I'm working my way through a collection of Warner Brothers cartoons, starting in 1930 and going through the 1990s. 

I did this once, in an incomplete way, with the movies of the 1930s, and learned a huge amount about the evolution of an art form. I could compress into a few weeks what it took a creative industry a full decade to accomplish. 

The 1930s, a decade of depression and the buildup to World War II, was a hugely creative period in the visual arts. And it wasn't just the technology that was growing, it took a decade to figure out what worked from a story-telling and humor point of view. What gags worked and didn't? Are there stars in cartoons (yes, of course). You can see the development of Porky Pig, the first real star. He was at first a child, then a full grown man with a daughter. He was a hero and even somewhat of a villain. They tried out everything, until settling on a young adult mostly straight man to the eventual superstar, Bugs.  

I like to learn about the evolution of art in the 30s because it helps me understand better what's happing here in the teens of this century.  

Here's Porky's Poultry Plant, 1936. 

And I'm now in 1937, and from what they say on the Wikipedia page for Porky Pig, I'm about to see the star come into his full final form. Exciting!