Hard to believe its been thirty years since the publication of Leonard Maltin’s Of Mice and Magic. The book came out sometime in the springtime of 1980 (I don’t recall the exact publication date), originally in hardcover from McGraw-Hill (pictured above left). It was issued as a trade paperback by NAL in October 1980, updated in 1987 (pictured above right) and hasn’t been out of print since.

It was different then… no internet, no DVD collections, and only a handful of serious books on the subject of animation history. Working on this book as Leonard’s research assistant was my college-level crash course on the subject – and I loved every moment of it. I recall it took three years to research, compile and write. The project was, for me, a dream come true and I’ve been proud of its success ever since. I still consult the book often to this day.

Brew reader Derek Tague gave me a extra hardcover copy of the book and suggested I get Leonard to sign it to commemorate the occassion. I have done so and will give it away to one lucky Brew reader tomorrow in a special contest which will appear in a separate post tomorrow (7/2/10). Our server crashes when we pre-determine a contest date and time, so I will not say when the contest will appear. You’ll just have to keep checking in and be lucky.

Below are several souvenirs from my files I thought would be worth posting on this occasion (click thumbnails below to enlarge image): Pete Emslie’s caricature of Leonard; the cover and interior of the Nostalgia Book Club’s offer of the original hardcover; the cover and interior of an industry “blad” which boasts of an ad campaign being planned for the paperback release; and one of those ads, clipped from the October 30, 1980 issue of Rolling Stone.


Jerry Beck

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