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"...
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It's funny, but I never realized until today how much we have in common!" Her smile reveals a pair of fangs.
Cue Bob Cobert music sting.
I know I've posted the Totally Original Magical Incantation from this issue elsewhere before, but it's my favorite ridiculous comic book panel:
Klact-Oveeseds-Tene
ISSUE #24 - "On Borrowed Blood"
Does a vampire's blood carry his curse? Yes, says Deadman creator Arnold Drake, and that is the premise of this complex tale, "On borrowed Blood," which is one of the greatest in the comic-book series. "I had fun with that [story]," Drake admitted in a 1986 interview.
Dr. Julia Hoffman saves the life of a crash victim by transfusing some of Barnabas's vampire blood into him. Julia and Barnabas learn that the man whose life they have saved is the ruthless multi-millionaire Andre Markovian. He proceeds to use his newfound supermatural powers to overthrow the governmant of the Caribbean republic of Romanique, and Markovian blackmails Barnabas in to becoming his confederate.
President Markovian and his new, albeit reluctant, First Minister Collins take their coffins with them to Castle Blanco on the island of Romanique. Markovian has the windows painted black so that "not a ray of sunlight can enter here!" Standing in a blackened room of the castle, the despot tells Barnabas, "These urns contain soil from both our native lands! That means we are liberated from our coffins! We may spend the daylight hours safely here [in these dark rooms]!"
Supporting characters who add intrigue to this landmark story are General Navarro, Markovian's yes-man; Christine Markovian, Andre's younger sister, who disapproves of her brother's tyranny; Estaban, the dashing leader of Romanique's rebel army (and Christine's secret lover); and Estaban's emaciated, psychic mother, who senses Batrnabas's curse the moment that she sees him.
At the climax of the story, Esteban fires an arrow that pierces Markovian's foul heart and ends his unnatural life and evil reign of Romanique. That night, Esteban, his mother and his beloved Christine see Barnabas off at the airport. "Your secret is safe with us," Christine Markovian promises him. "Come back again some day and see what happiness can exist here!"
"You'll do your [governmental] jobs well, both of you [Christine and Esteban]!" And I shall return -- if the shadow over me will permit such freedom! Good-bye!"
ISSUE #25 - "The Immortal"
This story present Barnabas and Julia as being very much closer friends than before. They even embrace in the next-to-last panel.
Xanis, a sorcerer whose mortal soul transfers itself to young, new body every 80 years or so, chooses the vampire Barnabas Collins as his next host body. Barnabas suddenlty finds himself, still a vampire, trapped in a wizened, arthritic frame while Xanis's consciousness is now housed in Barnabas's strong body.
Julia devises a trap to electrocute Xanis out of Banabas's body, but at the moment of truth, Julia declares, "I can't do it! I can't take a life!"
"But I can, Julia Hoffman!" Suddenly, suddenly, the ghost of Angélique swoops down and presses the botton that sends voltage through the two rods which "Barnabas" (Xanis) is holding. Angélique magically returns Barnabas's spirit to his body -- "only because I found your other vessel so repugnant" -- and fades away. "The planets shift, and I am returned to my limbo! But I'll return, Barnabas! I'll return! Ha ha ha!"
ISSUE #26 - "The Witch Dolls"
Angélique, disguised as an elderly lady, shrinks Quentin and two other townspeople to the size of dolls.
Dark Shadows Every Day 1232
ISSUE #27 - "My Blood or Yours"
A possible cure for Quentin's worsening lycanthropy ("It is no longer the full moon alone that awakens your dread curse") lies in the distant past, so Barnabas lights a candle and makes "the painful passage" to the Collinsport of two centuries ago in an effort to retrieve and "anti-evil potion" from the alchemist Isaac Salter.
Barnabas befriends Salter and his kindhearted daughter Sarah. The vampire acquires a vial of the "anti-evil elixir" just before Isaac Salter is arrested and tried for witchcraft by a judge who has made an immortality pact with Angélique. Barnabas saves Salter's life, but he does not succeed in purifying the "anti-evil potion" of its mental side effects, which have proven too dangerous for Quentin to tolerate. Sarah Collins will reappear in Dark Shadows #35.
ISSUE #28 - "The Visitor"
To loyal fans of ABC-TV's Dark Shadows, this issue of the Gold Key comic book is infamous for its erroneous portrayal of "Elizabeth and Roger Stoddard" as husband and wife instead of as brother and sister. Unfortunately, the whole story hinges on the jealousy that "Roger Stoddard" feels toward his "wife" Elizabeth's fondness for her distant cousin, Damon Coldclaw, a fortune hunter empowered with mesmerism.
Roger should have played the protective brother instead of the jealous husband. In the story, Roger, Barnabas and Quentin distrust Coldclaw, a known embezzler who nevertheless gains Elizabeth's devotion. In an unusual allusion to the real world outside Collinsport and this comic book, Professor Stokes observes that Damon Coldclaw's "power isn't supernatural but a mental phenomenon posessed by people like Hitler and Charles Manson!" Artist Joe Certa effectively makes rain fall during scenes in which Stokes confronts Coldclaw and, later, in which Damon falls off Widows' Hill to his death.
The people who wrote and drew Gold Key's licensed properties sporadically seemed clueless about the source material. I recall two different issues of their Star Trek in which:
-Lt. Uhura has the same cartoon-Caucasian skin tone as her crewmates.
-Mr. Spock laughs hysterically at one of Scotty's jokes.
Those can be explained by (1) a rushed colorist who didn't know the source material and (2) bad placement of a speech balloon. I was unfamiliar with this issue of Dark Shadows, but this is some serious editorial oversight.
"Editorial oversight" was an oxymoron at Western Publishing.
And speaking of errors in Gold Key Star Trek comics, I remember one story in which the artist managed to draw Yeoman Janice Rand's elaborate hairstyle correctly, but the colorist colored the top "weave" part of it red as if it were a hat.
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