The Electric Black: The Dark Caravan

The Electric Black: The Dark Caravan

Black Caravan/Scout Comics 2021

By Joseph Schmalke & Rich Woodall

Colour Flats by Jul Mae Kristoffer

Halloween is upon us and it's the perfect time of year to revisit the employees at our eerie emporium. The Yellow Stranger guides June and Jack through the origin tale of The Electric Black itself. Questions will be answered, Mysteries will be uncovered, and grizzly murders will occur in this very special issue that bridges the events of The Electric Black and The Electric Black Presents.

There is something incredibly intriguing about this series and the further back in its history we go the more interested in it I become. The Caravan for instance with how it travels, that it does travel, and just the way it comes across is something that adds such an air of intrigue and mystery surrounding the story. There is something more exotic about the Caravan than the physical house that personally I find much more intriguing. Hopefully the next arc we get will take us through the past as we learn more about these two opposing forces and why they are such polar opposites and I do love seeing the fact that the world is never black & white but full of shades of gray and nothing is ever easy.

I am absolutely loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job of putting the spotlight on their personalities. The pacing here is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more I want to see and know.

I greatly appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. How the layers within the story open up avenues to be explored is exciting to see. From the meteorite and it’s evil origins to how we see these men behave it creates a much more balanced, maybe, world here. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceptionally well achieved.

The interiors here are really rather interesting. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work we see is outrageously interesting. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how we see the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The creativity and imagination that we see is utterly marvellous and it really does wonders in bringing some of these moments to life exceptionally well. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding for how colour works.

​

There is something absolutely amazing about this series. The premise behind this is extraordinary and I really find myself getting into this in ways that are engaging and leave me invested in the story. This is thanks to this excellent writing, characterisation and these superb interiors. This story expands upon the mysticism of the past and how objects were believed to possess power and that power is neither good nor evil but instead it is how these objects are utilised that makes the intent one or the other. This is how engaged I am in this that I see so much more than what’s on the page.