Production is going very well on "Horn Dog", my new short that will be the fourth episode in my famed "Dog series". Like I say, he's my Mickey Mouse. I completed the storyboards in October, and did the animation in November. Then, during the month of December, I hand-colored the artwork. Often, I would color the characters on planes as I traveled, which always drew lots of curious onlookers. But, hey, finishing the film on time is more important than worrying about privacy.

In between the production of "Horn Dog" and traveling to festivals to promote "Idiots and Angels", I found time to make a quickie animated short called "Santa: The Fascist Years". In fact, I made it over Thanksgiving and we brought in famed actor Matthew Modine to do the voice-over. Some of his films are "Cutthroat Island", "Wind", "Pacific Heights", "The Real Blonde" and "Full Metal Jacket".

I met Matthew at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, where he had a short film, and we learned we were mutual admirers, so it seemed natural to hire him as a voice-over for the "Santa" film...he was great! I believe you can now see the short on iTunes - so check it out!

On November 4, I went to vote at my local precinct, and I wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds. No such luck - it was a mad-house! There were so many lines for 4 districts that they all kind of fused together into one large mob scene and after order was somewhat restored, it took me an hour and a half in line to finally mark my ballot. Obviously voting is very important (especially this year) but wasting that much of people's time waiting in line is a disservice to all voters. In Oregon, you can vote by mail, which takes about 5 minutes - that seems to be a much more civilized way to vote.

In November, "Idiots and Angels" was invited to the AFI Festival at the Arclight in Los Angeles, and I couldn't pass that up. They put me up in the famed Roosevelt Hotel (where the very first Oscar ceremony was held) and every morning I went swimming in the refreshing pool. What an experience!

"Idiots" had a great crowd and got a wonderful reaction from the audience - but the best part of AFI was all the other films and the famous guests. I got to see "The Wrestler" starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei - the film is so real and tough. The other film I really enjoyed was "Slumdog Millionaire", and I was able to sneak in to the private party and chat with Danny Boyle - a very friendly guy.

I also was able to hang out with Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman and see their film "Last Chance Harvey". It's wonderfully acted, but not my cup of tea. The best film I saw was from Korea, a wacky send-up of Tarantino and Sergio Leone films called "The Good Bad and Weird". It's definitely my kind of film - when it comes out, rush to go see it!

In early December, I attended two film festivals back-to-back. First was the Starz Denver Film Festival. Ron Henderson, the festival director, is an old friend of mine, in fact in the mid-90's, the Denver Film Festival held my first big retrospective. This year, they showed "Idiots and Angels" to a packed house, and a great audience response.

While in Denver, I went to see a documentary on Milton Glaser, one of my major heroes, made by his ex, Wendy Keyes. Now, I know he's great and invented the "I Love NY" logo, but the film had too much praise and glorification. I don't think people want to see that - in fact, I'm beginning a documentary about my career now, and I definitely don't want a hero-worship kind of film. I want to show all my struggles, failures, battles and disappointments. People need to see that filmmaking is one gigantic struggle for success.

After three days in Denver, I flew to San Francisco for the S.F. Animation Festival. The weather was beautiful and balmy, a big change from New York and Denver. I went swimming in the ocean and listened to a bluegrass band playing on the beach. Also at the Animation Festival were Gene Deitch and his charming wife, who did a show of some of his seminal works from the 1950's at UPA and Terrytoons.

I'm very excited about the French release of "Idiots and Angels". (The French title is "Des Idiots et des Anges") Most filmmakers believe that after the film is finished, they can sit back and deposit their royalty checks - Noooooo! Now, the really important part begins - making sure that the film gets in all the cinemas, and gets good press. So, just after Thanksgiving, I departed for France on a multiple-city premiere tour. The first stop was in Toulouse, where I met up with my producer "par excellence" Biljana Labovic, and the wonderful distributors of the film, Manu and Fabrice of E.D. Distribution. With little sleep, I was rushed to a comic shop for a signing (big crowd), then off to the cool local cinema, Utopia, where we were mobbed by a sold-out crowd. They loved "Idiots and Angels", great applause at the end. As usual, I signed cards and sold French DVDs, then went to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.

The next morning, the caravan moved on to Bordeaux (famous for the wine) where we did the same routine - signing at a shop, then on to the jam-packed cinema. The next day, Biljana and I traveled to the comics mecca of Angouleme, where we were both scheduled to participate in the FITA Festival, a celebration and gathering of special effects and animation professionals. I have already visited Angouleme, about 8 years ago, when Pierre Paquet brought me there to sell my books that were published by Edition Paquet. The opening night film was my own "Idiots and Angels", and although it wasn't sold out, the audience loved it.

The next day was my Master Class - why they put me in a small, unventilated room, I'll never know. I heard they turned away many fans and students, and even so, the room was filled way beyond capacity, with people sitting on the floor and standing against the walls. Also, there was no air conditioning, so it was like a sauna - students were disrobing throughout my lesson. And when we opened the door to let some air in, the neighboring offices complained about the noises from my films disturbing their workers.

