 During high school , Barbera worked as a tailor 's delivery boy . During the Great Depression , he tried unsuccessfully to become a cartoonist for a magazine called The NY Hits Magazine . He supported himself with a job at a bank , and continued to pursue publication for his cartoons . His magazine drawings of single cartoons , not comic strips , began to be published in Redbook , Saturday Evening Post , and Collier 's — the magazine with which he had the most success . Barbera also wrote to Walt Disney for advice on getting started in the animation industry . Disney wrote back , saying he would call Barbera during an upcoming trip to New York , but the call never took place . 
