Voltaire profile picture

Voltaire

Gothic Renaissance man with Gypsy pirate band

About Me



VOLTAIRE BIO:
Voltaire is often described as a modern day renaissance man. He is a singer/ performer, creator of comic books, animation and toys.
As a musician, he is a songwriter whose music can best be described as a collection of murder ballads, tongue-in-cheek exercises in the macabre, with just enough bawdy songs about Star Trek and Star Wars to keep a Con audience rolling in the aisles. Many know him for his song "Brains!" from the Cartoon Network show "The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy".
Voltaire's live shows, whether solo or with his skeletal orchestra, are highly theatrical -full of stories and games. The theatrical quality of his performances is not surprising; Voltaire has been directing commercials and animating short films for the last twenty years.
Inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), Voltaire began animating at the age of ten on a super8 camera. At that time, he says, "no three dimensional object was safe. My brother's action figures, my sister's dolls, silverware, etc . . . If it was missing, chances were that it was in the basement in front of my camera." Voltaire has created dozens of animated spots for MTV, The Sci-Fi Channel, and many more (including most recently Fangoria TV).
Eventually commercials proved to be too short for his storytelling desires and so Voltaire embarked on a new career as a comic book creator. His first comic book series, "Chi-Chian" (a dark Cinderella story for the 31st century) was picked up as an animated web series by the Sci Fi Channel's website (www. scificom/chichian). It won The Flash Forward's People's Choice Award and greatly widened Voltaire's audience.
Other notable comics and books by Voltaire include "Oh My Goth", "What is Goth?" "Paint it Black-a guide to Gothic homemaking" and most recently, "DEADY". The latter includes collaborations with Clive Barker, James O'Barr, Neil Gaiman, Billy Tucci, David Mack and many other luminaries of the spooky comics realm.
In 2004 Hong Kong's Toy2R introduced Voltaire to the world of urban vinyl by making a toy of his comic book character, DEADY. It was an instant hit and lead to a string of other Voltaire toys including a line of "Pocket Goth" plush toys for Toy Network that can be found at all major amusement parks and crane machines at Walmart, Toys R Us, etc..
For more information on Voltaire's music, comics, animation and toys visit: www. voltaire.net

When You're Evil- Disney Villain Fan Vid:
Events by Eventful
VampireFreaks Presents Voltaire
Rocking audiences across the land on the Maiden Voyage tour! Compliments of Draikette!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/25/2005
Band Website: voltaire.net
Band Members: Voltaire-vocals/guitar
Gregor Kitzis-violin
Matthew Goeke-cello
Kiku Collins-Trumpet, Clarinet
George Grant-bass
Glenn Sorino- drums
Stephen Moses- drums
Grisha Alexiev- drums
Influences: Rasputina, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Cab Callaway, Danny Elfman
Sounds Like: SORRY: I've had to take down the clips of my songs "Brains" and "Land of the Dead" featured on The Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy because YouTube keeps deleting them (on account of it being against their rules to post video that you do not own the rights to.)

Viva Calaca: An animated video for Day Of the Dead!

VOLTAIRE ON FOX NEWS-2006

IF YOU LIKE STAR TREK....

AWESOME FAN FILM FOR FEATHERY WINGS!!!

A GREAT FAN VID FOR RAVEN'S LAND SET TO ONE OF MY FAVORITE FILMS!

A GOD THINKS FAN VID SET TO PRINCESS MONONOKE!

Captain Jack Sparrow meets CANNIBAL BUFFET!

Record Label: Dancing Ferret Discs
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

QUESTIONS: July 2008

Well, here we are again... another month... another opportunity for you to submit your questions and for me to answer them. I've been working my arse off on the new CD (which with any luck it will be ...
Posted by Voltaire on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:20:00 PST

Viva Calaca! The Day of the Dead video!

A while back... possibly a year ago, I received an email from an artist is Spain named Ritxi Ostariz. He expressed his desire to create an animated video for the song Day Of The Dead from my 5th Cd, O...
Posted by Voltaire on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:08:00 PST

Shows in Canada!

Earlier this year I tried to book a Canadian tour for this August. The idea was to hit as many Canadian cities as possible, maybe starting in Vancouver and heading east to Toronto... possibly Montreal...
Posted by Voltaire on Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:01:00 PST

NEW SHIRT and More HOT WHEELS!

Ahoy Mateys!I'm excited to offer a new band shirt.It sports my new logo, the Jolly Roger like was on the Maiden Voyage Tour shirt but naturally doesn't have any of the tour info from the exclusive tou...
Posted by Voltaire on Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:20:00 PST

Questions: June 2008

UPDATE: JUNE 8th, 2008: This blog is now CLOSED! Please do not post any more questions. I will spend the rest of the month answering all of the ones below and you are most welcomed to reply or comme...
Posted by Voltaire on Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:54:00 PST

Voltaire Show in Taipei

UPDATE:  5/31/08. Unfortunately, due to factory delays in getting my toys made, I will NOT be appearing at the Taipei Toy Festival 2008. It's possible that the toy in question will still be made ...
Posted by Voltaire on Mon, 26 May 2008 11:57:00 PST

Questions: May 2008

I had just finished typing out a rather lengthy answer to a question someone sent me about one of my CDs and suddenly I thought.... I bet there are other people who might have had the same question in...
Posted by Voltaire on Wed, 14 May 2008 01:32:00 PST

May 2008 Newsletter

UDPATE: MAy 17th, 2008 (LATER IN THE DAY) Sorry, folks, the Tokyoplastic Geisha I customized is being taken OFF of the auction block. It was pointed out to me by someone here on Myspace, that the cha...
Posted by Voltaire on Tue, 13 May 2008 10:31:00 PST

Maiden Voyage Tour Shirt on SALE!

UPDATE!!!! April 4th, 2008: NO MORE ORDERS!!!! Sorry folks, I am now packing to go on tour so I can no longer take orders for this item. So please (and I REALLY hate saying this...) don’t se...
Posted by Voltaire on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:52:00 PST

Pocket Goths in the Webstore!

Yes.. Pocket Goths dammit! Though truth be told, they’re really too big to actually put in your pocket.Full Set- Six FiguresAssortment 1- Raven, Pretentia and Keiko (Assortment 2 coming soon!)Th...
Posted by Voltaire on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:59:00 PST