WI’ve just about finished my storyboard for the new feature called “Jealousy” or “Cheatin”. The next step is to show it around and get some feedback. I have a few trusted friends who understand my sense of style and humor and give me invaluable help with the storytelling.

I’m very excited because I can start the fun part very soon- “Animation”. It’s like waiting for Christmas. It’s very important that the storyboards are as good I can make them before I start the animation.

In the meantime I’ve got festivals to go to and workshops to give. It started with a four-school tour organized by my good friends at the Woodstock Film Festival, Laurent and Meira. I started with Marist College. It was a small crowd of locals, and then I went to the local high-school, which was a good crowd filled with lots of fans. Later that day I went to SUNY Purchase that had an even bigger crowd of great fans. The next day I went to Bard College where there was a small crowd. That was too bad because I think more students would have enjoyed my show. I want to thank Heidi Sarson and Lisa Meyer for taking such good care of me.

Two meetings I had during the trip really made it worthwhile. I had a breakfast with Chris Stein and his lovely wife Barbara. I used to watch him long ago when he and Debbie Harry led Blondie. He’s a very nice guy and a big fan of animation.

The second meeting was with Stephen Heller, the famed wacky car designer. He gave me a tour of his workshop. His company is Steve Heller’s Fabulous Furniture but the coolest stuff is his crazy car designs. Check him out when you have a chance. He’s very friendly and located just outside of Woodstock.

Immediately after Woodstock I flew to Russia for the First Annual Saratov Humor Festival. Saratov is famous for being the home of Yuri Gagarin, the world’s first man in space. From Moscow I took a 16-hour train ride to Saratov. There were two seats per cabin so I ended up getting very intimate with some strange Russian man. Too bad he wasn’t a female.

At Saratov I screened two shorts and had an “Idiots and Angels” screening. Since this is the festival’s first year, the audience was very small, just like the South Beach Animation Festival. I hope Vadim, the director, continues to organize the festival because I believe it has a promising future.

We all spent one afternoon visiting a hilltop park and monument dedicated to the victory of the Soviets over the Nazis. There were a lot of cool tanks (T-34s), cannons, trucks, submarines and WWII vintage planes. Also in the same park is a recreation of a Russian village with every ethnic group represented, Mongol, Ukraine, Latvian and Georgian. It’s like walking back in time. We had a fantastic lunch outside of the Azerbaijan house- great food. The weather was perfect, everyone had spring fever and you could tell the recession hit the city hard because all of the eligible women were wearing extremely short skirts.

On my last day at the festival they threw me a tiny birthday party with a little cupcake that had “spaceeba” (thanks) written on it.

Marylhurst

Believe it or not, the state of Oregon is now 150 years old. It’s hard to believe how time flies. Famed film collector and exhibitor Dennis Nyback and his lovely wife Ann Richardson had organized a ten-day film festival based on famous Oregon filmmakers. For some strange reason they asked me to head up the animation portion of the event.

Portland has a very long and rich animation history- from Pinto Colvig, Carl Barks and Mel Blanc to Joanne Priestley, Joan Gratz, Jim Blashfield, Will Vinton, Matt Groening and Brad Bird. So I was very honored to be selected as M.C.

The opening night gala was very special. Gus Van Sant hosted a career retrospective of James Ivory (Klamath Falls). Some of his more famous films with his partner Ismail Merchant are “Remains of the Day”, “Howards End”, “Shakespeare-Wallah” and “Mr. & Mrs. Bridge”. A very illuminating Q&A followed that. Then I was elected to give Mr. Ivory a career achievement prize.

Sunday was dedicated to animation. It was an all-day event: a program of films from Oregon’s best animators, a Bill Plympton workshop, and an “Idiots and Angels” screening. It all took place on the beautiful Marylhurst campus just south of Lake Oswego.
The greatest part is that my mother lives right next door at Mary’s Woods, so she was able to participate in the reception and the screening. The best part was that she actually liked “Idiots and Angels”.

