Annie Awards / L.A. trip

Luckily, my short "Couch Gag" cartoon for "The Simpsons" was nominated for a prestigious Annie Award, so I was able to go to ASIFA Hollywood's celebrated awards ceremony (the animation industry's equivalent of the Oscars)

In order to maximize my stay in L.A. (Glendale, actually) I set up Master Class visits to Nickelodeon and Dreamworks. Also, on Friday night there was a special Bill Plympton screening at the Steve Allen Theater, sponsored by the Muybridge Animation Festival. I showed clips from my upcoming feature CHEATIN', which people liked a lot. Then we had the great actor Matthew Modine come up on stage and talk about his voice-over work in two of my films: "Santa, the Fascist Years" and "The Flying House".

We were fortunate to have some of animation's greats show up: Corky Quakenbush, David Silverman, Jerry Beck (author and head of Cartoon Brew), and one of my favorite musicians, Corey Jackson, with his wife, Sharon.

It was a packed house, and we ended with the prestigious animation award going to Jim Lujan, a great indie animator who works in Flash. 

The next day, the Annie Awards were held. It's my fave event because I get to see the crème de la crème of the industry. This year I saw Mike Gabriel, Robert Valley, David Silverman, Travis Knight of "Paranorman", the brilliant Oscar Grillo, John Kahrs of "Paperman" fame, Leonard Maltin and Seth Green. 

 Me with Winsor McCay Award-winner Oscar Grillo at the Annie Awards.

 At the Annies with John Kahrs of "Paperman".

At the Annies with Rebecca Sugar from "Adventure Time".

I didn't win anything – I never expected to, but I had a ball. The big winners were “Paperman” and "Wreck-it Ralph". Next year, I will have a lot of films ready, so I hope to make a bigger appearance there in 2014.