- "We animators had the talent, but Bert knew how to make it pay."
- —Anita Blake[src]
Animators, Inc. is a St. Louis firm that specializes in the reanimation of the dead. The firm was created by Bert Vaughn and Manny Rodriguez four years before Guilty Pleasures.
Description
Animators Inc. is one of the most successful animator companies in the US. Although having begun as a small business in a spare room above a garage, it has grown, moving to bigger and better offices and hiring additional animators and secretarial staff. The front desk is manned from 8 am to 6 am, leaving only two hours when no one is expected to be at the office.
The firm usually receives contracts to have the dead raised as zombies, for purposes such as witnesses in legal cases (although never their own murder), settling will disputes, confronting past abusers for therapeutic reasons, or as a last chance to have a word with a loved one who has passed away. Sometimes they also get contacted for raising zombies for more questionable purposes, such as celebrity hounding, personal revenge, getting to have sex someone who turned the customer down in life or broke up with them, or even to be used for porn or sex slaves. Anita has a particularly large record of official complaints to the police about illegal or morally questionable requests.
Though primarily aimed at raising the dead, the nature of the business has attracted other clients who wish to utilize the animators' expert preternatural knowledge, especially after vampires won civil rights. Sometimes customers also bring them cases that should be handled by the police, when the customers are unwilling to do so in fear of their secrets or the secrets of someone close to them getting out. Closeted lycanthropes, in particular, are wary of losing their jobs and the custody of their children. Some customers have also been known to pay the initial fee just to get a chance to talk to Anita in private, or to case her out without her knowledge.
December is usually the most quiet month on the animator front.
Cost of services
The charges for raising the dead depend on the age of the corpse, starting from around $3,000 standard fee up to as much as $20,000, for raising someone more then 100 years dead, a feat few animators are capable of. The cost is by a raised zombie, regardless of how much or little time the whole affair takes. The animators get their cut of the fees. Someone like Anita can earn very well in the job.
Members
Management
- Bert Vaughn - Founder and initial CEO, later business manager.
- Craig - Night secretary.
- Mary - Day secretary.
Animators
Retainers