I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and can't get enough when it comes to the history of the making of the movie.

Which is why I am so delighted to have received a copy of Dave Bossert's gorgeous new book on the subject.

Based on new interviews and extensive research, this is a must-have.

By the way, this is really a great year for Dave. First his "House of the Future" masterpiece and now this.

Congratulations!

Not sure if this special issue of Life magazine is worth picking up, but I thought I would give you a heads up about its release.

I wrote the foreword for Jamie Hecker's new book which has just been released yesterday. You can read it below:

[As a teenager growing up in the 1980s, I was already passionate about Disney history.

As soon as I managed to learn enough English to allow me to do, I sought out American magazines which contained good, accessible books and articles about Disney history. Two of the writers whose work I loved were Jim Korkis and Jim Fanning. My understanding of Disney history did not yet run very deep and I needed historians to gently guide me in this gigantic maze of stories about Disney artists and their creations. In other words, the two Jims provided well-written, entry-level pieces about the men and women who made Disney “Disney” and about their fascinating creations.

Thanks to them I discovered who was who, how their operated and how they collaborated. I also learned much more about their boss, the great Walt Disney. The two Jims took me by the hand and helped me understand the big picture, which, years later meant that I was able to dig much deeper and to finally become an actual Disney historian. Without them and without their work, I would never have acquired the fundamental Disney history knowledge that would one day allow me to write Disneyland Paris—From Sketch to Reality, Disney’s Grand Tour, The Origins of Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures or the They Drew as They Pleased—The Hidden Art of Disney art book series.

It is therefore with delight that I discovered the work of Jamie Hecker in the pages of the magazine Celebrations. His profiles of Disney Legends go beyond the short biographies released on the D23 website but are short enough to provide great introductions to the lives and work of these exceptional artists for readers who love Disney history but have yet to become Disney history specialists.

Like Jim Korkis’ and Jim Fanning’s pieces, Jamie’s articles are well-written, well-researched and a joy to read.

It is therefore with enthusiasm that I see some of them collected in this first volume of what I hope will become a long book series.

One, which, I suspect, will inspire quite a few teenagers to one day become Disney historians.

Didier Ghez
Coral Gables, August 2023]

 I am excited to announce that a new volume of Walt’s People has just been released today.

Walt’s People: Volume 28 features appearances by about Mike Bagnall, Richard Berryman, Ray Bradbury, Bill Cottrell, Roy E. Disney, John Drury, Nick England, Don Escen, Al Eugster, Leigh Harline, Dan Haskett, John Hench, Grace Hurt, Brandon Kleyla, Rich Kullen, Fred MacMurray, Mel Powell, Woolie Reiterman, Jim Sarno, John Tobin, and Ray Watson.

My wife and I were in Europe for the past two weeks (The Netherlands, Belgium and France) and that gave me the opportunity to meet quite a few animation artists, historians and collectors with whom I had only corresponded by email until now.

In Groningen, I met with Jan-Willem de Vries. I had both the Dutch and English versions of his biography of Disney comic artist Daan Jippes and loved it.

What I did not know is that Jan-Willem has also written quite a few artbooks about the history of the Dutch animation and comic studio Toonder. Those are not Disney-related but they are so beautiful and so impressive that I have to show some of them here.

If you speak Dutch (or are willing to read those heavily-illustrated books using Google Translate) those books are well-worth buying if you can find copies. I cannot say enough good things about them.

 

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN CONNECTICUT

I just realized that, as far as I know, no in-depth research has been conducted about the animated sequences that the Disney Studios produced for Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series.

I suspect that some relevant material might be preserved in the Frank Capra Archives at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and I wonder if one of you would be willing to go there to conduct some research under my guidance. 

If so, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com?

Here is a photo of Walt along with publisher Max Schuster which I had never seen. Palm Springs, 1940s.