Friday, January 22, 2010

Bill Plympton!







Bill Plympton is that very rare thing in animation- the one man studio. His films which include both shorts and features, are drawn completely by himself with only two or three assistants helping with color and cleanup. I've been friendly with Bill for many, many years now and considered myself a pretty knowledgeable fan of his work, but I was a bit surprised the other night while watching a lecture he was giving at the Society of Illustrators, to realize how out of step I've been with him lately. In my defense, Bill is so damned prolific that if you do happen to blink, you've missed another one of his films. At the lecture he showed several shorts including the darkly funny Santa the Fascist Years and the hilarious Hot Dog starring Plymptoon Studios ugly bulldog mascot. In addition, he previewed several minutes from his brilliant new feature,Angels and Idiots, the story of a thug who wakes up one day with a pair of angel wings growing out of his back and his ensuing struggle with his self image. One of my favorites of the evening was "The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger" an alternately touching and grotesque tale described perfectly by it's title. That piece was drawn with a black sharpie and colored on the computer, giving it the most graphic look to date in a Plymptoon. The room was packed full of entranced young illustrators and animators and everyone there was taken to school on the importance of preserving one's own vision and the need for good, solid draftsmanship. I left the place inspired and I must admit, a little chastened.
In this world of ever more highly buffed CG characters (guilty as charged) it was so refreshing to see pure drawing, with all it's smudges and imperfections, flicker unapologetically across the screen and make me laugh as hard as anything I've ever seen in Imax 3D.
It was a sobering reminder of what the art of the humble pencil can achieve.

8 comments:

  1. I love his work, just picked up "The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton" when I was out of town. It was a great reminder of how damn good and funny he is.

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  2. I absolutely love the elephants baggy skin on the cover of that book, I want to buy it!

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  3. Nice to discover Bill and his work full of poetry. Thank you Peter !

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  4. I met Bill last year in France and he's a very kind man. And you're right Peter, he's work is amazing as he does everything on his own!!! Nice topic, nice pic!! Thanks Peter

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  5. نقل عفش المدينة المنورة
    شركات نقل العفش والتي توفر خدمات نقل وتخزين الاثاث والعفش هنا قائمة بافضل شركات نقل العفش
    والتنظيف اهم شركات نقل العفش والاثاث
    نقل عفش بالجبيل
    نقل عفش بالقصيم
    نقل عفش بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف بالدمام
    شركة تنظيف الطائف
    شركة تنظيف بمكة
    شركة تنظيف بتبوك
    نقل عفش بحفر الباطن

    ReplyDelete

  6. نقل عفش بجده
    شركات نقل العفش والتي توفر خدمات نقل وتخزين الاثاث والعفش هنا قائمة بافضل شركات نقل العفش
    والتنظيف اهم شركات نقل العفش والاثاث

    نقل عفش بمكة
    تخزين عفش بجدة
    نقل عفش بالرياض
    نقل عفش بالقصيم
    نقل عفش بالاحساء
    نقل عفش من مكة الى الخبر

    ReplyDelete