'DARK SHADOWS' SUNDAY STRIP ORIGINAL ART

It is not hard to be lured into the web of DARK SHADOWS. The soap opera has proved itself by enduring well past its last air date and continues to attract a large fan base, even today. Monotonous dialogue (along with a surfeit of flubbed lines) was often punctuated by a Robert Cobert-scored brass forte that heralded something spooky was finally going to happen. However, boring chat couldn't stop me from running the mile-and-a-half home from school to catch Barnabas, the vampire, in the next episode. I think I speak for a lot of people that did the very same thing, right?

Among the sidelines inspired by the show was a weekday comic strip that was syndicated by King Features in many newspapers across the U.S. On Sundays would come the half-page, full-color strip.

Here is an example of a Sunday strip, in its original, drawn and inked form before reduction, colorizing and printing.

The massive 24" x 16" image was drawn by Ken Bald and appeared in its completed form on June 6, 1971.