BUNTY - Strange Shadows

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I was involved in the very last days of Bunty, in 2001, when it was almost entirely reprints. However, I managed to nab a page or two in the last few issues to write some text stories under the title "Strange Shadows".

"In the dark of night, when the witching hour has struck, could things from another place, another time, another world, cast their strange shadows across our dreams... and our nightmares?"

THE WITCH HOUSE
Kate and Samantha are dared by their friends to go through the woods up to the old Curwen House, supposedly cursed by a seventeenth century witch named Abbie Curwen. But, while their friends wait inside the old house to give them a fright, the girls meet a stranger who has another surprise planned.

THE FACE IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Jessica's insatiable curiosity gets the better of her when she decides to break into the locked attic room at her grandmother's house and find out the truth about the face in the window in the old photograph of the house. And, when Jessica is nowhere to be found, two faces can now be seen in the photograph.

THE SILENT SCREAM
sara is having her recurring nightmare, in which she finds herself wandering through the rooms and corridors of an old, dark house, in whose every corner shadowy figures seem to lurk. But nothing in the house is what it seems, not even Sara.

For the 2002 Bunty Annual, there was a serial throughout the book, "The Mansion of Strange Shadows". This was partly a homage to Amicus, since each chapter was basically a separate story, with one of the heroines finding something horrible in different parts of the mansion, and part homage to "Dark Shadows", since every character was named after an actor from that show.

[dem bones]

Drat! Had a root through the Bride's annuals and comics last night but no Mandy's or Bunty's. Worse - she reckons she must have got rid of her Spellbound's!

There really does seem to have been a big Amicus thing going on with these stories. That Alien Seed one in Misty has something of the Creeping Vine sequence of Dr. Terrors House Of Horrors about it, albeit slightly milder (if such a thing can be imagined). Maybe it's me, but in one of the annuals there's a story, Blood Orange, wherein a young girl encounters Dracula at The Lyceum which shrieks of Milton Subotsky.

As mentioned before, I'm delighted to make the acquaintance of one who has contributed to these excellent publications. Don't forget to replicate your M. R. James Meets Dennis The Menace post on here as Halloween will soon be upon us!

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

The Mansion of Strange Shadows - Bunty Annual 2002
Illustrated by Keith Robson

Chapter One - The House Through the Woods
Lara, Kat and Alex are amongst the class who have been taken to view the restoration work being undertaken on Nightshade Mansion. Legends have it that in 1795, mad Lord Jonathan, the 13th Lord of Nightshade Mansion, put a curse on the house and vanished, spiriting away the family treasure as he went.
In the basement, beneath the slabs, the museum team have uncovered a massive metal door with no keyhole but spaces for carved symbols to be be placed.
As the girls break off from the school party, they find themselves in a room full of dusty old ornaments, before Kat seems to vanish into thin air.

Chapter Two - Cold Comfort
An amnesiac girl finds herself wandering toward the old house through a snowstorm. The house's inhabitants insist she is their cousin, Miss Kathryn, and all seem under the influence of their butler, Mr John. The family are prisoners for, every time the try to leave, there is a loud rumbling and a storm that shakes the house. Could the answer lie in the room full of precious things, amongst the ornaments and crystals and snowglobes?

Chapter Three - The Ghastly Gallery
Still looking for Kat, Alex and Lara split up and Lara finds herself in the family portrait gallery, where certain portraits seem more than lifelike. And when a mysterious artist restores the portrait of a young girl, Lady Denise, she begins to escape from her picture. But, if she escapes, she'll need someone to take her place. And why does the artist want to keep Lara away from the covered portrait of Lord Jonathan Nightshade?

