The Donald

I've been posting some of my caricatures on Twitter and Instagram lately, and in the last month it's been nothing but Presidential candidates - winners AND losers.  I had my office manager, John H., dig through the archives and pull out every drawing I made during the 1970's and 1980's of people who ran (or would someday run...) for our country's highest office, and he found a lot of them.  We've been posting them, more or less chronologically, as a bit of a history lesson, mixed with nostalgia, I suppose.  We started with JFK, who was elected in 1960, and worked our way right up to the candidates from 2012.  The ones that I've drawn, anyway.  Here are some samples:

Now it's the day before the monumental Presidential election of 2016.  I've been following the campaign very closely, not only because it's so important to the future of the U.S. and the world, but also because it's been immensely entertaining.

I haven't been talking much about the election on my blog, because I never felt that politics was a proper subject for a cartoonist to discuss.  As you'll see, back in my political artist days, I had to draw candidates from both parties, so I had to remain somewhat neutral.  However, as Election Day draws near, I've become extremely nervous about the possible election of Donald Trump to the Presidency.

Therefore, I want to suggest to all of my followers that to have Trump as a President would cause untold harm to the U.S. and the world - as you will see from the following cartoon:

So please, go out and vote on Tuesday for Hillary Clinton.  I'll thank you, and the world will thank you.  And please follow me on Instagram for more caricatures!

--Bill Plympton

"The Red Turtle"

I've known Michael Dudok De Wit for about 20 years, since he first made "The Monk and the Fish", a beautiful animated short that revealed his massive illustrating talents - and when I saw his next film, the Oscar-winning short "Father and Daughter", I was convinced he was a genius.  And then I watched his next film, "The Aroma of Tea", an abstract short colored by tea residue.

Well, now he has a celebrated feature, "The Red Turtle", made in France but co-produced by Studio Ghibli (of Miyazaki fame).  People have been talking about this famed feature for years, and I finally got a chance to to see it on the big screen, as the opening night film at the ReAnimania Festival in Armenia. 

Right off the bat, it's a gorgeous film, a marvel of beauty.  Michael's film proves that 2-D (hand-drawn) animation can be just as visually awesome as any computer-generated film, and even more so.

However, I do have some comments on the story - it is some kind of allegory, but an allegory of what?  This guy gets stranded on an island and meets a red turtle that changes into a beautiful woman, then he has a child with the woman.  Eventually the woman and the child turn into turtles and leave the island. I suppose Michael's purpose was to make something mysterious, perhaps controversial, so people could argue the deeper meaning of "The Red Turtle".

The only conclusion I can come up with is that this Robinson Crusoe-like character took a turtle for a wife, had sex with her, and sired a young turtle.  I guess maybe I'm bad at understanding allegories...

Legend has it that long ago, sailors who were at sea for extended periods of time confused walruses and porpoises for women (mermaids).  I don't know if they had sex with them (perhaps) or sired little seal-people (hardly) but this could be the instigation of the turtle sex here.  In any case, I wonder if that's a strong enough answer to the mysterious riddle of "The Red Turtle".  But personally I prefer films that leave me satsified with the ending.  I usually like a story to resolve at the end.  I like life to have a definite meaning. 

The only other fault in the film is the damn picture of birds flying in the sky.  Michael did that a lot in "Father and Daughter" to great success, but I believe he got carried away with it in this feature.  The film is long for an animated feature, and I believe if he cut out a lot of the flying birds, it could lose 5 or 10 minutes. 

Still, I truly enjoyed the film and I believe it will become a classic.  I give "The Red Turtle" a B+.

--Bill Plympton

Reanimania Festival, Armenia

I've known Vrej Kassouny for about 10 years, I met him at the Comics Festival in Angouleme, France.  I've wanted to visit his festival, ReAnimania, for a long time and I was finally able to fit a visit to Armenia into my schedule, since I just finished the feature "Revengeance" and the new short, "Cop Dog".

I flew there via Moscow on Aeroflot Airlines - it seemed like there might be some kind of Yiddish religious gathering taking place, because the entire plane was full of Orthodox Jews. (there's a joke in there somewhere about everyone getting a kosher meal on the flight...)  I don't know if it was because of the celebratory atmosphere of some holiday or maybe the lax attitude of Aeroflot, but it was a big party all night long on this overnight trip.  I arrived in Yerevan with absolutely no sleep.

ReAnimania was celebrating its 8th year - and it seems to be a very successful festival - full cinemas, great programming, and very nice people.

