My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century

by Joseph Barbera

Book Overview

This autobiography of the co-creator of some of the world's best-loved animated cartoons characters, including Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and the Jetsons, paints a warm, candid, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570360421
• ISBN13: 9781570360428
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Turner Publications Inc
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

YABBA DABBA DOO!...A BEHIND THE SCENES TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH ONE OF THE PIED PIPERS OF BABY-BOO

I recently read this book and loved it! It brought back many happy childhood memories of hours spent watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This is an honest, straight-forward book by a very talented man. If you've ever seen and loved (who hasn't) a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and wondered what it took to get them on TV, (it took several tries to make Fred Flintstone a star) then you owe it to yourself to read this book...Enjoy!

Really cool book!

This book talks about Joe Barbera's amazing life. Also, the book talks about my favorite cartoon character, Scooby-Doo, and many other famous cartoon characters he and his partner, William Hanna, made.

From a fellow Brooklynite and Artist... 4 Stars

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Joe Barbera's autobiography. It is interesting to delve into the mind of the animator, and more appropriately into one who has made great strives in the animation movement and who has played a part in almost all of our childhoods. Taking a view "behind the scenes" and recognizing the hard work and creativity that went behind the ultimate product-- cartoons that we sat plastered to each and every Saturday morning-- to me, a fellow artist from Brooklyn, was truly enjoyable. My thanks to Hanna-Barbera for some enjoyable years...

An Autobiography and a Career Textbook in One

Anyone who could possibly find this book "boring" has never worked in the visual arts, where one can encounter real-life characters wilder than any cartoons Hanna or Barbera could dream up. Barbera captures perfectly the utter frustration of being a creative person (artist, playwright and lightning-quick idea man) and working for and pitching concepts to uncreative incompetents like Fred Quimby (his boss at MGM during the Tom and Jerry years), who knew nothing about creating animated cartoons, spent most of his workday eating or sleeping, but always showed up to collect the Oscars© that Hanna and Barbera rightfully should have received. His reminiscences about Gene Kelly and TV boss Fred Silverman should elicit a knowing smile from anyone who has worked for an S.O.B. who can turn the charm on and off faster than a light switch. I would recommend this book highly to those who want to go into animation, advertising or commercial art. These professions are no place for the shy, the gentle or the antisocial, and Barbera makes it abundantly clear. If only his partner Bill Hanna's autobiography, "A Cast of Friends", had been written with such a clear voice. 10 Stars.