"There's no place like home!"

Well, at least that's Dorothy's final round-up of her adventures in Oz. We, however, are on the road, and enjoying every inch of it. And just like the entourage on its way to the Wizard, we've got some fine company to share the milage.

Our PICTOPLASMA ON TOUR has lead us from the northern shores of Hamburg to the southern palm gardens of Munich - time to express thankfulness for one especially faithful companion: after elbowing Akinori Oishi back and forth, he has voiced the dream to spread his never-ending character Mandelbrot onto a full scale, intercontinental airliner.
And it makes sense! Should anyone out there be able to make Aki infinitely happy, please get in touch and we'll help make things happen in reality (not only Photoshop mock-up above). Feel free to pass on, share and re-tweet.

Meanwhile, Aki and we take off to Dundee's NEoN Festival in Scotland (11+12 November), before we resurface only a few hours later in the US, for the long awaited 2nd edition of PICTOPLASMA NYC.

Mark the date: Pictoplasma NYC - November the 13th!
Generously hosted by Parsons The New School of Design and part of the New York Illustration week, the modernist Tishman Auditorium opens its gates for a unique celebration of the very best in international character design and art, with select screenings, artist talks and presentations. Once more, we're joined by an impressive line-up of lecturers, such as The New Yorker cover artist and Scrat inventor Peter de Sève, Craig Redman from Rinzen, father to one-eyed fashionista Darcel Disappoints, Rilla Alexander, who is about to release "Her Idea", the beautifully illustrated journey of Sozi on her quest for ideas, and Nathan Jurevicius, illustrator, toy creator and Scarygirl mastermind. All that plus a panel with Parsons' alumni Motomichi Nakamura, Andy Kehoe and Aaron Stewart!
Best part (yet surreal considering the where and what): FREE ENTRANCE! All you need to do is send off a friendly RSVP to pictoplasmaparsons@gmail.com and you've secured your full day of otherworldly character goodness.

Speaking of which, Dorothy is not the only Kansas celebrity cought up between Oz and her home town. Afore mentioned Pictoplasma NYC panelist Aaron Stewart also grew up in Kansas, just one generation later in the 1970s. During a visit back home he re-discovered the old, hidden Kodacolor picture albums of his childhood and decided to populate his past anew, with the friends he had always wanted to be surrounded by. The result can now be yours in our first spill & spit resistant board book: LITTLE AARON - ME AND MY FRIENDS.
Catch a tiny teaser of Aaron's quirkiness here and order your own copy to drool over at our online outlet.

Things could go on like this forever, leading us to the final Pictoplasma NRW tour stop in Dusseldorf at the NRW Forum (3 December), but as we all know the true wonderland of Oz is always just exactly where you started off in the beginning - and so our private Character Mecca happens to be nowhere else than in Berlin...

Now close you eyes and tap your heels together three times: Early April 2011, the original, full-scale PICTOPLASMA FESTIVAL BERLIN will once more stage the world's leading and largest celebration of contemporary character culture, with a dense, one-week program of inspiring artist presentations, conference lectures, animation festival, workshops, character walk exhibitions, performances and all-night parties! We can already confirm a first batch of conference speakers, such as Katamari Damacy inventor Keita Takahashi (JP), illustrator, animator and musician whiz McBess (FR), hairy creature connoisseur and South Park lead animator Ryan Quincy (USA) or psychedelic wonder-queen Amandine Urruty (FR), with many, many more to follow shortly.

This is also an official shout out CALL FOR ENTRIES, as we're on the hunt for new and surprising work to grace the big screen at the Animation Festival. Find out how to submit your characters in motion, secure your EARLY BIRD FESTIVAL PASS, and watch in awe as the Festival's website gradually grows towards the nearing event.

Hope you'll be able to join us somewhere along the yellow brick road, or in Berlin, at the latest.

After all, there's no place like home...

Awaiting you over the rainbow,

Peter, Lars and Toto

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