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to the Sergei Parajanov Museum - I'm a huge fan of his films "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" and "The Color of Pomegranates".  When you talk about Russian Cinema, you don't usually talk about surrealism and fantasy, but he was the master of it.

The museum showed a lot of his early paintings and sketches (some made when he was in prison for being gay) and a number of paintings were made from broken plates stuck on a canvas with painting on top, these were made around 1970.  If you've studied art, you may recall a New York artist named Julian Schnabel, who did exactly the same thing in 1985 and made a fortune from it!  I wonder if he was familiar with Parajanov's work.

I did a master class at this very classy building, on top of a hill overlooking Yerevan, where animation is taught to young students.  What a great way to get kids into animation!  I'm so jealous, I wish I'd had something like that.  There's a very exciting atmosphere in Armenia, everyone seemed so hyped up about animation as a business or career.

The night before I left, I was invited to dinner at a wonderful restaurant called "Wine Country", where I had a great dinner and drank too much wine - then I was asked to do a sketch on the wall and I couldn't say no.

The pretty waitresses all looked like Kim Kardashian (who is of Armenian descent) and they wore bib overalls, like something right out of "Hee Haw", and just like American students, they had large rips at the knees.  I've been told that any girl who wears jeans ripped at the knees symbolically looks like she spends a lot of time on her knees (that's just what I heard) so I wonder if Armenian waitresses are aware of this rumor.  Hell, they probably started it.

Another highlight was the opening ceremonies, where I finally got to see "The Red Turtle" (my review will follow) and I received two major awards - a statue for a prize I won at this festival in a previous year, PLUS a statue for a lifetime achievement award.

If you have an animated film, definitely enter it in ReAnimania - it's not a major festival like Annecy or Sundance, but you will be treated like a king or queen and you'll make memories that will last a lifetime.  Just don't take a plane there from Moscow.

I give ReAnimania an "A".

--Bill Plympton

P.S. - They even took my photo wearing traditional Armenian clothing!  Here it is:

Neo-Classical Tuesday Inspiration: John William Godward..

I've long been a fan of the beautiful woman depicted by English painter John William Godward. The sheer beauty of these mostly nude figures is astounding, and totally alluring.  The power of the female form is something my brain can't handle.. and that form is exemplified here.

 

Above is my all time favroite Godward, "A Pompeian Bath".. painted in 1895. As the story goes, Godward moved to Italy with one of his models, abandoning his family. His family disowned him, and there is literally no photo of him in existance... he probably shouldn't have chosen such hot models to paint.

Godward committed suicide at the age of 61, the day after being given the title "Barron" (whatever that means.. brits are so weird), in his suicide note, he famously stated that there wasn't room enough in the world for him and Picasso.

North Korea Propaganda Paintings, Part 2..

Found more.. These paintings are just so amazingly ridiculous in so many ways. Here's some more:

North Korea Propaganda Paintings..

Rare find.  I don't know about you but I'm obsessed with North Korea.. it's all so insane!

Signe Baumane's Thoughts on "The Red Turtle"

Signe Baumane used to work for me, as art supervisor on "I Married a Strange Person" and "Mutant Aliens", and now she's a wonderful filmmaker in her own right.  Her animated feature "Rocks in My Pockets" was released last year, and is still playing at festivals and colleges.  I recently read her review of Michael Dudok De Wit's new animated feature "The Red Turtle", a film I haven't seen yet - and review is so perceptive and well-written, I wanted to share it with my followers.  So, with her permission, here it is:

Comprehending Metaphors of "The Red Turtle"

I watch most animated films, shorts or features, from the point of view of an animator who works with 2-D images and deeply roots for the revival of the mainstream public's respect and love for drawn animation. The question that has been asked since around 2000 – "Is 2-D animation dead?” irritates me. Children will always draw because the act of drawing is an active act of comprehending the world and they will always want to see their drawings move. As an adult one draws because it is an immediate, direct translation of a thought. To put those drawings in an animated movement is to share with other people the inner life of one's mind. To make a 3D image, on the other hand, one has to plan and plot ahead, so it is not as direct and immediate as drawing, but it is satisfying for an audience as it realistically represents an imaginary world.

SPOILER ALERT!  See "The Red Turtle" before continuing to read!

It was hard for me to not view "The Red Turtle" in the context of 2-D animators' struggles, as it brought to the surface this pressing question – "What is 2-D animation the most effective at doing?"  The film simultaneously fails and succeeds at making a case for why 2-D animation is great.

