R.I.P. Joseph Barbera

The Yogi Bowling Team

In all my years of collecting, con-going, reading industry rags, and so on, I never got much into the animation side of things. Sure, I grew up on cartoons and I loved them -- still do, obviously -- but animation didn't do what comics do for me, for no real reason I can think of. Further, I'd say this is true of many comic book lovers, since I have never once attended a convention where a famous animator was a guest.

Animation is sequential art taken to its highest degree: each panel must follow precisely in sequence for the finished product to work. The time elapsed between panels in a comic book is how you pace one; this obviously doesn't work for animation and since the two industries are so different, many fans don't put them together. And for this reason, along with many others, animators rarely receive the adulation and praise that illustrators and comic book artists sometimes do.

But no matter who you are, and I'd be willing to think this is pretty much worldwide in countries that aren't dirt poor, you've likely heard of Hanna & Barbera and/or their creations, and since this is Big, Headline News, I won't waste your time with who they are, what they did, etc. I just wanted to make note of the passing of a true American legend, and one whose name will always be synonymous with animation.

You will truly be missed, Joseph Barbera.  Thank you for all you have done and all the happiness you brought to so many.