A closer look at Dark Shadows: The Complete Newspaper Strips

It's not a hoax! It's not a dream! The hardcover, restored edition of "Dark Shadows: The Complete Newspaper Strips" is finally happening!

Hermes Press publisher Dan Herman has shared a video that takes us behind the scenes of the new book, which has been in development for several years. In the video, Herman touches on the "detective work" needed to track down the missing strips, discusses the steps taken to restore the color on the Sunday strips, and teases a "special" edition of the book ... which has already been printed! You can watch the video at the bottom of this post.

Hermes Press has been fighting to get this collection published for almost as long as The Collinsport Historical Society has been around. The company successfully reprinted the entire run of the Gold Key comics line (as well as the "story digest" novella from 1970) but production of this particular title have stalled on several occasions.

And the 224-page hardbound collection looks to be a keeper. While the various DARK SHADOWS comics that have appeared over the years have featured some terrific artwork, Ken Bald's linework on the newspaper strip might the best of the bunch. It's reportedly Bald's favorite work of his career, which is no small statement given that Guinness World Records has crowned him as the world's "oldest comic book artist." The man has worked on everything from "Doc Savage" and "Captain America" to "Dr. Kildare."

The edition coming from Hermes Press differs in some significant ways from the collection published by Pomegranate Press in 1996. First off, it includes the Sunday strips in color for the first time. More importantly, though, the landscape edition of the book allows for the individual strips to be printed 10-15 percent larger than they appeared in newspapers. The artwork in these strips is finally getting the showcase it deserves.

The release of "Dark Shadows: The Complete Newspaper Strips" is just a few short weeks away. You can pre-order it now on Amazon for 20% off at https://amzn.to/2J2CvFT. It is also available directly from the publisher HERE.