Last weekend I was up in the Boston area, at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA. Danny and Lorena Leonard of Rock Farm Productions, who wrote and produced "Demi's Panic", arranged a show to thank their Kickstarter backers, where we screened "Demi's Panic" and a curated selection of my other short films. The extra tickets were available to the public - I introduced the shorts and then after we took questions about the making of "Demi's Panic" and we talked about how great it is to be back in theaters, doing live events again.
Also, Danny announced that "Demi's Panic" is now playing on YouTube, on a channel called Omeleto. So please, if you can, check the film out on YouTube and please post a message there about how much you liked it, or what you liked about it, that would really help us out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt2gDo1rLtQ
"Demi's Panic" won another award in May. while I was traveling - a Gold Remi award from the Worldfest in Houston, TX. This means the film has won four awards now, including the First Place prize for animation at the USA Film Festival in Dallas.
"Demi's Panic" will be playing at three more festivals in June -
1) The Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, May 29 to June 5, in the "States of Reverie" shorts section of "Bloque Dos". For tickets and schedule please visit:
https://www.phlaff.org/festival/2022/film-guide/demis-panic
2) The New Media Film Festival in L.A., June 1-2, For schedule and tickets, please visit:
https://www.newmediafilmfestival.com/demis-panic/
3) The Southside Film Festival in Bethlehem, PA, June 14-18. For tickets and schedule (coming soon), please visit:
https://southsidefilmfestival.com/festival/tickets/
If you're near any of these cities, please check these festivals out!
Speaking of festivals, this week a new music video from Tripping Jupiter played at the Big Apple Film Festival's spring edition here in New York, it's called "Lipstick of the Brave". I animated it a few months ago, and it's just starting to get some festival appearances - I wasn't able to make it to the screening on Thursday, but I love the Big Apple Film Festival, "Demi's Panic" won an award there last year in their fall edition. "Lipstick of the Brave" is a video that pays tribute to David Bowie, Lou Reed, Tim Curry, Lady Gaga and Marc Bolan and how inspirational they've been to music fans and the LGBTQ community. If you want to catch "Lipstick of the Brave", please follow Tripping Jupiter on Twitter or Instagram for more news about screenings.
And next week I'll be off to California, I'll make a stop in Sacramento and then drive up to the Mendocino Film Festival - on Saturday, June 4, I'll be on an Animation Panel in the Cafe Beaujolais Garden at 9:00 am, then I'll show clips from my upcoming feature "Slide" in Crown Hall at 10 am - then later on Saturday at 2 pm I'll host an animation Master Class in Preston Hall. Finally, on Sunday June 5, a special screening of my classic animated Plymptoons shorts in the Festival Tent at 10:00 am. If you find yourself in Northern California that weekend, I hope to see you there!
https://mendocinofilmfestival.org/festival/artist-spotlight/
The news also broke this week about "The Illustrated Al" - this is going to be a large-format comic book - or perhaps "graphic novel" is a better term, because it's going to be GRAPHIC. Z2 Comics is hiring a bunch of famous illustrators and cartoonists to interpret the lyrics to some of "Weird Al" Yankovic's greatest songs! And I'm so excited to be part of the project, because I made two music videos for Al in the past, "Don't Download This Song" and "TMZ", and they were both so much fun to animate! But this is going to take me back to my illustration roots, and the project is going to focus on Al's ORIGINAL songs, not the parody songs. I think Al's out on tour right now, performing those same songs, on something called "The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour". If you want to go see Weird Al on tour, and you KNOW you do, please visit:
https://www.weirdal.com/tour/
Oh, yeah, the illustration. I don't think I can talk about which SONG I'll be illustrating, but I can't wait to get started on it. (You know the one. No, not THAT one, the other one. Yeah, that's it.). I have to confess that my office manager helped me pick the song, because John H. is a huge Weird Al fan - I think maybe he only started working for me 28 years ago because he thought it might get him closer to Al. It turned out he was right, because John got to go see Weird Al in concert at the Beacon Theater after I did those music videos, and he got his picture taken with Al, and really, he shows it to everybody and won't shut up about it. He even left my booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2 hours EARLY one day in 2016 because Al was playing a concert up at SD State University. I probably should have fired him for that.
I'm getting off track again. You can pre-order "The Illustrated Al" at the link below, in standard, deluxe or super-deluxe editions. Super Deluxe editions will be HAND-SIGNED by Weird Al and come with a bunch of other cool goodies. The cover art is by Drew Friedman, the foreword is by Emo Philips, and the other interior artists include Peter Bagge, Sam Viviano, Danny Hellman, Aaron Augenblick and more! Order now at:
https://z2comics.com/products/weirdal
Sorry, no gag cartoon this week, I've been too busy drawing other projects while my staff is coloring and compositing scenes for "Slide". But I hope everybody has a great Memorial Day weekend, get out there and enjoy some BBQ but watch out for monkeypox!
--Bill P.