Let's start with its premise.  In a storm, a man gets thrown on the beach of a faraway island.  He tries to get away from the island on a flimsy raft, but each time, the raft is destroyed by some unseen living force from below. On his third try, he sees that it’s a huge red turtle.

Back on the island, he is still seething when he sees the turtle climb on the beach. In a fury, the man grabs a bamboo stick and bangs the turtle on its head, turns it over on its back and lets it die. Once the turtle is dead, it turns into a beautiful sleeping woman, who eventually wakes up to have sex with the man and bears him a child.

At this point in the film, you understand that this semi-realistic depiction of the man and the island is actually an aspiring metaphor for coupledom. One thing you should know about me – I love metaphors.  They are short-cuts to a deeper meaning of life events, and they can be understood on the intuitive level, bypassing the rationale of a logical mind.

The director's (Michael Dudok de Wit) Oscar-winning short, "Father and Daughter" is one of the finest examples of such an approach – the story about a daughter's life-long waiting for her father touched my deepest emotions without me understanding how it got there. "The Red Turtle", on the other hand, left me emotionally uninvolved. Maybe because putting most of the story weight on a metaphor doesn't work in a feature length format?  A 90 minute film requires some connection between its audience and the film's characters. Watching "The Red Turtle", I was given no slightest idea about the psychology or motivations of the main character. I couldn’t feel for the man, because I didn't know who he was, nor where he was coming from, so I was unsympathetic to his attempts to get away from the island. Him hitting the turtle turned me off completely. When the metaphor finally revealed itself I was cold to its charms.

On the other hand I noted a tension between the film being a fairy-tale metaphor with surreal elements (a dead turtle turns into a woman) and its aspirations being realistic. The tension became obvious to me when the man and the turtle-woman started to live together and had only one child. One would realistically expect that a man and a woman living on a deserted island without contraceptives would have at least 12 - 16 offspring. "Did they have sex only once?" - I couldn't help but ponder. "Or he is pulling out?" But that thought was a distraction, caused by the film's desire to ground the metaphor in physical reality.

It was obvious that the artists did a thorough visual research on plants and animals, but I wished for more surreal images, characters and environments. The attempts to realistically translate the beauty of an exotic island into 2D images fell flat on me. 2-D animation will never be as good as amazing National Geographic documentary footage, or the animated 3-D depiction of the Amazon rain forest in "Rio".  To try to achieve that in 2-D is, in my opinion, futile and ridiculous. It also distracted from what the film really was - a metaphor. 2-D is better at something else. Early in the film, the man had three short dreams – each of them surreal, imaginative, symbolic, moody and powerful. It charged me with the hope of what the film could be, but the man always woke up and we were back on the island that was trying to imitate 3-D.

Effectively, "The Red Turtle" uses no dialogue, it is one of the film's strengths. I love when ideas can be communicated without language. I also found using shadows very effective.

After the man couples up with the turtle-woman, the film slides into a cliché. They get a child. The child grows up. He wants to discover the world and leaves the island. His parents drift into old age and eventually the man peacefully dies from being too old to live. Now we get a twist in this coupledom metaphor: after the man dies, the old woman turns into a red turtle and goes back into the water of the Ocean. This is a comment on womanhood: womanhood is eternal, mysterious force that outlives men.

The film seems to say: Women are mythical creatures - animals that are able to briefly become human. I am sorry to say that in 2016 such views/metaphors don't do any good to us, women trying to achieve equal place in society. Women are human 24 hours every day of our lives, and, just like men, we feel pain and can die and be killed. Idolizing womanhood is just as belittling as judging women on their looks.

The more fitting metaphor of 2016 is a female protagonist who, after navigating challenges in a maze, finds herself facing the blood thirsty Minotaur.

You can read other reviews and updates about Signe and the film she's making now at:
http://www.signebaumane.com/blog/

--Bill Plympton

Trip to Oregon, October 14-15

For some bizarre reason, Oregon, specifically the Portland area, spawns a lot of cartoonists and animators, and it's for that reason that I re-visited the Beaver State to attend three cartoon-related events.

The first one was a wonderful exhibition at the Oregon Historical Society, called Comic City USA, where they had wonderful displays and descriptions of cartoon luminaries as Homer Davenport (19th century political cartoonist superstar), Carl Barks (creator of Donald Duck comic books), Basil Wolverton (MAD cartoonist and R.Crumb influence), Joe Sacco, John Callahan (paraplegic cartoonist), Matt Groening, Mike Richardson (Dark Horse Comics) and myself.

