The blog will be updated again on February 6.

The last volume of the 14-book-long Floyd Gottfredson Library was released two days ago and, like the previous 13 volumes, it is a masterpiece. (12 volumes of dailies and 2 volumes of Sunday pages).

I simply cannot congratulate my good friend and editor David Gerstein enough for having pulled off such a feat. Bravo!!

This new book just in from Theme Park Press. This looks very interesting. According to the publisher:

[Jungle Genesis

Disney's Animal Kingdom "hatched" in 1998, the fourth Walt Disney World theme park, with its DNA an ambitious helix of conservation, animal appreciation, and thrill rides. Journalist Chuck Schmidt explores the genome of this "half-day park" that continues to expand and evolve.

With contributions from Disney Imagineers instrumental in the design and construction of Animal Kingdom, including Kevin Rafferty, Zofia Kostyrko (who wrote the foreword), Joe Rohde, and Marty Sklar, as well as zoologist Rick Barongi and horticulturalist Paul Comstock, among others, Schmidt's book is the definitive guide to Disney's wildest theme park.

Beginning with Walt Disney's original idea to use live animals for Disneyland's Jungle Cruise, and Michael Eisner's determination decades later to build "nahtazu" ("not a zoo"), the story of Animal Kingdom is told on all levels: from the visionaries and concept planners to the scientists, engineers, and cast members who turned dreams into red-blooded reality.

In addition, the book includes separate chapters for each "land" of the Animal Kingdom, including the newest land, Pandora, as well as coverage of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Let's run through the jungle!]

Russell Schroeder just did it again. Disney's Lost Chords - Volume 3 was launched last week and its content is as stunning as that of the first two volumes. The research that Russell conducted to find those "new" lost songs is phenomenal and if that weren't enough the whole book is illustrated with little-known (or never-seen-before) concept drawings and story art.  From my standpoint those books are a dream come true and should be part of the libraries of all serious Disney history enthusiasts.

The Disney's Lost Chords series is not available on Amazon. It needs to be ordered directly from Russell. Here is the practical information:

[The book retails for $40.00.
Shipping within the US is $3.65 extra.

Anyone wishing to order it in the US can mail a check made out to Voigt Publications for $43.65 to
Russell Schroeder
2055 Lower Tuskeegee Road
Robbinsville, NC 28771

Those wishing to pay by PayPal should address their inquiries to pintopony66@yahoo.com and a PayPal invoice will be sent to them.

International shipping is, as always, a shock. I received the following estimates from the post office.

The United Kingdom $40.00
France $40.00
Italy $40.00
Japan $36.00
Australia $36.00
Canada $30.00

International orders should be addressed to pintopony66@yahoo.com. If the actual shipping turns out to be less than estimated, a refund will be sent via PayPal.]

Two excellent articles to read this morning:

- Paying Income Taxes: The Disney Way by David Bossert
- Walt and Zermatt by Michael Barrier

This is only indirectly linked to Walt Disney, but one of the relatives of animation pioneer E.G. Lutz (whose book Walt used as reference when he was a young man) just launched a fascinating website about Lutz which is well-worth exploring in detail.

Great news! The second volume of Snow White's People has just been released. For those of you who love interviews with Disney artists, this one is a "must-have."

OK, I admit that this specific new book is not totally up my alley but I know many of you will want to know that it exists.

The authors are good people: The Nearys wrote the official Hidden Mickeys book, released by Disney Editions (and the only one now sold in the Disney theme parks). In addition, they co-wrote the great  The Disney Park Maps, also for Disney Editions, and Kevin Neary collaborated with Dave Smith on four Disney trivia books, in the 1990s.

Another recently-released book which might be of interest to some of you. (Again, I have not received this one yet.)

This biography of the Sherman Brothers has just been released by Theme Park Press. I have not read it yet (nor gotten a copy) but it looks potentially interesting.

We have heard often the story of the compact that Walt offered the Ink and Paint girls for Xmas. Mindy Johnson, author of the seminal book Ink and Paint - The Women of Disney Animation has located one of them and posted its photo as one of the illustrations of her excellent article Christmas Traditions, Surprises & Gifts.

I just received a few good books from Theme Park Press yesterday, including the 20th volume of Walt's People and the 6th volume of The Vault of Walt, which is an excellent read, as always.

My good friend David Peake just noticed this upcoming book on the Hachette Book Group website:

From All Of Us To All Of You The Disney Christmas Cards by Jeff Kurtti (September 2018). Can't wait!

Two potentially interesting upcoming books that I just spotted on Amazon:

Disney Deconstructed: Fun Facts and Trivia for Disney and Pixar Fans by Jessica Ward (Disney Editions) and Walt Disney’s Disneyland by Chris Nicholas (Taschen).

Happy New Year to all of you!

After months of technical issues, I was finally able to update the Disney Books Network this weekend.

Also, Todd James Pierce noticed that the 4th volume of my They Drew As They Pleased book series, The Hidden Art of Disney's Mid-Century Era (The 1950s and 1960s) is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

The book contains chapters about Lee Blair, Mary Blair, Tom Oreb, John Dunn and Walt Peregoy, and, as always, is full of never-seen-before artwork (more than 400 never-seen-before illustrations)!