I read through the 71-72 comic strip book. I'm very grateful to Katherine Leigh Scott for putting this together at a time when Pomegranate Press had the power to do so (this was about 1995, 1996 and there were various Dark Shadows books, VHS tapes, the show was running on the Sci-Fi Channel).
There is a foreword from Kenneth Bruce Bald, including some photos of him modeling as Barnabas for the strip, and photos of his wife as an original character.
Bald mentions that when the strip was canceled, he was told they'd never gotten so many complaints.
My only real disappointment is that we don't get the Sunday strips in color, but I can't complain as I know including them would have been much more expensive.
Aside from Barnabas, and one cameo, the only show characters are Elizabeth and Carolyn. This is an odd choice, but I suppose it makes sense in that Barnabas can just immediately take over the household dynamics (this is not the early show Elizabeth). It also adds an unintended air of despair to Collinwood when you only see the three of them and guest characters - not even a mention of a servant. Maybe we can say this is similar to the film universe (the Dan Curtis films) with the more downcast Collinwood and Collinsport.
Bald doesn't make any effort to draw Carolyn and Elizabeth resembling Nancy Barrett and Joan Bennett, although Elizabeth does at times (at times she looks like Courtney Simon).
Bald not sticking to the show very much means Barnabas is more of a straightforward hero, without the pity parties he so often inflicted on viewers.
I'm not going to go into great detail about each story arc as I want you to enjoy those for yourself if you buy the book, but I will give a summary and moments I enjoyed. I will be sharing the most details about the last story as I thought it was the best.
I just need to remember how to use spoilers on here now...
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DRW50 ·
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