                                              Basil Wolverton's desk on display

It's a beautiful exhibition and you can even create your own cartoon in the space. The "Comic City, USA" exhibit runs until January 31, 2017 at the OHS, 1200 SW Park Ave, in Portland, so please go check it out!  For more information, please visit:

http://www.ohs.org/museum/exhibits/index.cfm

The second event was Anne Richardson's "Underground USA" symposium at the White Stag Auditorium, an exploration of the early years of Portland's alternative comics culture.  Some of the artists involved were David Chelsea ("David Chelsea in Love"), Matt Groening, and of course, myself.  Since at the time covered I was spending more time in New York City than in Oregon, it was a real education for me to find out the roots of cartoon culture in Portland.

The early publications "Willamette Bridge", "The Scribe" and "Willamette Week" were my first outlets for getting my political cartoons published.  At the symposium, I told the story about a big-time editor at the Oregonian, asking me to illustrate his article about how great nuclear energy was (and this was right after the incident at Three Mile Island) and when I politely declined to do the illustration, he freaked out and had me blacklisted for years from that powerful newspaper.

                                Maurice Isserman shows examples of the Willamette Bridge

                                   David Chelsea recounts his career on the Portland Scribe

                                                    Matt Groening and Walt Curtis

                                                  Portland's legendary Voodoo Doughnuts

                         From left to right: Monte Wolverton, Patrick Rosenkranz, David Chelsea,
                               Maurice Isserman, Bill Plympton, Matt Groening, Richard Gehr,
                                     Norman Solomon with Walt Curtis kneeling in front.

And the third event was a Bill Plympton extravaganza at McMennamin's Mission Theater.  I did my usual showcase talk about indie animation to a large crowd.  But the cool thing was, they put me up in the McMennamin's Crystal Hotel, a refurbished pioneer-style hotel.  In the basement they created a huge communal co-ed hot tub/jacuzzi/spa-like pool that seemed to be very popular with the guests. 

I want to thank all the people who helped put these events together, especially Anne Richardson, Dennis Nyback and Tim Hills, and I hope we can do it again sometime.

--Bill Plympton

Sitges International Festival of Fantastic Film

After the great World Premiere of "Revengeance" at the Festival L'Etrange in Paris, the next screening took place in a tiny seaside town, just south of Barcelona, called Sitges. 

I've been attending the Sitges Festival for many years, and a lot of my films have won prizes there, plus the wonderful Sitges Melia Hotel is situated right above a beautiful Mediterranean beach that I take advantage of, every morning while I'm there. However, this year the weather truly sucked, so I only went swimming once. 

The director of the festival, Angel Sala, brought in a great collection of films and celebrities: Max von Sydow, Christopher Walken, Bruce Campbell (who I shared the press room with), Paul Schrader, Dolph Lundgren, and Rob Zombie (who I rode back to the airport with, a very nice guy).

                                                  With Angel Sala, director of the festival

I was able to watch a few programs, including the animation shorts program.  "In the Valley of Violence" by Ti West, starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta as a bad guy and "The Handmaiden" by Chan-Wook Park, of "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Old Boy" fame.  Both films were wonderful experiences and truly reflected the philosophy of the festival.

Also, this festival has a wonderful line-up of animated films, of which, of course, "Revengeance" was one. We played in two of the medium cinemas, so it was great to see such a packed house of enthusiastic fans and animation lovers. They all loved the film, even though it was full of L.A. biker dialogue. 

                         I couldn't believe the long line of people waiting for "Revengeance"!

The next step will be to get "Revengeance" into a primo U.S. festival - I'll be letting you all know when it premieres in the U.S.

--Bill Plympton

Animation 101: 5 Reasons to stop whining about being offered jobs with no pay...

