Joanna K. Blaidd
Joanna K. Blaidd fell in love with Barnabas Collins at the age of 8, but stopped watching one day when the show suddenly got too frightening to bear. She came back to Dark Shadows as an adult only last year, and is reveling in discovering Barnabas and the show all over again. She's also become a devoted fan of Jonathan Frid's storytelling and audio performances of Shakespeare, and wishes that the show's writers had given him more Shakespearean-style speeches like the one in episode 416. One of her cherished hopes as a writer is that if we fans write such things ourselves, readers can at least experience them through imagination. This is her first Dark Shadows story. She previously wrote in Star Wars fandom and was one of the editors of the zine Sanctuary Moon. (joannablaidd@yahoo.com)
Jo Ann Curl
Jo A Curl was born in the Midwest and grew up with the old fashioned values of home family and community. Having a background in many different careers: Navy, law enforcement, paralegal-investigator, and always in one form or another, customer-client service. Jo retired to do what she loved the most and that was to write. While growing up, she, like so many others started watching Dark Shadows at an early age, captivated by that and Star Trek, and wrote fanfiction for both shows. After high school, Jo married her childhood sweetheart. When that failed, she met her second husband; they staged a Klingon wedding which was featured Wild Weddings on the Learning Channel. Jo is the author of 28 Dark Shadows and Star Trek fanfictions posted at Fanfiction.net and has a Facebook page titled My Dark Shadows 1966-1990.
DorkShadows
DorkShadows was introduced to Dark Shadows by the 2012 Tim Burton film. Curious about the source material, she began watching the original series and was instantly smitten with it. One thing led to another and soon she began drawing fanart and writing/reading fanfiction for the series under the name Sanpan. She is a lover of bumbling creatures of the night and the spooky yet moving series that is Dark Shadows. She has met great people and friends through this fandom. She will always be grateful for the wonderful individuals that make up this fandom and the series it follows, and hopes Dark Shadows can make it another 50 years!
DownbytheBrook
DownbytheBrook lives in a tiny 1980s house full of old book, curios, 100-year-old piano and a 1930s gramophone. She is an artist and is currently working on several pieces of fiction and art. One evening evening last year she watched episode one of DARK SHADOWS and there was no going back. Like Victoria, she is a history buff and also loves old houses, Gothic literature and time-traveling vampires. She is the author of DS fanfic The Lost Night.
Joe Flanagan
Joe Flanagan is an original Running Man, who raced home faithfully from school every weekday to watch Dark Shadows shortly after Jonathan Frid introduced the Barnabas character in 1967. He has been actively involved in DS fandom since the early 1980s and until 1987 was a writer and co-editor of a print fanzine The Eagle Hill Sentinel. Other DS-themed writings include Volume 1 of The Diaries of Julia Hoffman, an additional Parallel Collinwood that featured an evil Victoria Winters and an anniversary collection of The Collinsport TV Guide (a parody of programs that residents of the town may have watched and/or participated in).
Currently residing in his hometown of Philadelphia, he is a major contributor of content to a number of DS Facebook pages, including the management of The Many Faces of Nancy Barrett tribute site.
Mark Gillman
Mark Gillman has been a very devoted fan of Dark Shadows since he was first introduced to the show in 1996 on the Sci-Fi Channel during his sophomore year in high school. Born in West Virginia and now living in North Carolina, he continues to watch the shows and films regularly and enjoys interaction with other Dark Shadows fans. He has recently graduated college with a degree in health sciences, but he most enjoys spending his time writing and talking about his passion for the series through Twitter, Wordpress, andFanfiction.net.
