Hermes Press is undertaking the publication of the entire 35-issue run of the Gold Key comic book series based on the popular, long-running television Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which is correctly seen as the forerunner to today’s popular vampire-themed films and TV series.   With Tim Burton’s announcement that his next major project will be big-screen adaptation of Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp set to portray the reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins, interest in this property is only going to build over the next few years.

Hermes plans to publish the first of five deluxe, full color 208-page hardcover volumes of Dark Shadows comics in March of 2010.  It will contain the first seven issues of the Gold Key comic book series that appeared on newsstands from 1968 to 1976.  Arnold Drake, who created Doom Patrol and Deadman, wrote numerous issues of the Dark Shadows comic along with other Silver Age scribes such as Donald Arneson.  Veteran Silver Age artist Joe Certa, who co-created J’onn J’onzz, The Martian Manhunter, penciled all 35 issues of the Dark Shadows series.

In addition to the digitally restored comics, each volume in Hermes’ reprint series will contain poster art, pin-ups, and documentary material from the TV series, as well as essays about Dark Shadows and its role in shaping American pop culture.