This huge book in Spanish about the Disney songs will be released in Spain in a few day. I have not seen it yet and therefore cannot comment on its content.

This great news just in: Disney Streaming Service Will Feature Docuseries on Ink & Paint Department.

Congratulations Mindy!

I just received a review copy of The Art of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Jessica Ward.

This is by no means a "must have." It is just a very fun book.

If you own The Art of Mickey Mouse (Hyperion, 1991), The Art of the Disney Princess (Disney Editions, 2009), or The Art of Minnie Mouse (Disney Editions, 2016) you know what to expect: fun reinterpretations of Mickey Mouse by dozens of modern artists.

Great interview by John Musker and Ron Clements by Kevin Kern from the Walt Disney Archives.

Call me stupid if you want, but I will pick up a copy of this autobiography this week...

BOOK PROJECTS UPDATE

I spent the whole weekend working on several book projects and I thought it might be time to give you an update:

1. I was reviewing the galleys of the 5th volume of the They Drew As They Pleased book series (The Hidden Art of Disney's Early Renaissance) which focuses on the 1970s and early 1980s and on Ken Anderson and Mel Shaw in particular. They look absolutely stunning. The book covers a period which has seldom been discussed in Disney history books and contains huge amounts of artwork linked to The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Rescuers and many, many more Disney projects, various of which never made it to the screen. The book will be released in August 2019.

 2. Over the past few weeks, I also wrote the first drafts of the chapters which will appear in the 6th and final volume of the series (The Hidden Art of Disney's New Golden Age), which focuses on the 1990s until the Present and includes chapters about Joe Grant, Hans Bacher, Mike Gabriel and Mike Giaimo. That is the volume that will be released in 2020.

3. Finally, I am finalizing Walt's People - Volume 22, which will be released in February next year and which will contain some truly exceptional content, including a short autobiography of Ferdinand Horvath (!), the complete Disney-related letters of Eduardo Sola Franco, and an in-depth interview with Gary Goldman about his Disney career.

4. And Walt's People - Volume 23 is also making good progress and will include an in-depth interview with Fini Rudiger-Littlejohn and with Jeff Burke among other highlights...

On the other hand, two projects are on the back-burner right now: the diaries of Ward Kimball and the autobiography of Leo Salkin. I am still hopeful that those two books will make it in print some day.

There are also a few very cool surprises in store above and beyond the books that are already official, including a fascinating magazine, a series of monographs and a "lost" autobiography from an animator who worked at Disney in the 1930s. I will share news about those as soon as possible.

More soon!

Dave Bossert's new book is now available for pre-order.

I finally had a chance to browse the new Disneyland book by Chris Nichols and wanted to correct what I said about it a few days ago.

The book is an absolute beauty and, when it comes to the text, Chris really did his homework. So the question is, is the book presenting enough visual documents to be worth buying? From my standpoint, the answer is a clear yes. At first sight, I would say that I found that about 30% of the visual documents are photos or pieces of concept art that I had never seen before. I especially loved some pieces by Rolly Crump and some concept art of Adventures Thru Inner Space, as well as some beautiful black and white photos of Fantasyland. I am glad that I will finally get a physical copy of the book in two weeks. I consider it a "must have".

Has any French reader of this blog seen this book? Is it worth picking up?

Another interview about They Drew As They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney's Mid-Century Era that some of you may enjoy.

I love this French comic book series and I am very much looking forward to this upcoming volume which has just been announced...

You might enjoy this in-depth interview I just granted to KFJC about They Drew As They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney's Mid-Century Era.

This exhibition catalog seems to be about to be released in the UK on November 1. (Thanks to David Peake for the heads up).

This book will be released on November 13. Can't wait!!

As a reminder: an important book will be released next week (actually two important books, really, but only one is about Disney ;-)... the Taschen book by Chris Nichols about Disneyland. From what I have seen it is definitely worth picking up.

Great interview with Grim Natwick just found on YouTube by Todd James Pierce. Pure delight.

I just spotted this on Amazon today.

More details about the upcoming Mickey Mouse Taschen book thanks to J.B. Kaufman's blog.

INCOMPLETE ROSETTA STONE

A few months back, I stumbled upon one page of a document titled "Story Situations", dated September 20, 1939. I was stunned! I knew exactly what I was looking at: This was a page of a much longer document listing story ideas for abandoned Disney shorts. Looking at a list I have in my collection, I deducted that the full document must have been between 30 and 35 pages long. By conducting some additional research, I realized that a friend of mine had 9 additional pages. I now have pages 21 to 30, but I am still missing pages 1 to 19 and 31 to 35 (or 34).

The Disney Archives do not seem to have a copy of this document and it is entirely possible that the additional pages will never be found.

This is immensely frustrating from a historical standpoint since the document contains the synopses of various shorts in progress about which we know almost nothing. Based on another list, I know for example that the lost pages of the "Story Situations" document contain the synopses of a planned Band Concert sequel and a Country Cousin sequel.

If anyone of you has any idea of where to find the additional pages, please do not hesitate to email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com

This is a long-shot, but who knows ;-)

The contents of the new Disney twenty three magazine have just been released. I am especially looking forward to:

"Animation historian Fox Carney dives into the vaults of the Animation Research Library to show off stunning paintings and drawings from Mickey’s rich history."