I spent the last week getting ready for my upcoming Animation History class at Cal State Fullerton. I have picked a new textbook for the class because there is a new book available.

For the last couple of years I have had to use a book that had the sole advantage of being more current that other much better books. That was its only advantages. I would spend the first class telling students the pages that needed corrections; page 107 where it states that Snow White came out in 1939, wrong, first screening was December 21st 1937. And what they didn`t say about Emile Cohl, don`t get me started. Thank gods that is behind me.

It was with great joy that I was able to pick Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, the History of Cartoons, Anime, and CGI. And it is not just because Jerry Beck, Will Ryan, Tom Knott, Fred Patten and half of the other people working on this book are friends of mine.

No one book is going to cover the history of animation, it can`t be done. You need to read every book and talk to everyone you can find before you come close to getting any type of handle on this subject. But this book comes closer to a one source book than any I have seen so far.

This means that for the first time I can assign reading so that the student will get the base framework of the subject and spend my classtime showing rare animations that fit into that framework. I am looking forward to this class.  ¶ 7:22 AM