADOWS in 1971 and 1972, while simultaneously drawing the DR. KILDARE syndicated strip. But it was his 2015 cover contribution to Marvel's CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS series that earned him his Guinness distinction. Bald, 96, illustrated a cover featuring many of Marvel's golden age heroes in battle with their 21st century counterparts.

This is Bald's second Guinness honor, having already been named "oldest comic book artist."

“At 96 years old, you’d never think you’d be setting any world records, let alone setting two," Bald said. "Both records have been a great thrill for me.”

Bald sought out the job of illustrating the DARK SHADOWS newspaper strip in 1971 after hearing that producer Dan Curtis was considering the concept.

"(Curtis) interviewed me, he saw my art and thought it would be a good idea," Bald told NJ.com in 2012. "We presented the idea and some drawings to King Features — who were happy with me — but they didn't think the 'Bible Belt' or so many other Southern cities would go for the idea of 'Dark Shadows.'"



Bald had been a comics illustrator since the gold age, contributing to such books as CAPTAIN AMERICA as early as 1943. His DARK SHADOWS newspaper strips were collected into a single volume in 1996 by Pomegranate Press.

“It’s never too late to accomplish anything in life. Just look at me," Bald said. "I can’t believe at 96 years old, I’m still doing commissioned drawings for fans and still going to comic-cons!”

Via: guinnessworldrecords.com

About that DARK SHADOWS comicstrip collection: Part 2

UPDATE:  I just received word from Hermes Press that DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES  is "on hold" because of low advance orders. The book has not been cancelled, though, and could be re-solicited in 2015.

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If you pre-ordered DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES on Amazon, you received an e-mail last week notifying you the order had been cancelled "due to a lack of availability." The book had originally been scheduled for release in early September, but the date came and went without orders being fulfilled. I contacted the publisher, Hermes Press, about the situation, and their spokesperson told me that advance orders for the book had been too low to meet that particular deadline. The company still planned to proceed with the book, but it would take a little time to get those advance sales numbers up.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't run an update like this without input from the publisher. I've been getting e-mails from people curious about the book's status, and I simply don't know what's going on. I've sent two messages to Hermes Press since Oct. 27 and have yet to get a response. There could be a number of perfectly valid explanations for this silence, but I've got a lot of dead links on this site leading to the Amazon sales page for DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES that need to be addressed.

At the moment, I'm not exactly brimming with confidence that this book will ever see the light of day. The advance orders were extraordinarily low for a book with the broad fanbase of DARK SHADOWS. Maybe there's just no demand for the product ... but it disturbs me that businesses have a habit of folding after trying to sell DARK SHADOWS products to apathetic fans. Spectre Toys produced exactly three Mego-inspired dolls based on characters from the original series before going out of business. Majestic Studios, which produced three museum-quality DARK SHADOWS dolls, also seems to have disappeared. Dynamite pulled the plug on their various DARK SHADOWS comics, while they've been able to keep bottom-shelf characters like The Green Hornet, Red Sonja and The Six Million Dollar Man in print.

The day I have to run an announcement that Big Finish has ceased production on their line of DARK SHADOWS audiodramas it probably the day I stop updating this website. If fans want to keep DARK SHADOWS alive and relevant, they need to begin mobilizing to support these products.

About that DARK SHADOWS comicstrip collection ...

If you are among those to pre-order DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES, you're already aware that there's been a delay in the book's publication.

Scheduled for release Sept. 9, a representative of Hermes Press told me the book has been delayed because of low pre-orders.While a new release date has not yet been scheduled, I've been assured DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES has not been cancelled. It's just a matter of waiting for the company to received the appropriate number of orders before going into production.

In May, Hermes Press began soliciting help from collectors to complete work on the 224-page hardcover collection. The company was looking for complete copies of the original strips as they appeared in print, covering the publication dates of Nov. 14 1971 to March 4 1972. I suspect these strips were needed specifically as color keys for the Sunday strips, which will be reproduced in color for the first time as part of this publication.