One of the highlights was the famous Castle banquet - all the participants piled into two buses and drove out to the famous Rochechouart Castle, which was pitch-black when we arrived - was it the wrong night? Were they afraid of animators? Anyway, we all wandered around this massive medieval structure, searching for some kind of hospitality. Finally, someone found their way into the bowels of the massive stone labyrinth to the large banquet room, with a massive fireplace blazing away.

We were welcomed by the legendary Countess de Rochechouart, and her castle staff. After a quick tour of the special rooms, we took our seats at the cartoon-length dining table. I switched the place-cards before sitting down, so I could chat with my hero, Richard Williams, and his charming wife, Mo - and to my surprise, I ended up next to the Countess! Well, she's a charming lady with great stories, and she is very open about her past history. One interesting story was that the lead character of the wonderful Julian Schnabel film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" was in fact her daughter's husband.

After some wonderful food and time spent with Richard and Mo, I traveled to Paris, where E.D. Distribution had scheduled a number of interviews. Also, we needed to set up a gallery exhibition to coordinate with the French release of the film on January 14. Fortunately, I had my evenings free, so I was able to visit my friends in Paris. One night, I had dinner with one of my major inspirations, Picha, who in the early 70's was able to produce three animated feature films for adults. We went to a nice bar, then he gave me a tour of his studio. The first thing I was attracted to was his large cartoon book collection. He hung out with all the greats - Tomi Ungerer, Milton Glaser, Moebius, Topor. He gave me one of his early books (he started out as a magazine cartoonist like me) and we went out to have a great French dinner, passing the famous restaurant from "Amelie de Montmartre".
The next night, I got a tour of Michel Ocelot's house and studio, then we and the great Serge Bromberg went out for drinks and dinner and lots of animation gossip.

After the chilly Parisian weather, I hopped a flight to the United Arab Emirates for the 7th Annual Dubai Film Festival. As you would expect, money was no object there - I flew business class, of course, and when we went through customs, the naturally prudish customs officer (in white robes) went rooting through my baggage, looking for pornography (which I had, of course, in cartoon form on my DVDs) but our handler/guide from the festival passed his hand in front of the officer, saying, "He's OK". It was like Obi-Wan Kenobi, mind-fucking the stormtroopers.

They put us up in a 7-star hotel (I didn't realize that the stars went that high) right next to the giant "sailing ship" hotel called Burj Al Arab. Our hotel was a massive Disney-like complex, with miles of canals and small motorized gondolas (they were very similar to the boat from "The African Queen") that took us anywhere we wanted to go. Our hotel suites were based on small 2-story villas that had 5 units per complex, and a 24-hour concierge who would get us anything we asked for (within reason). The individual rooms were quite large - but our bathrooms were especially huge - as big as a typical New York city 1-bedroom apartment! Plus fresh fruit daily and incense in every room - each villa had its own swimming pool with a lifeguard (usually Filipino or Taiwanese) that stood at attention, with a floating belt held in the ready position, whether there was someone in the pool or not - weird!

The opening-night film in Dubai was "W" by Oliver Stone. The red-carpet scene was a carbon copy of the Oscars - I walked the press battery after Harry Belafonte and before Oliver Stone. Of course, no one wanted to take my photo (an animator? Who cares?). I did, however, get to run into Terry Gilliam, one of my heroes, and we were able to chat. They had a Broadway-type pre-show, with semi-naked dancers hanging from the ceiling by ribbons, and three magnificent white stallions prancing underneath.

The screening of "W" was only noteworthy because when the Iraq war began to devolve into terrorist bombings in the film, a number of audience members stood up and cheered. The after-party was on the beach, next to the famous sailing hotel. Again the wonderful Arabian stallions performed on the beach, along with semi-naked women on stilts, blowing fire from their mouths. I got to chat more with Terry Gilliam, and he consented to let us use "Presented by Terry Gilliam" in the credits for the release of "Idiots and Angels" - what a great guy!

My first duty was to hold an animation workshop for the children of Dubai, there were about 40 kids of all nationalities, but primarily Arab. Everything went very well, until I did a sketch of a scene from "The Fan and the Flower" where the fan and flower kissed. Everyone turned totally quiet and I was hurriedly ushered out of the room - I guess that's a no-no.

My "Idiots and Angels" screening went better - almost a full house, and the censors didn't cut out the sex scenes (limited as they are) like I expected. In fact, I met the director of the festival - a very nice guy who is also a filmmaker himself, and is actually a big fan of mine. While my film was showing, we were able to walk around the Mall of the Emirates, and we had a bite to eat at the bottom of the massive indoor ski slope. From the outside of this large mall, you can see a what looks like a gigantic erect penis protruding from the rooftop - it seems that was the top of the chairlift, where you begin your run down the "Lillehammer of Arabia". (see my cartoon)

They say that the shopping center is open all night, and quite busy at all hours. It's kind of like Las Vegas for shopping. That's why they named the city "Do Buy".

