Martha's Vineyard, Abominable & New York Comic-Con

Wow, now that summer's almost over, there seems to be a lot going on!

First off, I just returned from Martha's Vineyard, where Richard Paradise puts on a swinging film festival every year - and once again, he spotlighted the best in indie animation.  The weather was nice leading up to the festival, and we had no trouble making our connection between our Amtrak to Providence and the ferry from New Bedford - but right smack in the middle of the trip, we had to contend with Hurricane Dorian.

Waiting for the ferry in New Bedford with Signe Baumane, Sturgis Warner and Sandrine

Fortunately, our fans were there and we had a great crowd for the Animation Showcase.  Also, we were able to line up a nice group of the filmmakers to attend.  Kathleen Chamberlin, the art director of the short "Two Balloons", was able to come all the way from Oregon, and Tom Gasek arrived from Rochester to screen his short "Train".  Then we had a young local animator, Thorpe Karabees, who made a wonderful film titled "Gladiolus".

Then, of course, Signe Baumane and Sturgis Warner presented "Mother's Song", an excerpt from Signe's in-progress feature, "My Love Affair With Marriage".  And I screened my recent music video for Tim Grimm, "Gonna Be Great".

At the MV Film Center with Sandrine, Tom Gasek, Kathleen Chamberlin, Signe Baumane and Sturgis Warner.

On stage for a Q&A at the Animation Showcase at Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival

It's a wonderful festival in a beautiful setting with great films - I highly recommend the Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival.

Last night, I caught a preview screening of the upcoming Dreamworks feature "Abominable".  (They told us the best way to pronounce it is "A bomb in a bowl".)  The story takes place in China, because Dreamworks partnered with China for funding.  It's a wonderful film, even though it wasn't my cup of tea - I took my wife and son and they laughed throughout.  Plus the visuals (CGI) are magnificent - I encourage you all to see it, you'll have a ball.  (Or a bomb in a ball.)  I give it a "B".

An exciting event coming up that I want to make everyone aware of is the New York Comic-Con, October 3-6 at the Javits Center here in Manhattan.  We took last year off from the convention circuit, but this year I'm coming back and trying something different - instead of a booth on the main show floor, I'll be appearing in Artists Alley with all my other artist friends.  You can find me every day at Table D-13 in Artists Alley, wherever that ends up being this year.  I'll have some very incredible merch for sale, like original art from "Your Face", "Guard Dog", "The Simpsons", plus a few DVDs and books, or you can get me to draw a caricature of you if you want!

Now, this week, instead of posting a new cartoon gag, I'm going to include a documentary presentation of me drawing an early scene for my upcoming feature, "Slide".  It's about 10 minutes, I hope that's not too long - and I hope you like it.

If you don't see it streaming below, then please visit:

Making of Slide from Bill Plympton on Vimeo.

Thanks for watching -

--Bill P.