Forty years ago today, on March 14, 1971—it was also a Monday—the Dark Shadows comic strip began. Not many people remember it, as it only ran for 52 weeks. Even though the entire run has been collected in a book, unless you were a Dark Shadows fanatic, you probably had to be there.

Well, I was there, and got to meet the artist of the strip, Ken Bald on September 26, 1971, during the 75th anniversary celebration for the comic strip I told you about in January.

Annoying 16-year-old comics fan with a sketchbook that I was, I of course had to get an autograph …

… as well as a sketch.

But I came away with something even more special than either of those—a photo of Bald himself dressed in Barnabas Collins garb that he took to use as reference for the strip!

Rather dashing, don’t you think?

And if Wikipedia can be trusted, Bald, at 90, is still with us. He must have more vampire blood in him than I thought!