Stuttgart

I’ve been going to the Stuttgart Animation Festival for many years. I believe the first time was in the late 80’s when it took place in a bunker-like structure.

I was there three years ago with “Hair High” and had a ball at their new location downtown next to a beautiful park with fountains and old stately Palaces where they set up a midway-type collection of food tents, beer gardens, movie screen, and a concert stage. It is a great center for casual meetings and hanging out.

I had four films in the program, “25 Ways to Quit Smoking” in Panorama, “Mexican Standoff” in commissioned films, “Hot Dog” in the independent shorts category and of course “Idiots and Angels” in the feature competition. I didn’t really expect to win any prizes because the quality of the shorts there is very high. However, I did feel that “Idiots and Angels” had a shot because in a way it was very Germanic. It’s dark, depressing, serious, very David Lynch-like. One of the highlights for me was the “Spongebob” program. I’m a big fan of Stephen Hillenburg and Spongebob. To me it’s the funniest animation on TV. I met Steve years ago at Annecy when his amazing short “Wormholes” was there. So it was nice to reunite 15 years later. His packed-house show included the best of his episodes. My favorite was the camping out story starring the fish bear. It’s like the best of Warner Brothers. I laughed so hard, I thought my lungs would explode.

I was signed up for a short workshop in one of the tents out in the midway. I selected a few of my shorts to exhibit as my newer work. One of the films I felt very awkward about was “Santa: The Fascist Years” for obvious reasons. I even stated a disclaimer warning before the screening but no one left. In fact, a crowd gathered around during its projection. The laughter was shocking and very welcomed. Many Germans complimented me stating that it was their favorite film.

One of the highlights of the festival was the big “Coraline” premiere. I’ve seen it before and loved it. It was wonderful to hang out with the Laika crew at the after-party in the Café Schlossblick. The music was provided by the very talented Nik Phelps on clarinet, Alex Budovsky on piano, Alexi Alexieer on guitar and a female Japanese painter also on guitar. Nancy, I hope to reunite the band for our famous Annecy Plus show in early June.

At the closing awards show, I was feeling good about my chances with “Idiots and Angels”. Even though I got an award for “Idiots and Angels” it was only a special mention. Damn!!! The grand prize of 2500 euros went to “Mary and Max” by Adam Eliot.

Definitely send your films to Stuttgart next year and try to go. It’s a wonderful festival in a wonderful town and the staff and fans are terrific.

Zagreb- Annecy

I’ve been to the Zagreb Animation Festival many times and it’s one of my favorites, but it’s gone through some changes recently.
The wonderful Buba has been replaced and they moved the festival to the city center in a smaller hipper cinema. Also now the festival alternates between features and shorts every other year.

“Idiots and Angels” was playing and also I was asked to have a master class there so I really looked forward to attending the festival.

They selected a magnificent line-up of features and I tried to see them all. “The Immigrants” by Gabor Csupo. It has a nice style but the story is too episodic. “de Profundis, And Crisu” is a nice political film but too many characters and too talky. “We are the Strange” from the U.S. was indeed too strange for me. I actually walked out. A number of these films I’ve seen before, of course: Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues”, “Mia and Miguel” from Folio Image and the wonderful “Brendan and the Secret of the Kells” by Tom Moore. In fact, Tom and I did our press conference together and we’re both mutual admirers. He’s a former illustrator turned animator just like me.

They had a wonderful retrospective of Michel Ocelot films. I got to hang out with Michel and catch up on old times. We first met at Cannes in 1998.

I really enjoy the new style and location of Zagreb Animation Festival and I wish it continued success.

My next stop on this three-city tour was Novi Sad in Serbia. They put me up in the fanciest hotel in town, The Novi Sad Park Hotel. This is where Marshall Tito always stayed. I was only here for a day to present “Idiots and Angels” and “The Tune”. Primarily I wanted to visit Biljana, my producer who was staying there with her family. Biljana and her brother Sacha drove me all around the city where she grew up and I got to visit her family home. It’s interesting to work with someone so long and finally see where her roots are and meet the people that mean so much to her.

