DARK SHADOWS MINI-COMIC

Known by collectors as "Dan Curtis Giveaways", these small 3" x 6" all-color mini comics contain 24-pages of reprinted material. This is the first issue (1974) of nine different comics that were printed under the Western Publishing Company, Inc. indicia. The DARK SHADOWS comic was actually the only one of the series that is attributed to Dan Curtis.

Edited by Wallace I. Green with a script by D.J. Arneson and art by Joe Certa, this abridged story, "The Glove" is reprinted from Gold Key's DARK SHADOWS #12 (February 1972).

These are the titles in the series:

1. Dark Shadows
2. Star Trek
3. Twilight Zone
4. Ripley's Believe It or Not!
5. Turok, Son of Stone
6. Star Trek
7. The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor
8. Dagar the Invincible
9. Grimm's Ghost Stories

Vending machine header card.

Reportedly originally produced as bubble gum premiums, they instead ended up being sold in vending machines for 25-cents each.

DARK SHADOWS STRIPS + COMIC BONUS

I clipped these artifacts in homage to the DARK SHADOWS TV show. I was a devoted fan and one of those thousands of kids who ran home after school to catch the latest episode (you think they could have aired it just a half-hour later!).

In my neck of the woods, the strip ran in THE LOS ANGELES TIMES from March 14, 1971 through March 11, 1972. It was drawn by Ken Bald, who signed his name "K. Bruce", and who had years earlier cut his chops on Captain America, Sub-Mariner and Millie the Model for Timely before he made the move to newspaper strips.

DARK SHADOWS is very well drawn in my opinion, and Bald/Bruce draws a dead-ringer for Barnabas Collins.

NOTE: The images are scanned full-size.

BONUS!

After a hiatus, the run of Gold Key's DARK SHADOWS continues today. There is speculation on who the scriptwriter might be for this issue. One possibility is D.J. Arneson, who had written previous issues. Another is that it may have been a woman by the name of Merrie Spaeth, who is known to have worked at Gold Key for a while and scripted stories for DARK SHADOWS, BORIS KARLOFF'S TALES OF MYSTERY and SMOKEY BEAR. She has had an interesting career. Before entering the comic industry she was an actress, then afterwards became the White House Director of Media Relations for the Reagan administration (!). The story in this issue is in two parts: "The Scarab: The Spell of Potiphar" and "The Scarab: The Spell of the Undead".

DARK SHADOWS

Vol. 1 No. 16

October, 1972

Western Publishing Company (Gold Key Comics)

Editor: Wally Green

Cover: George Wilson

Script: D. J. Arneson ?; Merrie Spaeth ?

Pencils: Joe Certa

Inks: Joe Certa

Letters: John Duffy

Pages: 36

Cover price: 15 cents

NOTE: Third-party ads have been removed.