The Fleischer Story

by Leslie Cabarga

The Fleischer brothers, Max and Dave, were animation pioneers. Creators of Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, and the Bouncing Ball, they also brought Popeye the Sailor Man to the screen and produced the first feature-length animated cartoon—on the theory of relativity! Max invented the Rotoscope and for a while the brothers kept pace with Disney in performance and profit. But after 1942 the studio closed and their films vanished. What happened and how they developed are examined for the first time in this work—for many years out of print and a collector's item. It is here, updated and enlarged with hundreds of sketches and storyboard layouts where these classic cartoons can once again receive the attention and adulation they deserve.

Genres: Film, Art, Nonfiction, Biography

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Zavier Leslie Cabarga, popularly known as Leslie Cabarga, is an American author, illustrator, cartoonist, animator, font designer, and publication designer. A participant in the underground comix movement in the early 1970s, he has since gone on to write and/or edit over 40 books. His art style evokes images from the 1920s and 1930s, and over the years Cabarga has created many products associated with Betty Boop. His book The Fleischer Story in the Golden Age of Animation, originally published in 1976, has become the authoritative history of the Fleischer Studios.

Reviews

[Gijs Grob · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Fleischer Story' is a modest, but richly illustrated account of the Fleischer brothers, their animation studio, why it closed down (although that remains quite a mystery), and what happened thereafter.

Cabarga doesn't delve too deep, and there's little new information on the studio for readers of Leonard Maltin's 'Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons; Revised and Updated'. But that's not surprising, for Cabarga's book is from 1976, the early days of animation history, and actually came out before Maltin's book. Nevertheless, up to this day 'The Fleischer Story' counts as the definitive book on the Fleischer Brothers, for the simple reason of having no competitors.

[captain america · Rating 5 out of 5]

boop oop a doop!