Hey, gang, there's a lot to talk about this week - but that's because there's a lot going on! We're almost finished with my new animated feature, "Slide" and it's just in time - the film was invited to the "Contrechamp" section of the Annecy International Animation Festival. It's kind of like the Oscars of animation, one of the biggest and best animation festivals out there.
It's been a long road, finishing "Slide", thanks to COVID-19 our studio was shut down for a while, plus so were film festivals and theaters and comic-cons, so all that extended my work schedule. But I must say that the film looks really great and I hope we'll have a finished film for the big French premiere.
The style is sort of a synthesis of all of my illlustration styles - when I was a freelancer I loved pen and ink and then water-color on top. The new animation style is very similar to that, except instead of water-color, it's colored pencil, which is a lot more controllable than water colors.
You can see the trailer for "Slide" on my YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYOpnjhQlJg
Speaking of "Slide", on Tuesday, May 16, I'll be hosting a live broadcast on Hourglass24.com - for 24 hours, I'll be holding conversations with my favorite artists - we'll be talking about animation (of course), tricks of the trade, how to make money and lots of anecdotes (both funny and tragic) but always educational.
Some of the participants are: Pat Smith (animator of "Handshake", "Drink" and "Pour 24"), Mike Smith (rock star of "Tank Girl", "Futurama", and "The Boxtrolls"), John Payson (early MTV producer), and John Andrews (also MTV producer), Maureen McElheron (musical genius on "The Tune", "Your Face" and "Hair High"), Jerry Beck (animation guru), the great Signe Baumane (who just finished her second feature, "My Love Affair With Marriage") and others!
This is a very exciting event - for 24 hours I'll be talking with animators to help raise money to pay my post-production bills from "Slide". Plus YOU can call in and talk to me or ask questions about "Slide" or my other work. I hope I don't burn out during the broadcast, but it seems that I have endless energy while talking about animation.
So, please, tune in to Hourglass24.com starting at 12:24 pm on Tuesday, May 16. I think there's also a way you can follow the broadcast on Facebook, but as you probably know, I'm not great with all these technical computer things.
In other news, last week I was saddened to hear about the passing of the great cartoonist, Sam Gross. He's the guy who was most famous as a cartoonist for The New Yorker and National Lampoon. I met him at a cartoonist party while I was also creating gags for National Lampoon. We became friends, and he even invited me to his beach house on Fire Island.
If you've ever met him, you'd be aware of his over-the-top profanity. It's too bad that very few magazines were able to print profane cartoons. Sam was sort of in the same quandary as me when I'm trying to sell my adult animation. There seems to be some national mental brain block about cartoons for adults being a profitable genre.
Sam's cartoons were wickedly sick and twisted - and that's why I liked them.
Be sure and check out the 24 hours of Bill Plympton, Tuesday May 16 on hourglass24.com
watch the promo here:
https://www.facebook.com/Plymptoons/videos/1002466221163530
See you there, and be sure to call in and talk to me!
--Bill P.
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