At publication date a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos University of California Press s Open Access publishing program Visit www luminosoa org to learn more In this beautifully written and deeply researched study Hannah Frank provides an original way to understand American animated cartoons from the Golden Age of animation 1920 1960 In the pre digital age of the twentieth century the making of cartoons was mechanized and standardized thousands of drawings were inked and painted onto individual transparent celluloid sheets called cels and then photographed in succession a labor intensive process that was divided across scores of artists and technicians In order to see the art labor and technology of cel animation Frank slows cartoons down to look frame by frame finding hitherto unseen aspects of the animated image What emerges is both a methodology and a highly original account of an art formed on the assembly line