Twitter: @I__Barnabas
Guy Haines
Guy Haines was introduced to Barnabas Collins and Dr. Julia Hoffman at age 12 in August 1967. Julia, who became Guy’s favorite character, was wearing her white lab coat and Barnabas was adorned in his satin psychedelic robe as he ranted about his hatred for Burke Devlin. Guy stayed close to his fictional weekday friends for the next 3 1/2 years until the abrupt and unexpected end came on April 2, 1971. In 1978, Guy discovered Dark Shadows fandom when he saw an ad for a convention called “Shadowcon” in a Starlog magazine. Soon after, he found himself contributing artwork and short stories to DS fanzines, "The World of Dark Shadows" and “Inside the Old House." In 1983, he was drafted onto the committee of the Dark Shadows Festivals, serving as one of the two official Festival videographers. Having recorded most of the Festivals for the past 34 years, Guy prefers to be called the Festival Historian. He is grateful to have made many DS friends through those years. Guy’s favorite horror film is 1972’s “The Other” from which he has derived his occasionally used pen-name “Niles Holland”.
Rod Labbe
Rod Labbe grew up in Maine, land of Stephen King, Jessica Fletcher, Hell House, and a certain bloodthirsty vampire named Barnabas Collins. He graduated from the University of Maine and soon began a freelance writing career. Over the years, he's been published in Fangoria magazine, its companion book, Gorezone; Famous Monsters of Filmland; FilmFax and Scary Monsters magazine. His connections to Dark Shadows go all the way back to early May of 1967, when—as an 8th grade student—he began watching Dark Shadows. That led to Rod entering fandom and running a fan club for Dennis Patrick. Rod's been nominated five times for a Rondo Award, all for Dark Shadows-related material. This essay was nominated as "Best Article of 2006." He continues to write, and his latest Dark Shadows interview is in the current issue of Scary Monsters, #101—an interview with Robert Rodan
Marie Maginity
Marie Maginity is the author of the Willie Loomis World Series, writing under the name Mad Margaret. She also writes for The Collinsport Historical Society and political blogs. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She once conned her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and later became a proofreader, copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats.
Adriana Pena
Adriana Pena was an early fan from the Kathleen Resch zine stable where she published several stories. When not writing computer programs, she authored a 51-volume continuation of Dark Shadows. Adriana is also a political commentator in Annapolis where her fan activities are a secret. She went on a long hiatus due to personal and professional problems, but fortunately, has now returned. She is currently working on a DS reboot at Fanfiction.net, writing under the name Maryland Rose
Kathleen Resch
Kathleen Resch started watching Dark Shadows in 1968. It was a Tom Jennings episode and, as she was already a vampire fan, she was immediately hooked. She loved the colorful characters and wonderfully convoluted storylines which raced through Curtis & company’s unique interpretations of every horror trope ever written. Kathleen subsequently subscribed to every DS fanzine available at the time.
When most of the zines ceased publication in 1975, she published her own, beginning with The World of Dark Shadows. By 2001, the zine reached 88 issues. She also published numerous DS fan novels and anthologies. She continued to write “Dark Shadows” fanfiction and poetry for other publications as well, including The Deadly Triangle, Inside the Old House, and Karlenzine. She is the author of the novel Paradox and collaborator with Marcy Robin on Beginnings: The Island of Ghosts.
With Marcy Robin, Kathleen ran the first Dark Shadows convention under the StarCon umbrella in 1977. Their guest was John Karlen, whom she described as an absolute delight. In 1983, Maria Barbosa, Marcy Robin, Dale Clark, and Kathleen Resch held the first Dark Shadows Festival; Marcy and Kathleen continue to be part of the Festival staff all these years later. She is also involved in formatting and distributing Marcy Robin’s Shadowgram newsletter.
Kathleen has posted many of her stories to the internet under the name Caitlyn_Collins onarchiveofourown.org and Caitlyn Collins on fanfiction.net.
Marcy Robin
Marcy Robin came to Dark Shadows in its original broadcast. She had no interest in soap operas, but DS proved to be the only one—daytime or primetime—she ever watched and got involved in its fandom. Since she was young, Marcy wrote, told, and shared her own stories and poetry about various interests and fandoms. In her fan fiction, she likes “to go farther,” exploring a wide range of characters, alternate tales, and intriguing possibilities.
