Comics Review / Interview: THE ELECTRIC BLACK, Part 1

THE ELECTRIC BLACK #1 (Scout Comics, April 2019 date) Created, written and illustrated by Joseph Schmalke and Rich Woodall.

 

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This is Part One of a three-part feature on THE ELECTRIC BLACK. Part Two is an interview with co-creator Rich Woodall about the book and his work in comics, where many of the questions raised while reading Issue #1 receive answers. Part Three will be a review of Issue #2 of THE ELECTRIC BLACK. 

 

A common theme probably began with TALES FROM THE CRYPT from EC Comics back in the 1950’s, and continues to this day.  The oft-used comics template of using a horror host to segue between the stories in an anthology book never gets old.  The latest to put their particular spin on it are  Joseph Schmalke and Rich Woodall, the creators of THE ELECTRIC BLACK from Scout Comics.

 

  I’m a huge fan of horror comics and having read so many - - I’m almost as jaded when it comes to new works as I am about more super-hero books, which I’ve been reading since the age of four.  I need something really new and unique, a clever spin on the tropes to get me excited.

 

I didn’t care much for THE ELECTRIC BLACK on first reading. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t feel that it offered enough to me to continue with the title.  However, in preparation for meeting the creators at Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark this past Saturday I read it again, and then again.  Now I have a new appreciation for the book.  THE ELECTRIC BLACK holds a lot of promise, and I want to see where  Woodall and Schmalke take this in future issues. In fact, now I’m hoping the series garners enough of an audience to keep it running longer than the usual four issue trial run.

 

    What makes the horror host for this book as well as THE ELECTRIC BLACK a little different from the norm are three things: 

1) The sinister long-haired, bespectacled host (Jules/Julius) has two accomplices in the alluring female June Bug, and the creepy Mr. Hyde-like Jack (as in Jack the Ripper?). 

2) The curiousities/antiquities shop operated by Jules seems to play a larger role in the proceedings than the standard backdrop from which a horror host shares his scary tales. It also doesn’t seem to be found in a fixed location and has the ability to reappear in different towns.

3) The interludes between stories are just as interesting, and go beyond the usual short introduction to establish another story weaving throughout the issue . The relationship between manager and shop - and manager and employees - requires further exploration and explanation, perhaps something being saved for future issues. 

 

As to the stories themselves, “Rat Ship”  with story and art by Rich Woodall is a seafaring saga about a fishing vessel that gets a distress call from an apparently abandoned ship with treasure onboard. When the fishermen keep referring to the oft-repeated expression “The sea provides the wanting with all they need” it’s a good indication that things will go wrong. The art and coloring are a bit different, almost like a wash of red and orange - - and a bit too much of that. 

 

“Bixby’s Miracle Drops” with story and art by Joseph Schmalke takes place in an earlier frontier time when a traveling “snake oil peddler” stumbles across a Gypsy tonic. After a successful experiment with the formula, he seeks fame and fortune with the magic elixir. Yes, they wrote disclaimers on meds back in those days but nobody read them then either.  

 

  I see some potential in this title and it’s worth picking this up and seeing what awaits in future issues. Hunger seems to be a concurrent theme throughout Issue #1.  I’m hungry for Issue #2.