Tonight, the Batman: The Brave and The Bold episode airing at 8 p.m., “Invasion of the Secret Santas”, introduces Red Tornado and the villainous Fun Haus.
Red Tornado will be a recurring hero and is voice by award winning Corey Burton, while Gary Anthony Williams (Boston Legal) guest stars as Fun Haus.
The synopsis:
In this week’s episode, the evil Fun Haus plans to steal Christmas with his army of robot Santas and killer toys including Dynamite Dolly and the Presto Play Pals! Red Tornado teams up with Batman to save the day and in the process, finds his holiday spirit. In our weekly teaser, Batman and Blue Beetle throw Sportsmaster a perfect strike when he sets up a deadly game with human bowling pins at the alley!
Today in 1988, The United Kingdom celebrated its very first "Red Nose Day," a sort of semi-holiday in which everyone dons a red nose during the all-day charity telethon run by Comic Relief.
The event was so effective on its first go-round that Comic Relief was able to raise about £15 million (back then, that looked a lot bigger when it was turned into $), all going to charity. The event continues to be held every year, and even those in military and school uniforms are allowed to break their dress codes with the clown apparatus.
Neil Kleid of Rant Comics stirred up some debate in the comics scene Wednesday when he posted an open letter to New York ComicConcalling the decision to schedule the event on the first days of Passover "frankly insulting."
Now, I’m a realist and I understand that the majority far outweighs the minority here. Holding the convention on Passover won’t really affect con attendance one way or another. The number of Jewish attendees who will choose to forgo NYCC this year won’t even make a dent in the turnout. But as a Jewish cartoonist/creator, I have to admit to being a bit annoyed that the folks at Reed didn’t even take the holiday into account. I could understand if they’d scheduled it for the following week, the second days of Passover which are less religiously observed… but the first two days of Passover, the Seder nights, are almost like… Christmas Eve. But with more guilt. And matzah.
The message produced a fairly active discussion on Kleid’s website, with some interesting back-and-forth about the potential effects of the decision.
Shortly thereafter, NYCC Con Director Lance Fensterman posted a response on the event’s official blog.
Needless to say, I’m none too happy about the Passover situation either, so let’s get that out of the way right off the bat – we are really sorry about this and certainly intended no disrespect towards anyone. The unfortunate reality is that these were the dates we were given at the JavitsCenter. Javits is unlike most places in that the demand for the space far outstrips the availability, so customers, such as NYCC, are left with little to no choice as to what dates we are given. To that point, I’ll announce here first that the show will be moving back to February next year – because we want to be in February? Not really. Quite simply, these are the only dates we can get next year.
Tonight, the Batman: The Brave and The Bold episode airing at 8 p.m., “Invasion of the Secret Santas”, introduces Red Tornado and the villainous Fun Haus.
