John Karlen

#1249 Comic

Previously on Dark Shadows:  Barnabas and Julia are back from 1840, but Barnabas is disturbed by dreams of (and his confusing feelings for) Angelique.  Meanwhile, the dead witch continues to exist in a dreamworld, which she swears to exit ... somehow.  And Carolyn Stoddard Hawkes, lonely widow and heiress to Collinwood, also suffers from dreams where her beloved cousin Barnabas turns her into a vampire ...

 (Right click to embiggen for maximum enjoyment!)

Year One: Joe Haskell

Joel Crothers

My main man Joel Crothers, looking fine in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. 

Happy Thanksgiving from Shadows on the Wall!

Here's hoping your bird is cooked thoroughly.

Don Briscoe, the High School Years

Junior year:  so studious, so bookish.  So likely to grow fangs and eat people.

Behind the Scenes of 1897

I feel like there's a pot joke somewhere in this photo.

Dark Shadows #1248 Comic

Previously on Dark Shadows:   Barnabas and Julia have returned from 1840 to a Collinwood on the verge of new dangers.  Maggie Evans has escaped from Windcliff with no memory of how she managed such a feat; meanwhile, a voice has urged her to hang a portrait of Angelique ... a portrait which causes Barnabas to dream of his former lover.  And Quentin has also returned to his ancestral home with a new bride ... Tracy Collins, who bears a startling resemblance to dead governess Daphne Harridge ... 

NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS: Claire Thinks You're HILARIOUS

"... and then ... and then ... and then we cut the seance ... the whole thing ... the whole thing!  Hilarious!"

1968: Humbert and Lara, Emerging

Michael Stroka and His Girl Friday

The Wedding of Diana Millay

Or a character played by Diana Millay.

Lara Parker

... on her way to work.

Night of Dark Shadows: Just Hanging Around

H'yuck, h'yuck, h'yuck.

Dark Shadows #1247

Picking up from last issue ... Barnabas and Julia have returned from 1840, but Barnabas is a vampire again.  Though the winter has been quiet, Roger is suddenly struggling with repressed memories ... memories where he is victimized by a vampire.  And Julia, meanwhile, is treating Maggie Evans,  mysteriously returned from Windcliff, and suddenly hanging portraits containing a very familiar face ...

(To truly enjoy, right click each picture to embiggen.)

Angelique Re-Re-Redux

One of my favorite Angelique episodes - we go from the all-powerful, kinda-sorta friends with Barnabas and Julia and Quentin witch version of Angelique to the 1795 model.  As Danny Horn says, it's almost like a special effect seeing her back in that 1795/6/7 servant dress and hair style.  Of course it's all wrong and weird (Angelique, at that point in the storyline, was just a floating head), but who cares?  Dark Shadows is occasionally wrong and weird.

1967: Barnabas Collins, Vampire!

He photographs well.

1970 Parallel Time: Barnabas and Roxanne

Dark Shadows #1246

Welcome to the first issue of the Dark Shadows continuation comic which I will be posting every Sunday throughout this winter.  The story picks up where the original series left off:  in April of 1971.  (Hint:  right click to embiggen for maximum enjoyment and readability.) 

Announcing ... DARK SHADOWS ... Continued!

In comic book form!

So I was one of those people who completely bought into the 2011/12/13 Dynamite Comics revival of Dark Shadows, picking up where the series left off and running for roughly two years.  At first I was intrigued and excited; Stuart Manning, a long-time DS fan, was one of the writers, and Stuart knows his stuff.  The art was interesting and gothic; the colors muted; the shadows were, indeed, dark.  The characters (mostly) resembled the actors we know and love.

Then something happened during issue #4.  The artist changed; the writer changed; the story derailed ... hideously.  Quentin was a werewolf again with no explanation; Angelique was a gorgonish statue monster, sucking the life from men before being destroyed with one good whack from Barnabas' cane (ew).  Julia wore ... a forest green pantsuit. 

Soon the story involved other vampires, David kept his undead girlfriend secreted away in his room, Barnabas was possessed by "the master," a giant red horned demon like something out of a D and D manual.  Nicholas Blair returned, which was sorta exciting ... but the stories didn't feel like "my" Dark Shadows.  I bought them 'til the bitter end (I actually very much enjoyed their take on 1795, known, for some reason, as "Year One", despite the writers, once again, seeming inability to understand Angelique or her motivations), but I didn't really miss them when they were gone.

Instead, I wanted to continue the series in my own way, creating my own comic books.  I have, after all, been working on a "comic strip" series inspired by the 1970s era Kenneth Bruce Bald version that ran for a year in select newspapers after the series was cancelled.  Why not do a comic book? I asked myself.  Three summers ago I began that process; this past August I finished up the first "season," which I will begin sharing with you shortly.  They will appear once a week in standard comic book form, roughly 5-7 pages long; in order to appreciate the story, I suggest you right click and, to misquote The Simpsons, embiggen them in order maximize your reading pleasure.

The story will pick up after Barnabas and Julia's return to 1971 after their adventures in 1840.  Angelique is dead.  Maggie Evans is in Windcliff.  The family's sanity and very lives have been restored ... but for how long?  What new menace will cast its shadows over the Collins family ... Collinwood ... and the town of Collinsport?  Find out ...

Insert spooky Theremin theme here:

Grayson Hall Is Just LIke You and Me

1966: The Looming Menace of Roger Collins

Barnabas at the Old House