Jerry Beck, animation historian, cartoon producer and owner of the popular animation blog, CartoonBrew.com, will be at the Wexner Center for the Arts today at 6 p.m. to sign his book, “The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons.”

Following the book signing, Beck will introduce approximately two hours of “Looney Tunes” cartoons mentioned in the book.

“The book and the screening itself are kind of a celebration of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, which I consider classic film in the same ranks of ‘Casablanca,’ ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or ‘Gone With the Wind,'” Beck said.

The signing and screening is for both old fans of the cartoons and new viewers, said Dave Filipi, film/video curator at the Wexner Center.

“People familiar with the films and those new to them will find the evening incredibly entertaining,” he said.

Picking the 100 greatest “Looney Tunes” cartoons for Beck’s book was the result of an extensive survey, which followed his last survey and book, “The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals.”

Though the survey was more expansive than his last and got hundreds of responses on his blog and from critics, historians and animators, Beck was still not entirely satisfied with the results.

“I was disappointed there weren’t some of the earlier ones that were made in black-and-white,” he said. “Most of them are the primo, funny cartoons.”‘

Beck, who teaches an animation history class at Woodbury University in Burbank, Calif., is coming to Ohio State to introduce the classic “Looney Tunes” cartoons to a different generation.

Beck is no stranger to OSU. This is his fourth visit to the Wexner Center, Filipi said.

“He’s a great advocate for the art of animation and co-edits perhaps the most trafficked animation news website in the world,” he said.

Beck is speaking to college students to expose a new generation to classic cartoons.

College students “don’t know a lot of the classic cartoon characters. They don’t know who Tex Avery is,” Beck said. “And I think it’s almost a crime, because the previous generations grew up with these in movie theaters and on TV and they really, really are funny.”

Beck said the “Looney Tunes” cartoons are timeless, chiefly because they didn’t pander to children.

Although Beck said he likes today’s cartoons, he believes they won’t have the same staying power as classics like “Looney Tunes.”

“I think when you start to aim down and aim for children exclusively … it really suffers for that,” he said. “You’re missing a lot of nuance and humor.”