I'm always thinking about stories and ideas, and I have a few I'd like to actively pursue, but as much as I love them, I love the process of creation, and I want to go on and create things for myself, and create new things.
— Paul Dini
I get it, cops deal with a lot, but at the same time, we crave justice, and we do want to believe things are going to be all right.
I remembered what it was like: the weirdness, being the odd man out, trying to make my way around campus, and trying to figure out who my friends would be, who to steer clear of. I wrote it all down in a fanciful way - the feelings of alienation, the feelings of uncertainty, of being away from home for the first time.
Kids love the Hulk, but they're not really sure: 'Is he a monster or is he a hero?'
I looked at comics like a buffet table, where you take a little bit of something and leave the other stuff behind.
In 'Batman Beyond,' Terry McGinnis has the responsibility of protecting Gotham City, as well as maintaining a home and social life. He's also got a single mom and a pesky younger brother, which young kids will relate to.
Batman doesn't use a gun. When Bruce Wayne thinks he had to resort to a street thug's level to defend himself and the girl he was rescuing, he decides he can't be Batman anymore.
You don't have a Batman without Bruce Wayne. Batman is the edge or scary image for Bruce to use.
I always think of the Joker as the ultimate bully. Nothing he says is funny except to him.
I think that when you've got a world in which it's plausible to have a guy dressed as a giant bat and fight evil clowns and other nightmarish freaks, I think the world has to be visually a little more arresting than a regular world.
One Thanksgiving weekend, I had a lost weekend at a friend's place with 'Grand Theft Auto.'
Encourage your kids to be creative. When you see them tracing a character from TV or a comic, say something like, 'That's nice. Now how about you create a character yourself?' Keep kids curious and excited about creating.
Jeph Loeb has been great to work with, and he's been really supportive of some really bizarre ideas I've had.
I have a great fondness for any character I work on. Whether it's somebody like Batman or Harley Quinn or whatever character I'm writing, I just really enjoy the heck out of it, and I try to do the best job I can with it.
I've always liked the Krampus character, and I've always been fascinated with him, especially the tradition that he was such a part of the holiday season in Europe, in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, various other places.
As cool as it is to be Spider-Man at times, there's also a price to pay for that - and he has to learn to balance things out.
As much as I love elements of Spider-Man's past, I don't really want to go back in and retell the Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin story in animation just so I can do my take on it. I don't want to redo the first 'Spider Slayer' story.
To overcome any form of adversity, to not give up, to not give up on yourself, your dreams, to not sequester yourself away from people - that's the most important thing to do with your life.
A lot of times, female characters - particularly the villains - come off as very one-dimensional. They get the short shrift in that they're only given the snappy comeback, or they're relegated to a very stereotypical role. I want to know what's driving them - that's what's really interesting.
The agents of S.M.A.S.H. are the most powerful team in the Marvel universe in terms of muscle power.
Everybody looks back on what they studied and what they grew up with.
We had established Harley Quinn as an accomplice to the Joker who was also crushing on him and found herself in the middle of this weird relationship being at the beck and call of his every whim. We wanted to stretch her and make her a stronger character, so to have her leave him and go off on her own was a story I wanted to tell for a while.
Batman's got this whole cloaked 'man of mystery' thing around him and represents a wish fulfillment. He's more driven than Superman yet is also very human.
I like artists to have some freedom.
Nobody loves a good 'Batman' story more than I do.
Hugo Strange is interesting in the sense that he's a master manipulator. He doesn't really engage Batman in any sort of physical way. His weapon is his mind, and he's very incisive and clever: he reads people and sizes them up almost instantly.
I remember when I saw 'The Dark Knight' movie, and I was sitting there watching it, and there actually came one or two places where I had trouble divorcing myself from the reality of the locations because it was filmed in Chicago, and I know that city quite well.
The Joker is a tremendous vehicle for talented actors. Cesar Romero's was a bubbly, lunatic criminal. Nicholson did him as a vain, preening manipulator. Heath's performance of the Joker was remarkable, too. His was a low-simmering crazy street clown. Joker can be played all these ways, and they're all true.
I grew up loving cartoons, comics, magic, and writing.
If 'Jingle Belle' harkens back to anything, it's sort of the Harvey Comics. Not really 'Archie,' but more of a teenage version of what Harvey Comics would have become, with the type of fantasy wonderland of her and her various friends.
If everybody's a winner, nobody has to try very hard.
'Batman' is pretty much real world-centric.
Batman is dark and moody and spooky and, in some cases, methodical.
As far as doing a TV special, I would have to be in control of it. I'd want my own team of animators to work on it.
I was working in cartoons. I could go to Comic-Con, buy the Hal Jordan ring, I could buy animation cels, but at the end of the day, I come back to an empty apartment. I had a life that was only around me, and when I was broken, my world was broken.
As a writer, every time I create a character, I try to go for something to captivate the audience in some way. It's also an extension of how the audience would like to see themselves.
I think nobody knows more about comic book characters than Seth Green. I thought I knew a lot, and he leaves me in the dust.
Without Wonder Woman, there would be no Black Canary; without a Superman, there would be no Flash. They all come from that.
There was a time I was willing to be a clown for people who I felt were the perfect person for me.
Initially, kids are attracted to Superman as a hero because he can take care of problems and still appear as friendly as your dad.
Bruce Wayne needs a sense of humor to do his job. Batman, for a very long time, was going to a very dark place.
I wouldn't call the Joker exactly easy to write.
That's the thing about writing for a lot of the villains is that, as a writer, you kind of have to put the best part of your own personality aside and instead focus on whatever little strange quirks you may have in your personality.
'Batman Beyond' started because we were tossed a curve, because the higher ups at Warner Bros. wanted a different take on him.
Jim Henson once allowed me to visit the Muppets on set and spent an entire day showing me how he and the other puppeteers performed Kermit and all the characters! After that, I was lucky enough to work with both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on many fun animation projects and learned so much from them.
If your child has something creative they really want to do, it's up to you, their parent, to help make that happen.
'Jingle Belle' spins out of my love for just sitting down and reading a good, fun Sunday morning comic strip panel.
One of the things I've learned from animation is that some guys are really good at writing, some guys are really good at design, some guys are really good at directing. It's almost like working in a band - not everybody plays every instrument.
Batman is pretty much a self-trained guy. I think it would be fun to do a character like Superman or Captain Marvel or maybe Green Lantern, somebody who's got a completely different resource for fighting crime and fighting villains.
There's a different energy to Spider-Man than there is to Batman.
