Dark Shadows: The Complete Series Volume 4 (Dark Shadows Comp Series Hc) by D.J. Arneson

Dark Shadows: The Complete Series Volume 4 (Dark Shadows Comp Series Hc) Reviews

• 
  Roger

  Ouch. My wife knows I love anything Dark Shadows related so she snagged Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series Volume Four for me when she had the chance at a bargain basement price. Which is great as the cover price is $49.99 and we paid $1.00 for it. That is the only joy I can wring from this odious wretched collection of Dark Shadows comics from the early nineteen seventies. These were published by Gold Key. No comics fan I have ever met has said to me "Wow Gold Key! Mark of quality!" The reason they have not said that? Shoddy artwork and ill conceived stories that bear little or no resemblance to the TV shows we knew and loved. (Gold Key also produced some of the earliest Star Trek comics and they were also nightmares.) I suppose I have to modify my original statement: I love ALMOST anything Dark shadows related. Gold Key literary abortions are the exception. (I still bless my spouse for buying this for me though-that was really considerate. So actually I can wring TWO joys from this purchase.)
• 
  Quentin Wallace

  3.5 Stars
  
  By this point the show was canceled and it seems as though some of the writers had never seen the show. Roger and Elizabeth, who are brother and sister, are a married couple instead. And Barnabus and Quentin are said to be "partners" and are shown in a very unusual embrace looking into each other's eyes. I think that was more just a sign of the times and nothing was really meant by it, but still comes across a little strange.
  
  If you can ignore the continuity errors the stories aren't bad. Really this comic is underrated even if beyond silly at times.
• 
  Richard Tolleson

  There is little to no continuity between these stories and the television series. This book collects Dark Shadows Comics issues 22-28, originally published by Gold Key Comics in 1973 and 1974. By this time, the series had already been off the air for more than 2 years, so had the author(s) wanted---authorship is uncertain for several of the stories--they could have continued the TV series in any direction they wanted. It's pretty obvious that no one from Dan Curtis Productions was doing anything other than cashing the licensing check from Western Publishing. Instead, these stories seem to be written by people who never spent much if any time on the series. Barnabas, Quentin, Elizabeth, and Roger are there, as well as Professor Stokes and Julia Hoffman, but the latter two seem to be there to play whatever role needed to move the narrative along. The stories themselves are a mixed bag. A couple of them are truly engaging, but sometimes they're set in modern times, and in others, they're set sometime in the past, with no mention of time travel, parallel universes, etc. Then there are the glaring errors in spelling and punctuation. I resisted the urge to get out my red pen. Finally, let me say something about Joe Certa's artwork. It's uneven. The characters don't look the same from panel to panel, and Quentin and Roger don't remotely resemble their on-screen counterparts. Elizabeth is drawn as if she's a 30-year old ingenue. No disrespect to Joan Bennett, but she was in her late 50's by the time the series left the air. Oh, and in one story, Elizabeth and Roger are married---and they're brother and sister on the TV show. So...other than that, it's a great read. I recommend this only for Dark Shadows fans who are completists, as I am.
• 
  David

  A guilty pleasure. These comics are pretty terrible (except for the brilliant painted cover artworks) but I love them anyway. A bit twisted too, as Elizabeth is wed to her brother Roger; Quentin and Barnabas are loving "partners".
• 
  Craig

  These are fantastic time capsules of 60s comics, but also of people really aiming for the fences with an established property. The inventiveness shifts beyond "Murderous Ancestor of the Week" into a whole different arena, including romance, et al.
• 
  Dave

  As with the other volumes in this series, this was a quick read, and great fun. There is a "blooper" in issue 28-if you're a big fan of the series, skip the "Intro" and read the story, see if you can find it-I would not have. :(