Hello, Plympton fans.  Sorry again for the long delay on this installment of the Plympton scrapbook.  I've just returned from a 3-week tour of Europe, plus I moved out of my art studio and back into my apartment now that the "Hair High" production is done.

The European tour began with a master class in Basel, Switzerland as part of Focal animation organization, organized by Rolf.  I stayed in a large stone structure that was first a medieval prison and then a nunnery - now it's a charming hotel.  The class originated in the local cartoon museum in downtown Basel.  We had a wonderful tour of the exhibition and animation, then all 30 of us walked over to the local school to continue the lecture and film screening there.  I did some demonstration and showed excerpts from my new projects, "Hair High" and "Guard Dog".  Rolf conducted a wonderful Q + A session, I think he knows more about my films than I do.

My next stop was in Vevey, where I met with Roland, who is organizing a 50-screening tour throughout Switzerland of my features in the fall.

Then, we pushed on to Annecy.  Ah, Annecy!  My annual pilgrimage is always the highlight of my year.  This is why I make shorts every year, so I can come to Annecy.  All my animation friends from around the world meet here to eat, drink, swim and discuss films.

I was joined by a number of my co-workers, Biljana, Delphine, Brian, Rob, Celia and then Pat Smith and Signe Baumane were there to promote "Avoid Eye Contact", the New York independent animation DVD.

One of the weirder scenes was a table set up in the Bonlieu Center, where the three of us sat selling DVDs, alongside Spike selling his "Spike + Mike" merchandise, yelling out sales incentives to buy his books and videos.  It's no wonder the world thinks of Americans as capitalists.

On Thursday I did a "Making of Hair High" show in the glamorous Casino/Imperial Hotel, we had a packed group - and then the highlight was the big Saturday screening at the Bonlieu Grand theater, with about a thousand screaming French fans.  The film went over very well. 

We all partied all night and I caught a plane at 5 am to Erlangen, Germany for a comic book fair, where they showed all my features.  I introduced "Hair High", then walked around the book fair, which had lots of activity and great books.

The next day, I arrived in Zagreb, in Croatia, for the Zagreb Animation Festival.  It's smaller than Annecy, but has a great history and heart.  Buba makes sure everything runs smoothly and everyone has a good time.

Lots of celebrities were there - Michael Dudok Dewit, Pritt Parn, Juan Padron, Bob Godfrey and marvelous Marv Newland - and great films.  The picnic was a total blast - great food, drinks and music. 

After a one-day tour of beautiful Zurich, I'm back in New York, still trying to finish the negative cutting of "Hair High", to get a print ready for the D'Eauville Festival.

This scrapbook's cartoon is called "Fletcher's New Pick-Up Line" - I usually don't use verbal puns for my humor, but this joke was a little sick, so I felt it fit in with my style of humor.  I'm not crazy about the design for the girl.  I'm still trying to figure out how to draw females - I think it will take my whole career to be able to draw women right.

Bill