While the various DARK SHADOWS comics that have appeared over the years have featured some terrific art, Ken Bald's work on the newspaper strip might the best of the bunch. It's reportedly Bald's favorite work of his career, which is no small statement. Bald has worked on everything from DOC SAVAGE to CAPTAIN AMERICA to DR. KILDARE during his long career.

If you've got an interesting in seeing this book become a reality, please consider pre-ordering a copy on Amazon.

Meet DARK SHADOWS artist Ken Bald this weekend

Ken Bald.

Ken Bald, possibly the finest comic artist to ever work on DARK SHADOWS (and that's saying a lot) will be attending ToyConNJ in Parsippany, New Jersey, this weekend. Bald worked on the DARK SHADOWS newspaper strip that ran from 1971-1972. It's reportedly his favorite work of his career, which is no small statement given that Guinness World Records has crowned him as the world's "oldest comic book artist." The man has worked on everything from DOC SAVAGE to CAPTAIN AMERICA to DR. KILDARE.

Bald will be at the ToyConNJ Saturday and Sunday, June 28 and 29. The artist will be bringing an assortment of 20 new #1 sketch covers that he recently illustrated, featuring characters like Captain America, Bucky, Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Thing, Sub-Mariner, Namora, and more.  
 
Admission to the event is $5. For more details, click www.toyconnj.com.

Bald's work on DARK SHADOWS is being collected in hardback later this year. DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES AND SUNDAY has a projected release date of Sept. 9, 2014, on Amazon, and the book is now available for pre-order. The previous softcover, B&W edition of the newspaper strips, first published in 1996, is also available.

Full details on upcoming DARK SHADOWS news strip collection

The DARK SHADOWS newspaper strips which ran from 1971 until 1972 are returning to print later this year, courtesy of Hermes Press.

Ken Bald and Stan Lee

The 224-page collection looks pretty exciting. Not only is it chock full of bonus material, but the Sunday strips are being reprinted in color for the first time. While the various DARK SHADOWS comics that have appeared over the years have featured some terrific artwork, Ken Bald's linework on the newspaper strip might the best of the bunch. It's reportedly Bald's favorite work of his career, which is no small statement given that Guinness World Records has crowned him as the world's "oldest comic book artist." The man has worked on everything from DOC SAVAGE to CAPTAIN AMERICA to DR. KILDARE.

DARK SHADOWS THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES AND SUNDAY has a projected release date of Sept. 9, 2014, on Amazon, and the book is now available for pre-order. The previous softcover, B&W edition of the newspaper strips, first published in 1996, is also available.

Here's the official statement from Hermes Press:

The iconic gothic romance vampire television series Dark Shadows was so popular and influential that it was adapted in numerous media. In addition to finding its way into 35 Gold Key comic books — all collected by Hermes Press in five hardcover volumes, Dark Shadows was also adapted into one of the most striking comic strips of the 1970s, running for only one year, from March 14, 1971 through March 11, 1972, with stand out, eye-catching artwork by seasoned comic book and comic strip artist Ken Bald.

Dark Shadows the Complete Newspaper Dailies and Sundays; artwork by Ken Bald; the complete one year run (March 14, 1971 through March 11, 1972) of the strip featuring all of the dailies and Sundays in full color. Essay by noted Dark Shadows scholar Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, documentary materials, examples of original artwork; 8.5 x 11 inches; landscape format; dustjacket and printed laminated cover; 224 pages; $50; available August, 2014.

Hermes Press’ new archival edition of the strip features all of the dailies and Sundays, in their original half page format, and in full color.

Collinsport News Bulletins

Ken Bald in his home studio in Mount Arlington. Photo courtesy of The Daily Record.

DARK SHADOWS comicstrip artist KEN BALD took part in a panel at Wizard World ComicCon in New York City last weekend.

PATRICK McCRAY talks about the homosexual subtext of DARK SHADOWS.

Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS will screen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City at 2 p.m., Aug. 4.

The Kindle edition of DARK SHADOWS: RETURN TO COLLINWOOD is now on sale for only $1.99!

The campaign to get KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT on an episode of HBO's TRUE BLOOD has taken to Twitter.

WARWICKSHIRE COLLEGE has an interesting Barnabas Collins art display at one of its libraries.