Oh, wow! Though I have to say, I can't imagine I'd ever get around to reading those books. Maybe one or two, but not the whole series.
I'm up to episode 375 now. David and Hallie are investigating the mysterious playroom. There's a lunar eclipse, which promises the first of PT Carolyn's portents of doom (the night of the sun and the moon). Julia, Barnabas, and Quentin seemed aligned that trouble is coming, but Elizabeth paid for several months of horoscopes from Sebastian Shaw (who looks just like Jeb) and she's anticipating smooth sailing. Daphne is starting to haunt the kids.
In other news, I've gone from watching zero soap operas a few years ago to now I'm watching three...each with something a little extra. Kathy & I have started watching SOAP, the comedy soap opera from the 70s, and with the death of David Lynch I've started a Twin Peaks rewatch (which, in maybe a half-dozen episodes or so, will probably venture into new territory for me -- I can't remember how soon I dropped off after the revelation of Laura Palmer's killer, but I know I never saw the end of season 2, thanks to its always-shifting timeslot.)
So I'm watching soap + monsters, soap + comedy, and soap + surrealism.
Shortly after Tracy and I were married (and watching Dark Shadows together for the first time) we decided to collect all of Dan "Marilyn" Ross's Dark Shadows paperbacks after finding one in a used bookstore (these 32 plus the House of Dark Shadows movie adaptation). We eventually completed the set, almost entirely through online purchases. (The later ones become increasingly difficult to find due to smaller print runs.) I read the first six or seven or so, then petered out. When Hermes Press started reissuing the entire series in larger-than-paperback trade size, I preordered them, but started reading the ones I already had, picking up where I left off. My plan had been to continue reading my originals until the reissues caught up to me (which I assumed would happen sooner or later), then switch over. I forget at what point they did, but I continued reading until I petered out again. (I've been stuck at #19 for a while now.) I'll pick them up again one of these days.
I do now have two complete sets, one original, one reissue. I'd be willing to part with the originals (except the House adaptation), but I'd want to sell them as a set. They present a kind of "alternate history" (not necessarily consistant) of the Collins family, tending to avoid the areas hit by the TV show (1795, 1840, 1897). I was taking copious notes my second time through in order to compile a "Collins Family History," but as I said, I still haven't gotten through them all. If you are still reading Danny Horn's Dark Shadows Every Day blog you have no doubt read one or two of his reviews, which are honestly more entertaining than the books (I hesiate to call them "novels") themselves.
We love SOAP. SOAP was the last TV show I watched before I went cold turkey on television for a month or so. SOAP was one of the the few things (in retrospect) my former girlfriend and I had in common, and I was pleased to discover that Tracy likes it, too. (We have it on Columbia House VHS.) I didn't watch Twin Peaks when it was first run, but that's another series Tracy and I watched together for the first time after we were married. We've been thinking about re-watching it, too, since David Lynch's death. Lost, too.
I'm going to assume you mean 1075. Here are a couple of things I noted since we left off. Barnabas and Julie are now back in the present. It was August 3 (show time) when they left parallel time, and August 3 when they returned from the future, where they spent two weeks. Quentin seems to present this as "proof" that they did not, in fact, travel to the future at all. Can it be that he does not understand how time travel works? This was before his time on the show, but Victoria Winters did spend 19 weeks in 1795 "between two ticks of the clock." Anyway, they returned from the future with six random phrases ("the night of the sun and the moon… the night Rose Cottage was destroyed… the unfinished horoscope… the night I sang my song… the picnic… the murder") which they continue to refer to as "clues." They're not that. Stokes refers to them as "riddles," but they're not that, either. I do like "portents of doom," though. Speaking of Stokes, it was said in 1995 that Collinwood was destroyed in 1970 while Stokes was in Europe, but back in the present, Stokes is not in Europe and has no plans to go, so what's up with that?
For 1073, on Dark Shadows Every Day, Danny Horn wrote about astrology. Prior to that, he had pushed the narrative that David cannot stand Hallie. I disagree with that assessment, and he didn't summarize the episode that best supports my position. David is a 14-year-old boy and there is a cute 14-year-old girl who is not a relative living in the same house with him. I think he is so conflicted by raging hormones that he doesn't know how to act toward her half the time. Take this exchange from 1073, for example. David has just told Hallie that she was in a dream he had had the night before.
HALLIE: "Lots of boys have dreams about me."