In early January, I returned to Paris for the final round of interviews and press for the French release of "Idiots and Angels". I've never seen Paris so cold and white with snow - but the cold in the air was not reflected in the warm reception given to me by the people of France. Every night, I did some event to promote the film - a book signing, a master class at Ecole de Beaux Arts, the exhibition at the Gallery Chappe, and an avant premiere at the cinema in Montreuil. Each event was filled with overflowing crowds of manic fans, and the reviews just stunned me. Magazines like Cahiers du Cinema, Premier and Studio couldn't stop in their praise for the film. They rated it as the best film of the week, ahead of big-budget Hollywood films like "7 Pounds". They compared me to Dostoyevsky and John Steinbeck.

I just wish I could get the same reaction from American distributors and press. I guess I'm destined to be the Jerry Lewis of animation. I just don't understand why the U.S. distributors can't see the wonderful audience reaction to "Idiots" that I've seen.

One of the highlights in France was the avant-premiere event in Montreuil - we were fortunate to have two featured musicians from the film, Didier Cormier (guitar) and Nicole Renaud (chanteuse), in attendance, and as a special surprise, they performed an impromptu song for the audience. It was so beautiful and affecting, I started to cry. They're so perfect for the film.

In January I also went to the Sundance Film Festival, where my film "Hot Dog" was scheduled to appear in a program of shorts. I've been to Sundance many times - in fact I dare say I may have had more films there than anyone else - three features and 4 or 5 shorts, I've lost count. Anyway, it's one of the most important festivals in the world. But since I was already scheduled to attend the Gothenberg Festival in Sweden, I could only stay for three days at Sundance.

The first screening of "Hot Dog" was on Friday morning, at a small multiplex called Holiday Village. It was sold out, of course, and I met my old buddy, animation rock star Don Hertzfeldt ("I'm So Proud of You") and his beautiful girlfriend, Roxy (also a Portlander). I've always had complaints about the programming of the animated shorts at Sundance - even though my films are often included, they tend to stack the program with dark, depressing artsy films that the audience just doesn't want to see - and this year was no exception. On top of that, they put all the depressing films first so the funny films, like Don's, mine, and Pes's "Western Spaghetti" were last. Consequently, a lot of people walked out before they got to the fun films! Programming a collection of films is an art, and many people still haven't figured out that you have to slot the film program like it's a theatrical feature - always keep the audience interested and surprised throughout.

I was able to score opening-night tickets to "Mary and Max", Oscar-winner Adam Elliot's new animated feature - I've been hearing about this film for a long time. It has the voice talents of Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Humphries. In Adam's introductory speech, he stated that making this film was akin to having great sex while someone was continually stabbing you in the back. Now, I don't think that's been my experience, but it certainly has a ring of truth. In any case, the film is wonderfully written, with superb animation - my only problem is that the character design is a little too primitive. I would have liked less cartoony characters - but hey, that's my opinion. A number of critics complained that it is too "dark" for animation - which pisses me off! Animation is a great art form that can be for any age group - come on, people, grow up!

For me, the highlight of the Sundance Festival was the Directors Brunch, up at the Sundance Institute, 30 miles up in the Wasatch Mountains. I got to re-connect with my old buddy, Robert Stone, whose film "Earth Day" closed the festival. I also sat at the impromptu animation table with David Russo, Don Hertzfeldt, and Adam Elliot. The food was great and we were graced by the presence of the man himself, Robert Redford. He gave a nice speech, then was mobbed. Don and I muscled ourselves up to him for a photo-op, but the director of the festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, played gate-keeper, and examined everyone's badge to see if they were important enough to meet the man. Unfortunately, we weren't. So, we had to push and elbow ourselves past Geoffrey, and we got a quick photo. I also got to meet John Krasinski from "The Office" (who's a big fan of Don's) and Bobcat Goldthwait, who we chatted with in the bus going back - both were very cool guys.

The Sundance Festival of course, is a big celebrity magnet, so I got to see a lot of stars and semi-stars - Spike Lee, Denise Richards, Jeff Daniels, Ashton Kutcher, and Alan Cummings. I saw a lot of great films, too - a couple of my favorites were "Big Fan" by Robert Siegel starring Patton Oswalt, and a wonderful Slamdance film "Up With People, Smile Till It Hurts", which told the story of a cult-like musical group during the 60's and 70's that included Glenn Close.

I do want to include a shout-out to my buddy Michael Posner, who so generously put me up for the three-day stay. Thanks, Michael!

For this edition of the scrapbook, I'm including the cartoon from page 46 of my book "Sloppy Seconds". This is one of my favorite cartoons - it's especially appropriate for New York, when there are so many street people freezing through the winter. It's ironic to me how some sensitive people care more about animals than their fellow human beings.