Warren Oddsson, Dark Shadows Illustrator Extraordinaire

As a burgeoning young Dark Shadows fan in the late 1980s and early 90s -- high school approaching, video tapes expensive, half hour compilation clip-tapes available and no internet yet -- Kathy Resch's Dark Shadows Concordances were holy grails for me.  Expensive, glimpsed in back issues of Resch's World of Dark Shadows fanzine, and me without much of an allowance; I thought I'd never see one.  And they were intriguing:  advertised as containing in-depth episode summaries, rare photographs ... and illustrations.

Warren Oddsson, now unfortunately deceased, provided the illustrations for most of the volumes (as of this writing, the series is still incomplete:  Resch never published one for the Intro to Barnabas years, and she's missing the 2nd half of the 1897 storyline), and they were often lavish, always contained exquisite detail, and often depicted the most exciting moments of the series.  It's a shame he wasn't around for the last volume Resch published, way back in 2002, containing the Leviathan episodes.

Here, then, are a few examples of Oddsson's talents:

From the 1897 Volume 1 Concordance, with 1795 Barnabas emerging into the 19th century.

From PT 1970:   Quentin is a bore, Maggie is a dishrag, Willie is off to film House of Dark Shadows, and Barnabas is chained (again). 

From PT 1970:  Angelique gloats while Barnabas hovers over (a tinier than usual) Maggie Collins.

From PT 1970:  evil Angelique incites Quentin to kill himself.  

From PT 1970:  Barnabas escapes his coffin and takes a chunk out of William Hollingshead Loomis.

From the 1840 Concordance:  An amazing illustration focusing on Our Favorite Witch.

And the man himself, from the 1840 Concordance.