Since there were so many great events at Annecy I've decided to break Scribble Junkies up into different installments. Being that I've been going for so many years I was invited to a very exclusive luncheon with The Culture Minister of France, The Mayor of Annecy and the US Ambassador Charlie Rifkin (who actually has an extensive background in animation being once the head of Henson Productions.) You could tell that Charlie Rifkin was important due to being accompanied by two CIA agents in a very large black vehicle that had heavy bullet and bomb proof protection.
One of the major reasons I attended Annecy was to make some money. My current income stream has been quite meager lately so I look to these festivals as great sources of income. Hence I brought a large collection of my DVDs, books and drawings to sell.
There are two main sales locations in the festival center in Bonlieu, one is the graphic novel bookshop, The B.D. Fugue and the other is The Bibliotek that specializes in DVDs. However, I prefer to keep all the sales from my merch so I do the maverick thing and just take over a table in the middle of the boutique and sell my merch out of my suitcase.
The outrageous Spike Decker often joined me. He always dressed up in some completely custom costume. This time it was as a cowboy in a 30-gallon hat and with his booming voice he would attract would-be-buyers with such corny talk as "Come see Bill Plympton actually make drawings using only his hand! No computers!" or "Come say hello to Winsor McCay, Carla Bruni and Woody Allen!" or "Two sailors and a nun walk into a bar…" His booming voice was heard by everyone and soon we had a large buying crowd around our tables, typical sleazy American sales tactics. We also plan to work together at the San Diego Comic Con where our talks will be side by side. So watch for us.
Then on Thursday evening I held my master class to a sold out audience. It was a lot of fun and I gave everyone a drawing of the famous dog. I showed "Guard Dog Global Jam" and we had two of the international team contributors up on stage to talk about their experience on the project.
Stay tuned for part III of my Annecy experiences coming soon.
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