Tatsumi

Skunk

Floozie

Employee of the Month


As a prelude to publicity for my up coming feature "Cheatin" I've started doing interviews.

Next Thursday, May 2nd, 9:30 pm, I'll make an appearance on "Employee of the Month" at the famous Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on 307 W 26th st. in Chelsea.

The beautiful and gracious host Catie Lazarus has had some very famous guests in the past so I feel very honored to be among some of the funniest people in the business.

I'll be showing clips from my film plus talking about my new book "Make Toons That Sell Without Selling Out" from Focal Press. Also I may be doing a live drawing onstage.

Tickets are cheap- $5 and still available so order your tickets now!  Reserve here: www.ucbtheater.com

If you can't get to the Theatre you can also hear the interview on a podcast on itunes, so please check out "Employee of the Month".

-Bill

Curvy Man

Waiting

Floozie

Annecy Plus

As many of you may know, about 7 years ago, my Scribble Junkies partner, Pat Smith, and I started the very successful "Annecy Plus" Film Festival in Annecy, France.

Well, it's grown to become THE cultural event in Annecy, and it's happening again this year.  The screening will take place in the Cafe des Artistes in the Old Town section of Annecy, on June 14 at 9 pm.  I hope you all can come.

So I'm now putting together a program of shorts to screen at our festival.  Nancy Phelps is putting together the other half of the program.  So, if you have a film that was not accepted by the fine judges of the Annecy Animation Festival, please send it our way.

But, I have certain preferences.  I'd like to get it on DVD.  Also, shorts have a better chance of being selected if they're under 5 minutes long, and have little or no dialogue.  You have to understand that the audience will be made up of people from different countries, and they'll probably have had a few alcoholic beverages. 

So if you want to be a star at Annecy Plus, please send in your DVD to:

Plymptoons Studio
153 West 27th St. #1005
New York, NY 10001  USA

Thanks, and see you in Annecy!

--Bill

Eyelashes

Big Forehead Guy

David Foster Wallace, Lost Interview..

I wanted to share another "Blank on Blank" PBS episode with you.. This one is the more unknown (well, more unknown that morrison or larry king) writer, David Foster Wallace.  It was an interesting week animating his words.. first off, he says a lot! he packs a lot into his sentences, and every word is packed with style and meaning. Here's a great review of this episode from BrainPickings.


For those of you that don't know,  Wallace was an award-winning American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which was cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 by Time magazine. Los Angeles Times book editor David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years". With his suicide, he left behind an unfinished novel, The Pale King, which was subsequently published in 2011, and in 2012 was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A biography of Wallace by D. T. Max, Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, was published in September 2012.

Big Chin Guy

Farmingdale Station 2

Farmingdale Station

Linda Darnell 3

Linda Darnell 2

Linda Darnell

Sleeping Guy

MOCCA 2013

I've been telling everyone about the great MOCCA arts festival, well I was just there this weekend and I want to report on the event. First, it was much more professional this year. Everyone was so nice, countless times I had volunteers come up to me and ask if I needed anything.

Also they had a super art exhibition; wonderful art from T.S. Sullivant, Milton Caniff to Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Griffith. The array of artwork was spectacular.

The Special Guest this year was Bill Griffith of Zappy the Pinhead. I met him long ago on one of my visits to San Fransisco in the 80's, so it was great to see him again.

The panels were excellent; J. J. Sedelmaier, Anelle Miller, Nora Krug, Arnold Roth and Peter de Seve talked about Illustration.

And then I headed a panel on animation with Signe Baumane and Joy and Noelle Vaccesse. It was a packed house and the curious thing about out table was the women were much more ribald and salacious Than I was, I must be getting old.

In any case it was a fabulous time I got to see so many great artists Charles Burns, Peter Kuper and Jules Feiffer.

Another great feature of this two day event is that its strictly for the independent artists, no Marvel, DC Comics or Disney, so you can discover the next rising talent.

I want to profoundly thank Anelle Miller and Dennis Dietrich and everyone at the Society of Illustrators for organizing such a great event.

Be sure to order a table for next year, you'll be glad you did!

-Bill

Blatant Rip Off.. lame.

It's hard to believe this kind of stuff happens.. Particularly with cool people who simply want credit for their pioneering techniques. My buddy Darcy Prendergast, head of Oh Yeah Wow, is about as cool as they come. Here's a message from Darcy:

To all who care and to those who dont know,
We run a company called Oh Yeah Wow. We make low budget music videos that are as magical as possible. Josh Thomas directed the original video 'Clubfeet: Everything you wanted' that pioneered the technique seen here.
Champagne have blatantly ripped it off. Kindly watch the original and kindly dislike this horrible pop song to stop uncreative vampires sucking at the necks of those who truly strive to create innovative work to wow the world.

Here's Oh Yeah Wow's Video: (click on image and watch on Vimeo)

And here's the new lame ripped off j-pop video: (click image to vomit)

Father on Train

Head nod

More Joao Ruas Illustrations..

I think I've posted Joao Ruas previously.. if I haven't, I meant to. Enjoy these brilliant drawings.

Jim Morrison, lost interview...

I animated this piece as part of the ongoing series for PBS, "Blank on Blank".. In this episode Jim Morrison talks about being fat, and how he thinks it's beautiful. It was a fun one to draw.. Enjoy. Also, a great write up from Slate here.

Head Profile

Stern-looking Man

Anita Goldstein Drawings..

UK Artist Anita Goldstein continues to just kill it. Her drawings are addictive.

Guy on Street

Matt Taylor Illustrations..

Great composition and single frame storytelling on this first one above. Good stuff from Matt Taylor.. Enjoy.

Big Nose

Sandrine Estrade simple brilliance..

Illustrator Sandrine Estrade is one of those artists that make people say "i wish i had thought of that".. her concept is so simple and enjoyable.  Dig.