(all GIFs by Richard Balzer and Brian Duffy, via dickbalzer.tumblr.com) Long before the time of Disney and Pixar, artists made images move using a variety of -scopes and -tropes: gadgets like ...

Modern GIFs may make the Internet a more animated place, but they’re no match for the sublime weirdness of 19th-century animations. While some are graceful mini-movies of people and animals, others ...

If you think about it, pop-up and flip books are really early versions of the GIFs we’re all so smitten with today: brief, repetitive animations, often of a silly or naughty nature. Maria Popova, of ...