DAVID: "But they don't go back to sleep afterwards. Believe me, I know."
Astrology was popular in the late '60s/early '70s, from the "Age of Aquarius" to the stereotypal disco pick-up line, "What's your sign?" Fans of the MCU, who know Star-Lord from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, may be unaware that he debuted as an astrological hero. Here's what Star-Lord's creator, Steve Engleghart, has to say about him.
"When I was tapped to write a series of 60-page stories that could kick off in MARVEL PREVIEW (man, all these PREVIEWs and PREMIEREs are hard to keep track of!), I conceived something very large. My hero would go from being a jerk to the most cosmic being in the universe, and I would tie it into my then-new interest in astrology. After his earthbound beginning, his mind would be opened step by step, with a fast-action story on Mercury, a love story on Venus, a war story on Mars, and so on out to the edge of the solar system, and then beyond.
"But - after I established him as a jerk, I left Marvel, so no one ever saw what he was to become. The guys who followed me were clear that they couldn't follow through on the astrology, so they settled for smoothing off his rough edges - a very useful approach as time has shown."
Marvel Preview #4 was most recently reprinted in 2014, along with other seminal Star-Lord appearances. Danny Horn, too, has done some impressive astrological research. Look for it in his treatment of 1081.
Where do writers get their ideas? If you're Chris Claremont, you get at least some of them from Dark Shadows: Marvel Girl becomes a "Phoenix" for example, and the altar that mysteriously appeared on the grounds in "Night of the Demon" (#96) came right from the "Leviathan" storyline. He got the "Hellfire Club" from the British show The Avengers, but the name of its leader, Sebastian Shaw, came from the Dark Shadows storyline currently under discussion. I guess he never expected the show's popularity (and availability) to last into perpetuity.
I recognized the name Sebastian Shaw, of course, and meant to ask about it. I thought it was possible that the DS writers took it from the same place Claremont did. But Claremont lifting it from Dark Shadows (along with the Phoenix, and I'll have to check out that altar!) is the simplest explanation.
Captain Comics > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)February 4, 2025 at 12:49pm
Replies
...available from Hermes Press.
Oh, wow! Though I have to say, I can't imagine I'd ever get around to reading those books. Maybe one or two, but not the whole series.
I'm up to episode 375 now. David and Hallie are investigating the mysterious playroom. There's a lunar eclipse, which promises the first of PT Carolyn's portents of doom (the night of the sun and the moon). Julia, Barnabas, and Quentin seemed aligned that trouble is coming, but Elizabeth paid for several months of horoscopes from Sebastian Shaw (who looks just like Jeb) and she's anticipating smooth sailing. Daphne is starting to haunt the kids.
In other news, I've gone from watching zero soap operas a few years ago to now I'm watching three...each with something a little extra. Kathy & I have started watching SOAP, the comedy soap opera from the 70s, and with the death of David Lynch I've started a Twin Peaks rewatch (which, in maybe a half-dozen episodes or so, will probably venture into new territory for me -- I can't remember how soon I dropped off after the revelation of Laura Palmer's killer, but I know I never saw the end of season 2, thanks to its always-shifting timeslot.)
So I'm watching soap + monsters, soap + comedy, and soap + surrealism.
Shortly after Tracy and I were married (and watching Dark Shadows together for the first time) we decided to collect all of Dan "Marilyn" Ross's Dark Shadows paperbacks after finding one in a used bookstore (these 32 plus the House of Dark Shadows movie adaptation). We eventually completed the set, almost entirely through online purchases. (The later ones become increasingly difficult to find due to smaller print runs.) I read the first six or seven or so, then petered out. When Hermes Press started reissuing the entire series in larger-than-paperback trade size, I preordered them, but started reading the ones I already had, picking up where I left off. My plan had been to continue reading my originals until the reissues caught up to me (which I assumed would happen sooner or later), then switch over. I forget at what point they did, but I continued reading until I petered out again. (I've been stuck at #19 for a while now.) I'll pick them up again one of these days.
I do now have two complete sets, one original, one reissue. I'd be willing to part with the originals (except the House adaptation), but I'd want to sell them as a set. They present a kind of "alternate history" (not necessarily consistant) of the Collins family, tending to avoid the areas hit by the TV show (1795, 1840, 1897). I was taking copious notes my second time through in order to compile a "Collins Family History," but as I said, I still haven't gotten through them all. If you are still reading Danny Horn's Dark Shadows Every Day blog you have no doubt read one or two of his reviews, which are honestly more entertaining than the books (I hesiate to call them "novels") themselves.
