Just in time for Halloween Dynamite Entertainment is bringing Barnabas Collins back to comics.  The hero of the popular Gothic TV soap opera, which is soon to be a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp that is due from Warner Bros. in 2012, is returning to the four-color world in this new series of Dark Shadows comics written by Stuart Manning and drawn by Aaron Campbell with covers by Campbell and Francesco Francavilla (Black Panther, Swamp Thing).  Dark Shadows #1, which is due out in October, will use the likeness of the actors in the classic Dark Shadows show in which Jonathan Frid played Barnabas.

 

TV’s original reluctant vampire, who is laboring under his vampiric curse and haunted by dreams of his age-old lover and nemesis, Angelique, is one of the small screen’s most original horror creations.  Manning’s stories for the new comic book series pick up right where the narrative of the original ABC soaper left off in 1971.  Barnabas starred in a series of Gold Key comics that were published from 1969-1976 and which are being published in book form by Hermes Press (see “The Complete Dark Shadows Comics”).  Innovation published a few Dark Shadows comics based on an ill-fated revival of the show in the early 1990s.  Dynamite has wisely chosen to base its comics on the original classic Dark Shadows TV series.