At this year's New York Comic Con I caught up with cartoonist Bill Plympton. When I was growing up I attended many animation festivals in the local independent movie theaters in my neighborhood (RIP Kim's Video) and the Plymptoons always stood out. I can still remember watching such classics as How to Kiss on a big screen, and much later rediscovering his work when a DVD I bought included Your Face. I was excited to find him at his booth, and very happy to be able to ask him:

What are you reading?

I'm just finishing up The Devil and the White City by Erik Larson. Fascinating look at a moment in the history of America where evil started coming up and also architecture was such a glorious epic because this is when the skyscrapers were beginning and architecture was going through a huge revolution. Also the invention of the ferris wheel and the invention of the hoochy coochie dance.

Is there a book or other media that you keep coming back to again and again?

One of my all-time favorite books, and obviously a lot of people have this on their list, is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I read that when I was in college and I read it two other times. It’s just continually hilarious. As you can see in my films, when I do animation, you know I love humor. The writing of it was so outrageous, so bizarre, and so original that I really loved it.

How did you feel about the movie adaptation?

Well Terry Gilliam did the movie and my problem with it was that everything in it was so weird a screwy that there was no counterbalance; there was no straight character in there. I think that’s what it lacked: it lacked a straight character. When everyone is kinda off you lose the dimension and so the humor just doesn’t come across as well.

Hey here’s Hunter Thompson now! ::I looked behind me as a cosplayer walked by dressed as Thompson followed by one dressed as Dr. Gonzo:: See it’s everywhere!

Your animation is uniquely bizarre and wonderful, do you have any artists that got you going down the path of the strange?

The traditional one is obviously Walt Disney, cause when I was a kid I loved Walt Disney and that really got me into animation. But also Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, R. Crumb, there were a lot of people who influenced me. Saul Steinberg from The New Yorker of course, Mary Blair who did Fantasia, and also NC Wyath. You could see some of his influence in some of my drawings… quite a lot. So there’s a lot of people who were really a big influence. Right now the pen and ink drawings of Goya, Roland Topor from France. There’s hundreds of them!

Did libraries play a role in life and career?

I grew up way in the woods and so I never really had much access to a library. I mean the town where I was from had a library, but I didn’t really use it because I was never in town! I was always out in the woods. I wish I could say it was a huge influence growing up, but I did do a lot of research there, the one up on 40^th street… the big one! I was a big fan of A.B. Frost. I went there to research him, he was a turn of the century cartoonist. I went through all the issues of Life, the early issues and the photographs in Life. I started cataloging all of his art and I love A.B. Frost.

What celebrities or public figures are you curious about?
Whose book list would you like to read?
Let us know in the comments!