Bruce Bickford (born February 11, 1947 in Seattle, WA) is an American Artist and Animator who specializes in Deranged Stop Motion animation with clay. He is best known for his work with Frank Zappa, contributing to his 1979 movie Baby Snakes and his home video releases The Dub Room Special and Video From Hell. They collaborated on the home video The Amazing Mr. Bickford, which featured Bickford's creations set to Zappa's music.
While his work might make viewers wonder whether it was made while under the influence, his work is actually an aversion, since Zappa wouldn't have worked with him if it was. There's also the fact that the incredible precision required with Claymation means that it couldn't have been made on drugs.
"The Amazing Mr. Bickford's Tropes":
- Claymation: This is his medium.
- Deranged Animation: Often of a vaguely sexual or otherwise Mind Screw nature. Prometheus' Garden includes blood as well.
- Documentary: Monster Road
- Heroic Fantasy: Sword and Sorcery and Classical Mythology in Prometheus' Garden
- New York City: In ''Baby Snakes'
- Transformation Sequence: Characters change into all kinds of shapes and forms all the time.
