Guns on the Clackamas / Luca

How's everyone dealing with the heat?  My poor hometown of Portland, OR is dealing with some very serious triple-digit temperatures right now.  I remember, back when I was growing up, dealing with the record-holding temp of 104 degrees - now it's up to 115 - what the F---?

So, to cheer you all up, we at Plymptoons Studios are releasing my classic Western comedy mockumentary from 1995, "Guns on the Clackamas". In the promos, we called it a cross between "This is Spinal Tap" and "Blazing Saddles", only funnier.  

Most of it was filmed during the summer of 1993 (I think...) in Oregon City.  We later did some supplemental filming back in NYC.  After releasing my animated feature "The Tune" in 1992, I wanted to take a break from animation, so I made two live-action films, "J. Lyle" and "Guns on the Clackamas".  This was a blast to make and I think this shows in the outrageous humor.  In fact, it goes way over the line of good taste, all the way to downright macabre. 

The film had an extremely limited theatrical release - my office manager doesn't even have a record of it, thanks to a computer crash in 2010, but I think it was just in one or two theaters.  And then we released it on DVD back in 2009, but quite honestly, we haven't sold that many copies.  

But now, we've uploaded the whole film to my YouTube channel, and this will be the FIRST time we've released it on the internet.  So I hope if you have a spare 80 minutes you can get to see this film.  It's definitely something unique and VERY different - if you like different, you're in luck.

Visit my YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/Plymptoons

or use this direct link to "Guns on the Clackamas":

https://youtu.be/bdUHRTbDsUM

I also want to comment on the new Disney/Pixar film "Luca" that just got released.  I don't know what's going on at Pixar - there's been a large shake-up among the top talent.  John Lasseter has moved on to another studio, Brad Bird is working on live-action projects, of course Joe Ranft sadly passed away, and Andrew Stanton has also seemingly moved on.  

So, it seems that of the original creative core, only Pete Docter is left.  And maybe this explains the weaknesses seen in "Luca".  The story has a good concept that should allow for humor and emotions, but it never quite cashes in on it.  One of the failures was the bad guy (or kid), Ercole, for me he really didn't work. 

Also, I never figured out why it was so Italian - it could have taken place anywhere, perhaps they wanted to increase tourism to Italy?   And lastly, the whole design was second-rate.  The big anime-style eyes made it look like a grade "B" film.  I wish they could bring back the creative line-up of the classics, that's what made Pixar so unique and popular. 

So, if it's too hot to go outside, be sure to stay indoors and check out my crazy "Guns on the Clackamas" mockumentary - IT'S ON NOW!  

See ya, 

Bill 

Everything Cool at Heritage Auctions

Hello again, Scribble Junkies fans - 

I want to sincerely thank all of you who helped our "Demi's Panic" Kickstarter campaign - as you probably already know, it was a big success - and we're very happy that Danny and Lorena attained their goal.  

However, we still need support to enter the film into festivals and as you probably know, festivals charge entry fees, some of which are now getting close to 100 bucks - and we plan on entering a lot of festivals.  So if you still want to help us get the film out to all the festivals, please check in with the Kickstarter campaign and leave a message for Danny and Lorena if you can still contribute: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deminyc/demis-panic

Or contact Rock Farm Productions through their Twitter or Instagram.

Another event taking place right now, that I'm very excited about, is the Heritage Auction of a lot of my work.  Heritage is the premiere auction house for cartoons and animation - and this month their catalog is calle "The Art of Anime and Everything Cool" - I'm featured very prominently as one of the "cool" artists.  Also included in that group are Tim Burton, Ralph Bakshi, John K. and Peter Chung.  So it's a fun group.  

What's also interesting is that they selected a very diverse array of my art.  There are some very early caricatures of rock musicians - Prince, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan - that I created back when I was a syndicated cartoonist....and I must say some of those pieces are pretty nice.  Then they included a bunch of art from Kanye's West's music video "Heard 'em Say" that I animated, and also some large art pieces I made inspired by his most famous songs that were used as illustrations in his book "Through the Wire".  

And of course, there's some of my most recent art from the couch gags I made for "The Simpsons" - like "Homer's Face" and very rare artwork drawn for the Season 19 DVD box set.  

The auction has already started online, but the in-house bidding will take place in Dallas, TX on June 25-27.  It's great to see that all of my art has now become collectable.  If you want to see everything that's up for auction in June, follow this link:

https://comics.HA.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=7254&collection=25&FC=0&type=friend-consignorlive-notice

Or watch their YouTube video here:

https://youtu.be/nUNM1pGEoGk

You can also come visit me in Artists Alley at the New York Comic-Con this year, October 7-10 at the Jacob Javits Center - everybody SHOULD be vaccinated by then (if not, what ARE you waiting for?) and they're going to hold a smaller, socially distanced event.  No hugging, no handshakes, no high fives, but who cares - the CON is ON!  Come meet me, get a piece of art or maybe your own caricature drawn by ME!

See you then - this week's gag cartoon is below.

--Bill P.