The Lair of Voltaire

Aurelio Voltaire Hernández (born: ), better known as either Voltaire or Aurelio Voltaire, is a Cuban YouTuber, musician, and comic book artist.
==Background==
Voltaire was born in Havana, Cuba, although when he was ten months old his family emigrated to New Jersey, USA when his mother remarried after the death of Voltaire's father, who died when Voltaire was four months old. His childhood was not a happy one, as he was frequently bullied at school due to his background while his stepfather was abusive. At the age of seventeen he ran away from home and moved to New York City.
==Career==
===Animation===
Voltaire began creating claymation animations when he was ten years old, inspired by the work of Ray Harryhausen, and taught himself how to create and animate shorts which wer einitially self-taught, but as he continued his hobby he started to piece together tips from various fanzines. After leaving home and moving to New York, Voltaire was hired by Parker Brothers where he created stop motion animated commercials for a variety of brands. His skill in animation led to his work being noticed by MTV, who hired him to create a series of station IDs between 1987 and 1993, which can be found on Voltaire's oriiginal YouTube channel.YouTube: Voltaire Stop-Motion Reel: MTV station IDs Other networks to hire Voltaire to create stop motion stations IDs include Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and the Sci-Fi Channel. He currently teaches stop-motion animation at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.
===Writing===
Voltaire's first ongoing comic book Chi-chian in 1997, which he describes as a Cinerella story for the 31st century.Voltaire.net: Chi-chian In 2000 the Sci-Fi Channel created a 14-episode websries of Chi-chian that combined stop motion animation with Flash animation, which remained on the channe;'s website until the Syfy rebrand in 2009.
In 1999 Voltaire released his second ongoing comic book Oh My Goth!, which satirised the NYC goth culture which Voltaire was part of, while the comic's second series also satirised the goth subculture that was growing in the comics industry at the time with Voltaire's contemporaries Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge coming in for some lighthearted ribbing over the course of the series.
2004 saw Voltaire release his third ongoing comic series, Deady, the story of Urkor Malravenus, the galaxy's greatest evil, who happens to have inhabited a teddy bear on earth, and over the course of the series Deady attracted contributions from a wealth of guest writers such as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Junko Mizuno and Roman Dirge.
===Music===
Voltaire joined his first hand when in junior high, whose music was inspired by Duran Duran. Soon afterwards, though, Voltaire began to be inspired by bands such as Bauhaus and The Cure as he discovered goth music, something he wasn;t even aware existed until that time.
By the time that Voltaire formed his own band in the mid 1990s, his music was inspired as much by European folk music as it was the goth bands that he grew up with, coupled with the highly satiurical edge that his writing also has.
====Discography====
*The Devil's Bris (1998)
*Almost Human (2000)
*Boo Hoo (2002)
*Then and Again (2004)
*Ooky Spooky (2007)
*To the Bottom of the Sea (2008)
*Hate Lives in a Small Town (2010)
*Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children (2011)
*BiTrektual (2012)
*Raised by Bats (2014)
*Heart-Shaped Wound (2017)
*What Are the Oddz? (2019)
==Personal Life==
Voltaire married his longtime girlfriend Jayme on October 1st 2009, although in a blog posted on September 25th 2013 Voltaire announced they were getting divorced.Voltaire.net: Unhappy Anniversary He is currently engaged to Mayumi Toyoda.
Voltaire has a son, Mars, who was born in 1998 during a previous relationship.
==References==
Category:Music YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:Cuban YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2011