Over the last 5 years, the San Diego Comic-Con has become a favorite destination to promote my work - each year, we've expanded our booth and increased our sales - this year, we shared our booth with The Animation Show, the theatrical compilation programmed by Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge. So, it was a perfect fit to share the booth.

John Holderried and I set up the booth on Wednesday evening - the usual Professional Preview Night has now become an all-out open door to the public, so we did very well.

The next afternoon was my "panel" - it wasn't really a panel, it was more like me screening all my new projects, like "Shuteye Hotel", Weird Al Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song", and a preview of clips from my new feature film "Idiots and Angels". The event was listed in the program as "Bill Plympton Goes to the Dark Side", and I guess it's pretty true - "Shuteye" and the Weird Al video were basically cartoon noir, and "Idiots" is straight out of David Lynch and Eastern European animation. It was a packed house, in fact I heard they had to turn away 50 people.

The reaction to "Idiots" was amazing. I've never had such a positive response to any of my films before. I rushed back down to the booth with all my fans behind me, and we had a nice rush on the merchandise.

Rob and Rebecca from the Animation Show brought a cool device - a prize wheel for their customers. Each person who bought a DVD got to spin the wheel and won a free prize, it added a lot of excitement.

I was invited to the Dark Horse Comics party - a wonderful gala event held on the roof of a fancy-schmantzy hotel. I got to chat with Mike Richardson and Will Vinton about the state of animation and feature films.

On Saturday, I was involved in a real panel, "The State of Animation Today". I shared the dais with Wendy Jackson-Hall and Tim Johnson of "Antz" fame. I must say I came down kind of hard on Tim and Dreamworks, but it was more to keep the panel interesting than to criticize Tim and his great work...

The San Diego Comic-Con has become such a mega-event that it's now hard to just wander along the aisles - it's become such a mob scene. The booth next to us was the Sony Blu-Ray booth, and they had visiting artists come by to do signings. One day it was Ray Harryhausen, and the next day it was Eli Roth, director of "Hostel".

I have an interesting history with Eli - I was at Sitges, one of my favorite festivals, last year (I was a judge) and Quentin Tarantino was there, and I got to hang out with him and his buddy, Eli Roth. "Hostel" was getting a huge amount of press and making a lot of money (Quentin was the film's producer). So, Eli comes up to me and said he saw my first live-action feature, "J. Lyle" at the Montreal Film Festival, and loved it, which was quite a shocker to me because that film totally bombed - nobody wanted to distribute that film, so I was left to self-distribute it, and it lost a lot of money.

So when he was sitting next to me at "The Con", he said, "Bill Plympton, the guy who made 'J.Lyle' - I love that film!" So, Eli, if you read this, when I bring "J. Lyle" out on DVD next year, I'm going to use your quote!

During one of my free nights at Comic-Con, I was able to sneak out and see "The Simpsons" movie - I'm a big fan of David Silverman and Matt Groening is a genius, so I was surprised how unfunny the film was. Also, there was no emotion or story engagement like "Ratatouille", but hey, the audience of comic fans loved it, so what do I know?

In August, I was able to visit Weird Al in concert, in the big New Jersey show down near Matewan. I took the train down there and met my long-time music collaborator, Maureen McElheron ("Your Face", "The Tune", etc.), who I found out is a big fan of Weird Al. The place was packed - and the show was terrific! He's a natural performer, he even walks through the crowd and flirts with his adoring female fans. Of course, he recreates a lot of his music videos, so he needs time to change into his elaborate costumes, and he fills the time with "ALTV", mock interviews with music celebrities. They were hilarious, and a great way to augment the show.

My only disappointment was that he didn't show "Don't Download This Song". After the concert, we were invited to an after-show party. Then we found out it wasn't really a "party", it was basically Al sitting behind a table, surrounded by security and people getting their pictures taken with him - we didn't mind, since it was late and I couldn't miss the last train back to New York.

I'd never heard of the Mexican short film festival "Expresion en Corto", but they wanted me to do a workshop, down in San Miguel de Allende. It's a two-part festival, with the second half in a much larger city, Guanjuarto. I flew into Leon, and took a car through an arid part of the Mexican countryside, just as a tropical storm hit. Part of the roadway was flooded, and we were worried we wouldn't make it through.

Downtown San Miguel is a very old city, founded in the 1600's, so all the cobblestone streets are very narrow, with a magnificent old church and park in the center. The big problem is that the gringos have discovered this charming old city and are taking over, and they bring their SUVs down there, and they just plain don't fit through the narrow alleyways - making traffic a mess. So more people are adapting, using ATVs to get around.

My show was scheduled too late to be listed in the festival catalogue, so I was worried that no one would show up - but as I began my talk, the old historic opera house was packed. They loved the shorts, especially the clip of "Idiots and Angels", and after signing cards for everyone, my translator, Victor, said a few reporters wanted to talk to me, so I retired to the adjacent cafe and I was mobbed by the press. About 20 people shoved their microphones into my face. Now, I think publicity is an important thing, and I enjoy talking to the press, but I've never had a session like that - I felt like I was the Beatles in their heyday.

I was staying at the beautiful Casa Easter-Cordelli Hotel on the side of a mountain, with a beautiful pool and nature everywhere. The food was excellent. For a short film festival, it had an amazing line-up of talent - Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro and Kenneth Anger. And the press was from all over the world. The best part was, all the audiences were packed - they love short films in Mexico! So, all you short filmmakers, check out "Expresion en Corto".

During my travels, I got a lot of reading done, and the book I'm into now is "Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life" by Linda Davis. This book is a real missed opportunity - while she talks about his love affairs (Jackie O., Greta Garbo, and Joan Fontaine) and sports cars, there's very little about his art and creative process.

I'm a huge Addams fan, as most of you can tell - his use of dark and visual humor is the essence of my animation. Aside from Jonathan Swift, Charles Addams was the first real populizer of humor using death and pain. A lot of the real popular movies today, like "Something About Mary", "Scary Movie" and "Scream" are direct ripoffs of Addams' cartoons. Even Tarantino owes a dept to Charles Addams. Hopefully someone will write a book that gives him credit for the whole genre he launched.

This installment's cartoon is on page 42 of "Sloppy Seconds" - this was a cartoon that I thought would be perfect for the New Yorker - since their readership is elderly and rich - but I never sent it in. This is one of my favorites, very dark humor. Very Charles Addams.