for more information on this project, please see the above links

About This Project

Captain Electric was the 2004 grad project by ACAD graduate Sarah "DiMento" Huntrods. It is a mock documentary about the fictional superhero and his equally fictional creator Dave Swuckney.

Captain Electric was originally created as the backstory for a student jewellery project, the electrical plug ring, in 2001, which grew into a full blown superhero parody.

A five minute version was created for the ACAD grad show in early May 2004. The extended version, featuring clips from the "1970s live action TV series", and a 30 second electrical safety animation "from the 1950s" was never made.

The Basic Story of Captain Electric

Created by the pulp writer, Dave Swuckney, Captain Electric started as an electrical safety mascot in the 1940s. In the late 1950s the character was bought by the company DARE Comics and made into a full fledged superhero.

By the mid 70s Captain Electric, along with his new sidekick Battery Boy, became a successful title, but Dave Swuckney saw little money from his creation and turned to substance abuse. In 1976 he was found dead in a seedy motel room, choked to death while inhaling a can of aerosol whipped-cream.

The character was taken over soon after by the new writer/artist team Hugh Defnel and Ben Gerrard. While they took the comic to new heights of ludocrisey, Captain Electric was turned into a Disco-fied live action TV series. Unfortunately, the show never got beyond the pilot stage.

During the 80s, the comic began to get itself into trouble with the Comic Code Commission (yes I really mean the Comics Code Authority) and the comic was forced to add a new electrical safety feature to the back pages of the comic.

DARE Comics, afraid of losing readership over the initial CCC scandal, began a new product line--featuring the infamous Captain Electric Supercharger Ring. This metal ring, shaped like an electrical plug, actually fit in an electrical socket, and resulted in the deaths and injuries of thousands of children. The resulting lawsuits bankrupted the company and left Captain Electric to the annals of obscurity.

Further Plans for This Project

Apart from looking for venues to show the finished five minute video, and finding more funding to continue with this project, here's a brief outline of what need to be done:

• 30 second electrical safety animation - currently in the hands of an animator, but yet unfinished.
• Interviews with comic artists - and an actor to play the 1980s comic artist, Ben Gerrard.
• Live action TV series pilot - need to find costuming and actors, and do some wild commando filming.
• More comic art - finding a collaborator on this would be nice.
• Photos - detailing Dave Swuckney's life, and someone to pose as him.