Dynamite's Dark Shadows: Year One condenses the 19-week television storyline into six issues and, I must admit, does a pretty good job of it, eliminating most of the meandering soap opera storytelling. It is not, however, canon. What writer Marc Andreyko and artist Guiu Vilanova have done is to take the same characters from the 1795 storyline and reshuffle them into an almost entirely new alternate vampire origin story, one that doesn't take a full 48 hours to experience in its entirety. [Similary, MPI Home Video has also condensed those same 19 weeks into a 210-minute "movie" (titled The Vampire Curse) by eliminating all sub-plots except the main one. Still, three and a half hours of unrelenting vampire plot is a lot. I watched the whole thing straight through once, but I probably never will again.] The difference between the Dark Shadows: Year One comic book and the soap opera is similar to the difference between The Walking Dead comic book and TV show (except in that case, the televised version came first). In other words, in either case, even if one is familiar with the original version, one can still experience the alternate and still be surprised.
Dark Shadows: Years One ends with Willie Loomis releasing Barnanabs Collins from his coffin in the "present day"...
Replies
Strangely enough, I have an idea to fly to Canada too!
We should all go. I'm just waiting for JD to invite us.
I'm afraid we only have the one guest room, and a pull-out in the living rooom. It would get a little crowded.
Still, the last time there was a flow of people in our direction we got William Gibson and a few other people of note.
ISSUE #21 - "The Crimson Carnival"
The arrival in Collinsport of Dr. Karl Ruthven's Carnival of the Occult coincides with the visit of Elizabeth's cousin, Constance Collins Harker, with her new husband Garry. The Harkers, who were introduced in Dark Shadows #13, return to Collinwood in order for Garry to use the Collins family library "to do some research on witchcraft for [his] psychology thesis."
Garry Harker is not the only one interested in that arcane library. Dr. Karl Ruthven craves the Book of Eternity, an ancient volume of powerful spells, and the last known copy rests in the the Collinses' dusty collection. Barnabas's coffin is stolen -- and Constance learns Barnabas's secret -- in the course of this Dark Shadows adventure.
I always wondered how you were supposed to pronounce "Ruthven".
According to the all-knowing Google: "Ruthven (/ˈrɪvən/, Gaelic: Ruadhainn), Aberdeenshire is a village in Scotland near Huntly (to the south east), and Keith (to the north west). It is traditionally pronounced 'Riven'."
Cool. Thanks.
ISSUE #22 - "Seed of Evil"
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jack Finney's 1955 Collier's serial (which was filmed in 1956, 1978, 1994 and 2007), is the obvious germ for "Seed of Evil," which features a colligiate warlock named Osmond Kalyutsin, who grows aconitum lycotorum (wolfsbane) in the college greenhouse. Osmond fancies himself to be a "white witch" guided by the "good spirit" Tarakuvu. Osmond receives orders from Tarakuvu to purge Collinwood of its "evil one," Barnabas Collins, by growing "devil pods" which will hatch chlorophyllic replicas of Dr. Hoffman and Professor Stokes. Before the pod creatures can "assume the minds and voices" of Barnabas's two closest friends and destroy him, they are lost in a fire at Julia's house. Osmond learns that the "pure" Tarakuvu who craves Barnabas's destrucion is actually the spiteful Angélique, who has not been seen since Dark Shadows #15.
Obviously, Angélique watches the Creature Double Feature for inspiration.
ISSUE #23 - "The Cult of the Dansi"
Pamela Cordon, who first appeared in Dark Shadows #7, enlists Barnabas and Stokes's aid in locating her missing fiancé, Collinsport Chronicle editor Benson Angst (also from issue number seven). Banabas, Stokes, Pamela and Quentin trace the newspaperman to the tiny village of Amenti, which is populated by the 400-year-old Cult of the Dasni and by Garm, a giant, two-headed hellhound.
Having drunk from the cursed waters of Ab-I-Hayat, the Dasni cultists are immortal vampires who have made Benson Angst one of their own. As the rampaging Garn levels Amenti (in a full-page panel), the vampire Benson pursues Pamela through the crumbling buildings and urges her to join her in the undead. Quentin soon finds Pamela unconscious near her fiancé's impaled corpse. He leads her out of the rubble, and they, along with Barnabas and Stokes, ride away from the ruined village.
"Poor Benson," Pamela muses.
Barnabas replies, "You're a very capable woman, Pamela, and you'll have new friends to turn to."
"Yes, Barnabas," she agrees. "Already I sense that you and I shall grow closer in the weeks to come!... It's funny, but I never realized until today how much we have in common!" Her smile reveals a pair of fangs.
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
of 12 Next