A 1950s Animation Lover’s Must-Have

Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation is a fantastic hardback book from Amid Amidi — founder of Animation Blast magazine and editor-in-chief of the CartoonBrew blog — presenting rare and classic examples of mid-century modern cartooning. Amidi showcases the art, the artists, the production companies, and the stories behind them that make us long to see all of these trend-setting animations in their entirety. Cartoon Modern is wonderful as a coffee table book and as a reference work, and no matter how many times we have leafed through it before, we can’t help picking it up again. Here is a sampling of the stylish jewels Amidi has included in his book:

Giddyap (1950, UPA)
Woodpecker from Mars (Walter Lantz Productions, 1956)
Pigs is Pigs (Walt Disney Productions, 1954)
Gerald McBoing Boing (UPA, 1951)
Stage Door Magoo (UPA, 1955)
The Matador and the Troubador (UPA, 1956)

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