At a 1976 science fiction convention, she met Kathy Resch and Jean Graham and learned about the DS fan publications that began in the late 1960s (and continued into the early 2000s). Soon she was writing stories, poems, articles, commentary, reports, filksongs, LOCs, and more for Kathy’s various fanzines and many others. In 1977 Jean, Kathy, and Marcy presented the first-ever DS convention and held one annually over the next few years.
In 1978, Maria Barbosa and Marcy launched “ShadowGram,” the Official DS Print Newsletter to announce, report, and update confirmed DS-related news for the cast/crew, events, publications, merchandise, publicity, locations, fans, and more. Marcy continues with the newsletter and also provides key confirmed DS news through the free ShadowGram Official DS News Online Updates. In 1983 Marcy, Kathy, Maria, and Dale Clark began the DS Festival events that continue today.
Under the name Darcey O’Brien at fanfiction.net and archiveofourown.org, Marcy has posted some of her DS stories and plans to add more soon. She can be contacted at ShadowGram@aol.com
Alex Service
Alex Service is a historian and museum curator who lives in the far northern reaches of California with her medievalist husband, young twins and even younger cat. She has been a Dark Shadows fan since the airing of the 1991 remake, and proudly preserves her tattered old "Lifetime Member Dark Shadows Official Fan Club" card in her wallet. She has written stories for several fandoms, including Dark Shadows and her favorite characters Bill Malloy (in a time travel fic, Stand Fast and Damn the Devil, and a Christmas-themed story, Peace and Good Will) and Gerard Stiles in her 1840 fan novel, In Darkness. Alex moderates DS fan pages on Facebook, including the Bill Malloy (Dark Shadows) Fan Club and the Dark Shadows 1840 Appreciation Society.
Anna H. Shock
Anna H. Shock has authored the Dark Shadows fan fiction zine Shadowed Reflections, an underground zine called the Dark Shadows Posse and has contributed short stories to many Dark Shadows printed zines. She is vice chairman of the Friends of 1991 Cast Reunions Committee. Anna has also edited many DS contributions for other writers. She has been active in the Collinsport Player Productions as recently as 2011 playing Julia. She has played piano for numerous concerts, school plays and entertainment venues for more than 30 years. After 20+ years in Law Enforcement, she has happily retired. She is politically active, and loves cooking, baking, crafts, sewing, reading, writing, history and puzzles.
Anna is addicted to The Walking Dead, Lucifer, China Beach and every documentary ever made.
She resides in rural Kentucky with her beloved cat.
Ed Stephens
Ed Stephens has been a fan of Dark Shadows since 1967 when Barnabas came into the picture, but was unable to follow it completely due to after school activities. He became reacquainted with the show in the early ‘90s when a local video store began to rent the VHS tapes of the series, but that only went so far because they didn't have all the episodes. The revival series began at that time also. Then in 2010 after the ABC show Lost was canceled, Ed thought the show reminded him of Dark Shadows with its supernatural overtones and travelling back and forth. He was compelled to get back to Dark Shadows since he had never seen the final episode. However, his first attempt to purchase a "box set" turned out to be a collection of pirates most of which were defective. Around that time the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp remake was announced, which preceded the release of the Official Box set. Ed became a fan all over again since 2010. He enjoys making parodies and video clips ever since.
Gary Woolard
Artist Gary Woolard, like so many others his age, started out watching Dark Shadows, by running home from school to catch it every afternoon. With each episode ending with a cliffhanger, Gary was overcome by the desire to know how the cliffhanger would result and started drawing his own "storyboard" guesses for the outcome. These daily sketches led to Gary deciding to make art his life's passion, and now, at 55, he is still drawing and painting Dark Shadows characters with some sense of continuing wonderment he experienced as a child those many years ago.