Dear readers - the summer's over, and it's been a fairly relaxed, sun and fun-filled month.

I attended very few festivals over the past month, so there's no exciting group photos of me in faraway romantic animation gatherings.

Since I have nothing exciting to talk about, I can come up with some "deep" Plympton thoughts:

Did you ever see the connection between Mickey Mouse and Seinfeld? Think about it - Jerry is Mickey, Elaine is Minnie, Kramer is Goofy, and George is Donald - Larry David was probably a big Disney fan as a kid and when he created Seinfeld, he just humanized and updated the classic Disney characters.

Or, how about this: They're having all these musical benefits for the poor victims of the hurricane in New Orleans - musical acts such as Dr. John and the Neville Brothers - and they're forgetting the perfect band for raising money - Katrina and the Waves! Bring them out of retirement or wherever they are, and they can play their big hit "Walking on Sunshine".

There are two recent films that I especially want to discuss. The first is the wonderful "Corpse Bride" by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson (of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" fame). This film is a spectacle of dark, gothic visuals with an eerie musical soundtrack. Something I tried to do with "Hair High" but failed, because I only had $300,000 for the budget.

I do have a few quibbles with the film - what's with the weird mouth movements on the eponymous bride? And what's with that worm? It looks like it was designed and animated by a high-school intern. And a special thanks should have been given to Rene Castillo, whose short film "Hasta Los Huesos" seemed to be the inspiration for the wonderful underground barroom scene.

The other film I highly recommend is "Wallace and Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". This is the absolute peak of the filmmaking craft. All the characters are fully developed, the story, the humor, the graphic style - everything works to perfection.

The only drawback, and I don't believe it will be a major one, is that it takes place in England. I feel this film is the best animated feature of the year and with the proper marketing, it will make a huge amount of money.

I went to the New York premiere and the kids in the audience went totally orgiastic. Peter Lord and Nick Park were there, and they invited me out for a Dreamworks-sponsored dinner to celebrate their wonderful success.

The main reason I wanted to cut down on my traveling is - I wanted to concentrate on the storyboards for my next feature. I don't have a title for it yet, but it's about this morally deficient guy (actually, he's a total sleazeball) who grows wings, and how that affects him and all his buddies in the bar he hangs out in. Just last week I finally finished the storyboards - it took a month longer that I planned because the ending I originally had was too similar to "I Married a Strange Person". So, I junked it and redrew an entirely new third act. But, I believe it was worth it, because now it's more orginal and fresh, and more in keeping with the mood of the piece - dark, surreal and Kafka-esque. Posted here are a couple of sample pages from the storyboards.

I had planned to start animating the film this fall - but a couple of commercial projects came in, and frankly, I needed the money. I can only talk about one of the projects, since it's now complete. It's a 30-second spot for United Airlines in Asia. It was a lot of fun to make.

Another project is a music-video for a famous musical act - I'll reveal the name when the project nears completion. My hope is that once these paying jobs are finished this winter, then in the spring I can crank up my anicam and begin animating my feature. Be sure to watch.

The cartoon for this installment is Page 32 from "Sloppy Seconds", called "Little Inspirational Stories". Frankly, I don't remember much about this cartoon - I don't even remember who John Bendel is, but from the looks of the art, it was probably from some men's magazine in the early 80's, before I got into animation.

Looking at it again, I don't like it so much - too much dialogue, not enough surrealism, and the story could almost be true. But, I included it for historic purposes - so people can see what I did early on.

That's all for now - be sure to catch "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit"