The Animated Short Based on Tracy Butler’s Webcomic Has Racked Up Almost 10 MIllion Views on YouTube Since Debuting This Spring
The Short Stars Michael Kovach, Belsheber Rusape, Lisa Reimold, Ashe Wagner and SungWon Cho and Features Music from Sepiatonic
Los Angeles-based Secret Movie Club will present the first public screening of the online phenomenon Lackadaisy: The Animated Short Film at LA’s Secret Movie Club Theater (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. The 27-minute animated film will be accompanied by a Q&A with director Fable Siegel. Since the film debuted on YouTube on March 29, director Fable Siegel’s animated adaptation of Tracy Butler’s Eisner Award-nominated webcomic Lackadaisy has been viewed almost 10 million times and caught the attention of the likes of iconic animator and director Ralph Bakshi, illustrator Tyson Hesse and director Lilly Wachowski. Tickets are available here.
Set in St. Louis, Missouri in the midst of Prohibition, the film features a stellar cast:
- Michael Kovach (@kovox) as Rocky Rickaby;
- Belsheber Rusape (@BelRusapeVO) as Calvin “Freckle” McMurray;
- Lisa Reimold (@lisareimold) as Ivy Pepper;
- Ashe Wagner (@TheQueenViking) as Mitzi May;
- and SungWon Cho (@ProZD) as Mordecai Heller!
- Theme music by Sepiatonic, the Portland-based music and dance experience that performs Electro-Vaudeville and will provide the film’s theme music.
Lackadaisy: The Animated Short Film is the first ever multimedia endeavor from Spike Trotman’s Iron Circus Comics, the trailblazing comics publisher that has raised nearly 3 million dollars over more than 30 crowdfunding campaigns. Based on Tracy Butler’s Eisner Award-nominated webcomic, Lackadaisy features action and adventure, comedy and crime, and a colorful (if somewhat shady) cast of felines that frequent the Lackadaisy, a speakeasy tucked away in a cave beneath the Little Daisy Cafe. The joint’s packed full of gangsters, flappers, crooked cops, rum-runners, and wide-eyed ingenues. And they are, literally, all jazz cats. Lackadaisy: The Animated Short Film was originally crowdfunded to the tune of $330,000, thanks to almost 6,000 backers.
“This is just an incredibly thrilling privilege, being able to screen Lackadaisy in such a lauded venue!” said Iron Circus founder C. Spike Trotman. “Getting Lackadaisy on a big screen anywhere was so beyond anything we ever hoped for.”
Praise for Lackadaisy: The Animated Short Film:
“Tracy Butler’s beloved 1920s feline adventure will be Iron Circus Studios’ first short film, and it looks fabulous… Iron Circus Comics is bringing the comics to life with a 27-minute, animated short film that, frankly, looks incredible. Seriously, I’m not trying to oversell this. This could have been made by Don Bluth at his apex.”—io9
“This Movie Had Me at ‘Prohibition-Era Gangsters, but Cats’… Absolutely gorgeous.”
—THE MARY SUE
“A sumptuous vision of 1920s St. Louis that begs to be lived in… In an age where animated features have largely moved on from this style of work, it’s heartening to see love and craft applied to it once more. Siegel should be proud of the expertise they’ve brought to this feature.”—POPVERSE
Praise for Lackadaisy, the award-winning webcomic:
“Lackadaisy centers around a speakeasy of the same name in St. Louis during the Prohibition era, frequented by the usual bunch of tough guys, crooked cops and femme fatales — except that each and every one is, literally, a cat.”—THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“Since launching in 2006, Tracy Butler’s Lackadaisy has established itself as one of the internet’s premier webcomics.”—CBR
“Funny, beautifully illustrated, deeply researched.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For updates, follow Iron Circus Books on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and follow the Lackadaisy channel on YouTube. For more information on Secret Movie Club, follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
About The Creators:
Tracy Butler left behind a college track in biology to pursue a career in her most beloved childhood interest – drawing stuff. Originally from New England, she relocated to St. Louis, Missouri to work for a small game dev studio, where she worked as an illustrator and concept artist, and later as a 3d character artist, animator and art director. After moving into a century-old home around 2006, she became fascinated with the history surrounding her and set about producing a comic – LACKADAISY – as an ode to that history. And to cats.
Fable Siegel is a veteran animation professional, boasting a resume that includes Titmouse, Starburns, the internet phenomenon Hazbin Hotel, and two Game Grumps Animated shorts, along with storyboard work for Cartoon Network (Ben 10), Stoopid Monkey (Adam Ruins Everything: Reanimated History), Warner Brothers (Wacky Races), Shadow Machine (F is for Family), and more, as well as being a board artist, animator, and designer for Six Point Harness (Like Share Die). Brought onto the Lackadaisy animated short as a production manager, director, and producer, they’ll be overseeing the project utilizing their years of professional experience and skill.
C. Spike Trotman was born in DC, raised in MD, and lives in IL. An artist and writer, she founded Iron Circus Comics in 2007, which has since grown to become the region’s largest comics publisher. Her notable work includes the webcomic “Templar, Arizona,” the Smut Peddler series of erotic comic anthologies, and Poorcraft, a graphic novel guide to frugal living. A Kickstarter early adopter, she pioneered the widely-adopted bonus model that’s since completely reshaped the pay system of the small press, jump-starting the current renaissance of alt-comics anthologies. Iron Circus is also the first comics publisher of note to fully incorporate crowdfunding into its business model, inventing one of the single most effective uses of new media in comics publishing today.