The next day I flew up to the Annecy Animation Festival, my favorite festival. They showed “Santa: The Fascist Years” but not in competition. I was also in Annecy to do three things: sell my new DVD called “Dog Days”, have a master class on animation and put on the 5th edition of Annecy Plus.

We were very lucky with the weather. It was sunny and hot everyday. So consequently, I went swimming every morning in the lake. Some people need coffee to get them stimulated; I just need a dip in the lake.

In the afternoon, Spike (of the Sick and Twisted Animation Show) would set up a table in the center of the Bonlieu and start hawking our DVDs. Thanks to Spike’s booming voice we immediately gathered a large crowd of buyers. The new DVD sold like hotcakes; I couldn’t believe how popular it was.

My master-class took place in the Chambre de Métiers. It was completely sold out. In fact, I ran out of cards to autograph so I had to use the beautiful master-class invitations for my sketches.

Finally, on Friday night Nancy Phelps and I held our notorious Annecy Plus, for films rejected by Annecy. We held it at Le Venetien- it’s a beautiful bar amid the trees, ivy and canals. We had a great crowd with lots of drinking with live music provided by Nik Phelps, Alex Alexeev on guitar, and Rolf Bachler on drums. Jonas Raeber, as usual, was our projectionist and announcer. His voice was essential since we had no microphone. We had an added dimension this year- we offered three prizes for the audience award. Nancy’s friend Timor donated a wonderful bone trophy plus three cases of beer to the winner.

“Teat Beat of Sex” by Signe Baumane’s was the clear winner. The other prizes went to “The Royal Nightmare” by Alex Budofsky and “Divers” by Paris Mavroidis.

In the main Annecy Animation Festival the big prizewinners were “Western Spaghetti” by PES, “Runaway” by Cordell Barker, “Brendan and the Secret of the Kells” by Tom Moore, “Mary and Max” by Adam Elliot and “Coraline” by Henry Sehich.

It was one of the most pleasant and wonderful Annecy Festival’s ever and my thanks go to Tiziana (last name?) and Serge Bromberg.

I was able to see “Up” when I returned to New York not in 3D but in normal projection. It’s a fabulous film full of adventure, heart, and laughs. I do have a couple of quibbles though. I think the main Ed Asner character is too bitter and he doesn’t come across as lovable, in fact the dogs steal the film. For some reason I found my mind wandering in the middle of the film when the old man is dragging the house across the mountaintop.

I have good news; I finally began working on my new animated feature film. It’s now tentatively titled “Hanky Panky”. So far I’ve done five minutes of animation, so don’t hold your breath for it to finish soon.

Also it looks like “Idiots and Angels” is a small success. We still don’t have a deal in the U.S, which is very frustrating to me. The film did well all over the world but I can’t get it released theatrically in my own country. If anyone has ideas on getting it into cinemas, please let me know.

Also be sure to check out the new DVD “Dog Days”. I believe it’s the best DVD collection I ever made. It’s got so many classics- of course the three dog films; “Guard Dog”, “Guide Dog”, and “Hot Dog” are included. Also in the DVD, the classic film “The Fan and the Flower” by Dan O’Shannon and “Shut-eye Hotel”. I also included three of my best music videos; “Mexican Standoff” by Parson Brown, “Don’t Download This Song” by Weird Al Yankovic and “Heard em’ Say” by Kanye West.

In addition, there are a whole bunch of very cool surprises and goodies in the DVD. Please check it out. It makes a great present.

You'll find this scrapbook's cartoon on page 48 of my book "Sloppy Seconds" - it was made in the late 1970's or early 80's, when New York City was badly run, and there was a lot of poverty everywhere. They had dumped a lot of mental patients out on the street, who survived by eating out of garbage cans - so that was the inspiration for this cartoon.

Actually, that era of NYC history was very crazy, lots of anarchy and bizarre people. I actually enjoyed the Big Apple during this time - check in next time for another cartoon!

Thanks, Bill!