Dark Shadows #s 8 & 9 (mildly spoilerly)

[Tulku]

I have been slow in posting on this series. Put it off a day and the next thing you know over a month has flown by!

DS #8 was the penultimate chapter of The Children arc--and I must confess that it took a plot twist that I was not expecting! There is a grimness to this series that is quite unlike most comic books. That is not a complaint, but praise! Quentin's casual style adds some levity, but make no mistake: Dark Shadows is a dark ride.

DS #9 provided the finale of the arc. It gives Barnabas one (and potentially two) new enemies, and gives Quentin a disturbing insight into just how far Barnabas will (and has) gone to protect his secret. The final confrontation with the main villain was a little too brief. I also am confused by the time element. In #8 we are told that Barnabas is going to the villain's cave in daylight to surprise him. When he goes into the cave, we see what appears to be the sun low over the ocean behind him. But this is set in Maine, so if the sun is low over the ocean, it must be just rising. In #9, however, we have at least one vampire clearly fleeing the cave in bat form--with no problem. What happened to the sun? Sudden cloud cover?

But that is a minor quibble. Maybe the villain babbled on about his plans even longer than it seemed and night fell again.

Issue 9 also propels us into the next storyline, the Willie & The Amulet plot that has been building over the last few issues. Of course, that also means that another new enemy of the Collins clan is on the way! And that is a good thing. I would not like this series nearly as much if it consisted of nothing but constant battles with Angelique and Trask.

This is truly a fine series. Well written with moody and appropriate art. Thank you, DE, for providing it!

[positronic]

This series has been somewhat of a surprise to me. I guess I have never really been more than a casual fan of the TV series -- I remember watching it as a kid, rushing home from school to catch it, but never really followed it faithfully from beginning to end, so there were many plots and characters that I missed out on. And I have not revisited it since that time, prior to picking up this book. The art has been a little inconsistent within a single story arc -- #8 was exceedingly weak, while #9 was back up to fine form again (I do not recall the artists' names at this point; I'll have to make a mental note to check that out in the credits). Actually I can't recall the writer's name either, but again I guess I'll have to remind myself to check the credits, since this may be a guy to watch.

[Tulku]

The writer is Mike Raicht. Curiously he is not listed on the "Creators" page of the DE website. I say it is curious because, a few years back, he was writing Army of Darkness for DE. It is not like he is a newcomer. He was also associated with Marvel. Exiles, perhaps? In any event, for my money Dark Shadows has been his best work.

[positronic]

...and noticing again how much the artwork stinks. Sorry to be so blunt, but there's no other way of putting it. The offending artist is one Nacho Tenorio, who also did the art on #8 which I hated so much. So I went and looked up the previous artists' names. Aaron Campbell, who did issues #1-4, is a favorite of mine who also did outstanding work on DE's Sherlock Holmes, Matt Wagner's Green Hornet: Year One, and the first five issues of Garth Ennis' The Shadow. He was replaced on Dark Shadows #-5-7 and #9 by Guiu Villanova, who was also pretty good.

But this Nacho Tenorio guy has got to go. He can barely draw people, his figures are wooden and stiff, the poses awkward and lifeless, the faces just terrible. I'm afraid if he continues as regular artist I will have to drop the book, which would be kind of a shame as I feel Mike Raicht is doing a pretty good job on the book storywise.

You can't just slap an awesome Franchesco Francavilla cover on any old piece of crap and expect people to spend $4 on it.

[Tulku]

I agree, positronic. The artwork on #10 was horrible and Tenorio is the culprit. The fact that he did not do #9 makes me wonder if he was brought in to give Villanova a break and allow the book to keep coming out more or less on time.