Chapter Four - Out of Time
Alex follows a winding staircase up to the clock tower, where the ancient mechanism has been frozen for centuries. But, when she removes the strange metal symbol that has become trapped in the gears, the clock starts running... backwards. Phantom figures come and go as Alex is taken back, as a ghost, to the very night when Lord Jonathan Nightshade, fleeing a mob accusing him of witchcraft, places his curse on the old mansion, leaving it trapped within his evil shadow. He then disappears into the vault beneath the house, his power becoming complete and trapping Alex in the past.

Chapter Five - The Vault of Shadows
Having both recovered mysterious symbols during their adventures, Kat and Lara slot them into the huge door in the cellar floor, opening two of the locks and weakening Lord Jonathan's power so that Alex is restored to her rightful time. With the third key, they open the vault and descend to face the strange shadows within!

[helrunar]

Wow! That sounds like great fun!

As a fervent ten year old, I suffered in silence whatever odd looks and comments I received when I began buying 16 magazine, whose primary audience I think was girls between the ages of 10 and 14, because that publication had all the best photos of Dark Shadows scenes and actors--though the way they covered the show could at best be described as playfully fanciful--it was often downright naff. That whole "groovy ghoulie" bit.

Thanks for pointing me to this thread! 

Best wishes, Steve

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Apr 9, 2019 12:32:37 GMT helrunar said:

As a fervent ten year old, I suffered in silence whatever odd looks and comments I received when I began buying 16 magazine, whose primary audience I think was girls between the ages of 10 and 14, because that publication had all the best photos of Dark Shadows scenes and actors--though the way they covered the show could at best be described as playfully fanciful--it was often downright naff. That whole "groovy ghoulie" bit.

Ah, I had similar experiences as a kid, when the only scary comic around seemed to be Misty, which was very specifically aimed at girls, so (it seemed) off-limits. I remember one girl in my class having a copy which had a feature on Hammer films and photos of Christopher Lee as Dracula and feeling massively jealous.

I've seen some of the magazine coverage of DS over the years in things like Tiger Beat and 16. There wasn't much differentiation between the cursed Collins clan and The Monkees or other teen idols. Some of the vintage ads for tie-in merchandise on some of the DVDs are hilariously off-brand.

[helrunar]

Hi Daniel, about marketing--the actual reason and substance of why one watches Dark Shadows has absolutely zero to do with how the series has been marketed, remembered, discussed and embalmed in the mass media and now, the interwebs. I got addicted because I have an innate love for theatrical forms of acting and staging. Of course as a 9 year old I did not realize this. I also had an innate love of anything occult as a child. I had remarkably understanding parents. After 2 years of tracing Tarot cards out of books from the library, my parents actually gave me a Tarot deck as a Xmas gift in 1970.

Whenever I've shown DS to friends who had never heard of it, they often comment that it seems British. Although it doesn't look that way to me, I can see why they say that. The theatricality and the fact that it was shot on videotape as were all the Classic Serials (which ran on MASTERPIECE THEATER here back in the 1970s) from the BBC makes people think it can't possibly have been produced by a US television network.

It's now on "Amazon Prime" streaming, at least for US patrons... and seems to continue to find new young audiences, which fascinates me. It's so completely against the grain of how entertainment is being produced and positioned today.

Were you the person who wrote the book about ghosts of old television shows? That's such a beautiful evocative image, and so perfect for DS.

cheers, Steve

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I'm intrigued by the ghosts of old television shows, but I've not written about them... well, not yet. But, yes, Dark Shadows has developed a form of immortality, a beautiful, baroque, romantic, tortured monster preserved inside a box, be it a television set, a DVD boxset, or a computer screen... which seems rather apt.

And I agree, the theatricality of the series, in sets, effects, acting and writing are all a huge part of the appeal of the show. One of the benefits of shooting in a studio in New York is the stage talent the series attracted, Grayson Hall, Jonathan Frid, John Karlen, Thayer Davis, the marvellous Louis Edmonds, and so many other great theatre actors. Such a rich mixture.

The series is also available to stream via Amazon in the UK, so hopefully it's finding more fans over here as time goes on.