Presented by MoCCA and Small and Creepy Films
7 PM | Admission: $5 | Free
for MoCCA Members
Hosted by Aurelio Voltaire.Stop-motion
animation has been around since the very beginning of film and is still
around today. The art of manipulating rubber puppets and bringing them
to life by posing them one frame at a time on film has seen something of
a renaissance in recent history with the release of such films as
Coraline, The Fantastic Mr. Fox and A Town Called Panic. Unlike it’s
shiny and new cousin, computer animation, stop-motion has always had a
home-made and somewhat surreal quality to it. Perhaps it is for that
reason that it is often the technique of choice for filmmakers like Tim
Burton and Henry Selick, looking to create a strange and spooky world
(Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach).

Aurelio
Voltaire, a filmmaker firmly entrenched in the world of dark, puppet
animation takes us on a little tour of the genre on April 29th during
“Puppet Masters of the Macabre: A Night of Spooky Stop-Motion
Animation”. Voltaire will screen excerpts from his reel (including
station IDs created in the early days of MTV and The SyFy channel as
well as a few of his award-winning shorts) as well as the work of other
colleagues and luminaries of macabre animation. The screening will be
immediately followed by a panel discussion lead by Voltaire. On the
panel will be Micah Van Hove of Small and Creepy films and other
stop-motion animators and industry professionals.

For a glimpse at Voltaire’s work visit:
www.youtube.com/voltairenyc

www.smallandcreepy.com is the website
of Caroline Thompson.
(Screenwriter of Edward Scissorhands, Corpse
Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family and others)

Biff! Pow! Bam! Not in the face!

File this under the “Well, finally!” pile, folks. After parodying basically everything else in pop culture, the adult film industry has finally parodied the Adam West Batman franchise. Batman: XXX by folks at Vivid VIdeo will hit the shelves (behind beaded curtains) in May. You can’t make this stuff up kids. Thanks to folks at iesb, here’s a little promotion from the films producers:

“The cast was just incredible,” said director, Axel Braun. “Dale DaBone
literally became Adam West, turning in one of the most electrifying
comeback performances I’ve ever seen in my 20 years in the industry,
and James Deen was just outstanding as Robin. Tori Black, who plays Catwoman,
showed us exactly why she’s the reigning Performer of the Year. This
girl is so gorgeous and talented, and her sexual energy is just
unbelievable.”

While there’s not a complete synopsis of the plot, we here at Comic Mix can imagine it now… Batman and Robin must fight the villainous Catwoman, Riddler, and Joker! There will be a villainous plot to steal some super fancy diamond! Luckily they have Batgirl along for the adventure, to help even the odds. Wait… That’s four guys to three women. This is starting to get a bit scary. Come to think of it, if this is going to be a real parody, will this mean we get Robin straddling Batman as they scale a building? And what about the Bat-Poles? Oh god. I think we might be getting sick. And if they painted right over Caesar Romero’s mustache… what in Gods name will they paint over for this film? 

Will the dynamic duo and the bat-tastic beauty defeat the clown price of the kama-sutra? Will Robin solve the Riddler’s “Ribbed for her pleasure” Rubics cube of doom? Will Alfred and Aunt Harriet make an unexpected cameo?

“Atomic marital aids to power, turbines to speed…. Let’s go!”

UPDATE: The trailer has been posted! Click here and enjoy the Bat-tastrophe.

Good grief. You wouldn’t think the unit that owns the
licensing rights to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the “Peanuts”
gang would go for less than tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot, would you?

E.W. Scripps Co. said it will sell United Media Licensing and the “Peanuts” brand to Joe Boxer owner Iconix Brand Group Inc. for $175 million in cash.

The
sale of United Media Licensing also means Iconix has a new partnership
with the family of the late “Peanuts” creator, Charles Schulz. They’ll
receive 20 percent ownership in the unit that owns “Peanuts” and pay
that percentage of the sale price.

United Media Licensing
represents other character brands such as Dilbert and Fancy Nancy, but
the bulk of its licensing business comes from “Peanuts.” The
acquisition grants Iconix with its first character brands. Until now
Iconix owned mostly fashion brands from Candie’s to Joe Boxer.

The
unit’s licensed merchandise has annual sales of more than $2 billion,
but the owners of the licenses receive a fraction of that. In 2009,
revenue of the unit fell 10 percent to nearly $92 million. That figure
includes United Media’s syndication operations, which Scripps will still
own, meaning it will still syndicate comic strips and editorial
features.

United Media Licensing has more than 1,200 licensing
agreements and relationships with companies and retailers such as Warner
Bros., Old Navy, CVS, MetLife Inc. and Hallmark Co. Some 20,000 new
products are approved each year in more than 40 countries.

Scripps
first brought “Peanuts” to market in 1950. By the time Schulz retired
in 1999, Peanuts was in more than 2,600 papers.

Iconix said it expects “Peanuts” to generate about $75
million in annual royalty revenue and noted a pre-existing revenue share
with the Schulz family, separate from the new 20 percent arrangement.
Iconix, based in New York, owns and licenses brands such as Joe Boxer,
London Fog, Starter and Mudd, to retailers, wholesalers and suppliers.

“The
Peanuts characters have been our entertaining co-workers and the Schulz
family has been our trusted partner for nearly 60 years. But this is
the right move for all involved as we go our separate ways in
recognition of changing times and new strategies,” said Scripps CEO Rich
Boehne.

Iconix CEO Neil Cole said the purchase moves the company
away from being one focused solely on fashion into new realms that
include theme parks, media and financial institutions– although one can easily presume that various characters will now be appearing on even more t-shirts, etc.