It's endlessly annoying to read artists complaining that someone contacted them to do work for free. Artists quickly use this situation to belittle, burn a bridge, and then bore us to death with self righteous pontification in the hope of looking ethical in the eyes of other artists. Artists get so emotional about it, they've even created bodies of work based on the concept (ironically probably didn't get paid for, or, perhaps got a lot of "exposure" from these drawings). 
Or, as cartoon brew illustrates one of the most self righteous and demeaning ways to handle the situation of being offered to work for free.  Another great example, which I confess, is very entertaining, is the famous Saissbury super market ad that is looking for "ambitious artist to voluntarily refurbish our canteen." and in turn garnered a hilarious response. I have to wonder how much time the artists spent writing that witty reply, or drawing. This attitude is summed up nicely in the following cartoon brew comment:

"Requests for free work come from people who literally don't value your work. Why humor these requests at all? It's blatantly insulting." -animator Marc Hendry

These examples show how Artists are systematically encouraged to act entitled, unprofessional, un-resourceful, and all around miserable.  The way people react to being offered a job with no pay says a lot more about that artist than it does the client. These days, if you are an un-resourceful artist with a bad attitude, you will have a very challenging career in front of you, to say the least.  Here are Five things to keep in mind when offered little to no money for your artwork or animation:

1. Someone is interested in your work, this is never a bad thing.
Stop and think about who you are upset with.  This is a person who not only found your work interesting, but liked it enough to contact you. It's a big mistake to assume other people are at the same moral standard as yourself, cut people some slack. Most people who offer artists work for no pay have simply never worked with artists, or are ignorant about how much work goes into the art. At the worst, they're just trying to get something for free.. but they like your work. Use this as a opportunity to educate someone about you and your art, instead of getting on your ethical high horse and start shouting.

2. People can find money.
Some of my best long term clients originated from an paltry amount of money, or no money at all.  But instead of whining and quickly burning a bridge, I suggested that they try to find some money. I like to use the phrase "scrape up some cash to cover my expenses." Often times this will jolt the client into the reality that artists make a living doing this, and require payment. If they valued your work enough to contact you, they will most likely find some money for you, but the artist has to ask and not dismiss. A favorite technique I use is to suggest a crowdfunding campaign, and tell them you are willing to contribute your name and art to the effort. I did this once and it resulted in getting a rate higher than I would have normally charged. Again, it's not a time to get insulted or upset. It's a time to get creative and flex your people skills.. or at the very least, politely decline.

3. Alternative payment options.
There are a lot of ways to get paid. I was offered to do a music video for free.. it was a great song, and the band had other really good songs.  But they really had no money. zero. Instead of getting insulted, I told them I couldn't do it, but I also said I loved their music, and I have an independent film in mind that could really use a score. We kept in touch.  Eventually, in exchange for them giving me a free score, I agreed to make a video for them. We also planned on collaborating on a few other projects.  In the end, I made a solid connection and a good friend.  In addition, often times you can barter things like unconditional creative control and distribution rights.  Another music video I did years ago was very very low budget, but the band agreed that I could submit the video to festivals and competitions, and it ended up winning a boat load of cash, which I never had to share with the band. The video played on MTV and other media, and led to many other jobs.

4. Always have a technique that can be offered for cheap.
My preferred technique is very expensive. So I have about four other techniques that look cool, but don't take me a load of time.  When a client offers me little or no money, I can always suggest one of these techniques.  It's good advice for every artist to have a quick low budget method at the ready. More often than not, clients end up finding more money as you get deeper into the project, because they see the potential and value (see above #2).

5. Exposure is not a dirty word.
As much as artists love to bitch about clients suggesting the job will offer "exposure".. sometimes a job will do just that, and you would be foolish not to consider this element.  I will admit that being offered a job for no money  but a lot of "exposure" is a cheap ploy clients pull on artists, but it's your attitude after this ploy that will either help or hinder you.  So before you get your panties in a twist, consider if there actually is a lot of "exposure" to this job, and use the above #1-4.  Don't condemn people for trying to get work for free, people do what they do, lighten up.

There is one example that I can share that quintessentially shows what I'm talking about above:  A colleague of mine with a similar style as my own was offered a job for a very small amount of money, he was insulted and replied to the client with a very indignant attitude.  Around the same time I was offered a similar job, but for even less money. I took a different approach, I was flattered that the client contacted me, but declined until they can "scrape up a bit more cash", I managed to get a little more money out of them (still very little), and also had the client agree that I have complete creative control.  Also, I really believed in the project and thought it would be successful.. So I had the client agree that any future work, would be given to me exclusively.  I did the job.. and for the next 5 years I got consistent and good budget work from this client, made some good connections, learned a lot about my own technique.  This single job lead to almost every other job I got for the next decade.  Years later, the client confided in me that the reason he kept coming back to me was my attitude early on.  Clients don't like difficult artists, and we really can be difficult, especially if we don't modify our attitudes about low or no pay.