Coraline

This week, Laika and Focus Features release their stop-motion animated feature The Boxtrolls in theaters nationwide, and it seems poised to stand alongside Laika’s previous films Coraline and ParaNorman in the ranks of offbeat, slightly spooky, perennial family favorites. ComicsAlliance got the chance to speak with some of the film’s creative team at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Yesterday, we presented our interview with Laika CEO / lead animator Travis Knight, and today we follow up with our conversation with the film's co-directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable.

This week, Laika and Focus Features release their stop-motion animated feature The Boxtrolls in theaters nationwide, and it seems poised to stand alongside Laika's previous films Coraline and ParaNorman in the ranks of offbeat, slightly spooky, perennial family favorites. ComicsAlliance got the chance to speak with some of the film's creative team at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and today we present our conversation with acclaimed animator and Laika CEO Travis Knight.

Images: Chris Haley grafts The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield's Comic-Con speech about playing the Webslinger onto the film's poster in tribute to what the character is all about. Manga: Our own David Brothers joins Carlo Santos, Christopher Butcher, Eva Volin and Deb Aoki for Comic-Con's "Best and Worst Manga" panel, spotlighting some cool titles you may want to investigate.

Stephin Merritt, lead singer for the indie band "The Magnetic Fields," recently launched an off-Broadway musical version of "Coraline," the Neil Gaiman book (and movie). In an interview with "Black Book," he talks about Gaiman's potential as a crossover artist, and how his play stacks up again the $75 million-grossing animated film:"We like to think to say that o