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“I’m an anti-social outcast character. I’m also an anti-family values guy and I was tired of all the kiddie cartoons,” says the legendary Spike of Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. “My hero is Lenny Bruce and I’m put off by the hypocrisy of our society such as getting upset about nipples.  Babies suck on those.”

The secret origin of Spike and his mini animation empire is not quite as dramatic as, say, being bitten by a radioactive Bugs Bunny, the beginnings of the fest grew out of boredom. “We put on the festival since there really wasn’t anything to do in Riverside,” Spike says. “The difference between yogurt and Riverside is that yogurt has an active culture.  So we did these shows at the schools and it grew from there.”

Fed up with watered down cartoons permeating culture in the 1970s, Spike and his college cohorts put on the very first Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation at Riverside City College in 1977.  After that, the festival toured other colleges and alternative screening venues.  The reaction was immediate.  Audiences were offended… and they loved it.  Playing to sold out audiences who recoiled and laughed their asses off.  Soon, with the success of the tours, the films started coming to Spike. “I started collecting all these cartoons that were… sick and twisted…” Spike says, “…films like Lupo the Butcher and Bambi Meets Godzilla.  It was a way of showing that animation wasn’t just for kids.”

But what constitutes a sick and twisted animated film?  “The criteria for a film started as just pure shock value,” Spike reveals. “It’s evolved now where the films have to be very clever and humorous.”

The audience that comes to the shows should know what they get since the words “Sick and Twisted” are in the title, but that doesn’t stop audiences from averting their eyes, puking or leaving. “We have a film called Horned Grandma, it’s one of the few films I’ve had where I’ve seen people leave the theater because they couldn’t take it anymore.”

Words by Chris Gore, photos by Dustin Downing

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