We love SOAP. SOAP was the last TV show I watched before I went cold turkey on television for a month or so. SOAP was one of the the few things (in retrospect) my former girlfriend and I had in common, and I was pleased to discover that Tracy likes it, too. (We have it on Columbia House VHS.) I didn't watch Twin Peaks when it was first run, but that's another series Tracy and I watched together for the first time after we were married. We've been thinking about re-watching it, too, since David Lynch's death. Lost, too.
I'm up to episode 375 now.
I'm going to assume you mean 1075. Here are a couple of things I noted since we left off. Barnabas and Julie are now back in the present. It was August 3 (show time) when they left parallel time, and August 3 when they returned from the future, where they spent two weeks. Quentin seems to present this as "proof" that they did not, in fact, travel to the future at all. Can it be that he does not understand how time travel works? This was before his time on the show, but Victoria Winters did spend 19 weeks in 1795 "between two ticks of the clock." Anyway, they returned from the future with six random phrases ("the night of the sun and the moon… the night Rose Cottage was destroyed… the unfinished horoscope… the night I sang my song… the picnic… the murder") which they continue to refer to as "clues." They're not that. Stokes refers to them as "riddles," but they're not that, either. I do like "portents of doom," though. Speaking of Stokes, it was said in 1995 that Collinwood was destroyed in 1970 while Stokes was in Europe, but back in the present, Stokes is not in Europe and has no plans to go, so what's up with that?
For 1073, on Dark Shadows Every Day, Danny Horn wrote about astrology. Prior to that, he had pushed the narrative that David cannot stand Hallie. I disagree with that assessment, and he didn't summarize the episode that best supports my position. David is a 14-year-old boy and there is a cute 14-year-old girl who is not a relative living in the same house with him. I think he is so conflicted by raging hormones that he doesn't know how to act toward her half the time. Take this exchange from 1073, for example. David has just told Hallie that she was in a dream he had had the night before.
HALLIE: "Lots of boys have dreams about me."
DAVID: "But they don't go back to sleep afterwards. Believe me, I know."
There's only one way to interpret that.
Ha, that was an amazing line!
Astrology was popular in the late '60s/early '70s, from the "Age of Aquarius" to the stereotypal disco pick-up line, "What's your sign?" Fans of the MCU, who know Star-Lord from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, may be unaware that he debuted as an astrological hero. Here's what Star-Lord's creator, Steve Engleghart, has to say about him.
"When I was tapped to write a series of 60-page stories that could kick off in MARVEL PREVIEW (man, all these PREVIEWs and PREMIEREs are hard to keep track of!), I conceived something very large. My hero would go from being a jerk to the most cosmic being in the universe, and I would tie it into my then-new interest in astrology. After his earthbound beginning, his mind would be opened step by step, with a fast-action story on Mercury, a love story on Venus, a war story on Mars, and so on out to the edge of the solar system, and then beyond.
"But - after I established him as a jerk, I left Marvel, so no one ever saw what he was to become. The guys who followed me were clear that they couldn't follow through on the astrology, so they settled for smoothing off his rough edges - a very useful approach as time has shown."
Marvel Preview #4 was most recently reprinted in 2014, along with other seminal Star-Lord appearances. Danny Horn, too, has done some impressive astrological research. Look for it in his treatment of 1081.
Where do writers get their ideas? If you're Chris Claremont, you get at least some of them from Dark Shadows: Marvel Girl becomes a "Phoenix" for example, and the altar that mysteriously appeared on the grounds in "Night of the Demon" (#96) came right from the "Leviathan" storyline. He got the "Hellfire Club" from the British show The Avengers, but the name of its leader, Sebastian Shaw, came from the Dark Shadows storyline currently under discussion. I guess he never expected the show's popularity (and availability) to last into perpetuity.
I recognized the name Sebastian Shaw, of course, and meant to ask about it. I thought it was possible that the DS writers took it from the same place Claremont did. But Claremont lifting it from Dark Shadows (along with the Phoenix, and I'll have to check out that altar!) is the simplest explanation.
He also stole Storm's origin from Modesty Blaise.
-
375
-
376
-
377
-
378
-
379
of 379 Next