Good news everyone! I'm beginning my new animated feature film! And since the anicam for "Hair High" was such a big success, I will bring it back for this new feature. I don’t have a title for the film yet. However, I can give you the basic concept. It's about a guy who's morally bankrupt, a greedy sleaze, and he begins to grow wings. What happens to this guy who likes being a sleaze when the damn wings force him to do angelic acts that interfere with his corrupt life?

I'm now in the process of drawing the storyboards for the graphic novel. I hope to be finished by the middle of September, and start the animation and the anicam by early October. But I am also working on a number of other projects – commercials, shorts, etc. So my schedule is very fluid.

I returned from my summer in Oregon trip last month—it was wonderful! The Beaver State is the best in the summer! Animator and producer Marilyn Zornado had a houseboat dinner party for me while I was out there and the crème de la crème of animation was there: Joanna Priestley, Mark Gustafson, Paul Harrod, Chel White, Andy London (from NY), Jim Blashfield, Rose Bond, Joan Gratz, and even Will Vinton showed up. It was a great party, thank you Marilyn and Allen!

From there I flew to San Diego for the ever-growing ComicCon. I've been coming to this event for about 4 years and each year I'm amazed at how big and important this gathering is. The "Con" started out, of course, as a meeting of comic book geeks, but Hollywood soon discovered the value of the nerd audience and now all the Hollywood stars and directors are there. So not only does it display comics, but also graphic novels, games, animation, live-action film, toys, original art, illustrations, fashion… It's a massive bazaar of pop culture! I shared a booth with Bill and Alex from "Rex Steele Nazi Smasher" and we had a lot of traffic and a lot of fun. John Holderried ably assisted me in manning the booth. While John took over the booth, I was able to wander through the packed aisles to check out all the wonderful goodies. I saw Matt Groening, Peter Chung ("Aeon Flux"), Rick Geary, the guys from Blur studios (we met at the Oscars), Tom Kenny (the voice of Spongebob and alum of "The Edge"), and Seth Green.

John had an encounter in the Star Wars Pavilion with the head of the Star Wars fan club, and she told him to come back that afternoon and wait in line - but wouldn't tell him why. Apparently they were looking for true Star Wars fans, and he fit the bill. No one knew what the line was for, until they pulled them aside in groups and told them they were about to meet Natalie Portman, who was there to promote her upcoming film "V For Vendetta". John was one of about 100 lucky fans who got to meet her and pose for a Polaroid with her. For a Star Wars fan like John, meeting her was like the ultimate thrill.

For a while, I did a signing at the NBM booth. I shared the table with the talented Peter Kuper. That night, I did the intro to Spike and Mike’s "Sick and Twisted" show, with over 6,000 people in the audience. My short excerpt from "Hair High", called "Krazy Kock", was a big hit. One night, I went with my cousin, Kurt Jerman, for a nice seafood dinner and we decided to grab one of the hundreds of pedicabs in downtown San Diego to return to my hotel. When the driver dropped us off, he turned around, looked at me and said, "Are you Bill Plympton?" I said, "Yes", amazed that someone recognized an animator. He followed up, "We drove you to the Oscars in March." Holy Shit! This was the partner of the guy who pedaled me to the Oscars. They drove up together in a truck. Wow! It's a small world after all!

One of the exciting things about Comic Con: I was able to premiere a couple of projects. One was "The Fan and the Flower", produced and written by Dan O'Shannon. We got a wonderful response for the film and Dan and I got in front of the audience and for the first time, we talked publicly about working on the film; the give and take, the problems, getting Paul Giamatti for the voice. It was a real treat for us and for the audience. Also, for the first time, I offered my brand new DVD "Bill’s Dirty Shorts". All my new outrageous films that are too provocative for television are on there—included are 32 flash animations that are entirely too sick for the public airwaves. We brought a whole bunch of the new DVDs and they sold out in one day! Whew! Now we're looking to print up a large order to meet the public demand. The public wants more sex and violence.

The cartoon for this edition is "The Disco". This was done back in the swinging 80's when discos were big and they were very strict about letting people in. In fact, they forced them to wait outside if it was too crowded inside. That's when this fantasy came to me - the bouncer keeping up pretenses when, in fact, it's a dud party inside. You can see the technique evolve a little. I was highly influenced by Roland Topor. I recollect this cartoon appeared in either Heavy Metal or National Lampoon—it was so long ago that it's hard to remember.