I'll continue doing 'Jingle Belle' as long as I've got a good story for her.
— Paul Dini
I think you have to serve a lot of masters when you're doing a video game: you're not just telling a linear story or doing something that's all action.
I'm a very visual thinker, so the characters are running through my head, doing what they're doing when I'm writing them. And there'll be moments where I'll just kind of throw a look off to the side as if I'm talking to one of the characters. It's always been something that I've had with me since I was a little kid.
I remember very vividly going to school, being very happy, and then just having guys there who were just out to make my life miserable.
For years, humorous characters in cartoons have been almost exclusively male.
It's a lot of fun to identify with a character who lives by their own rules.
When you're writing for a game - even if you're using very well known characters like Batman and his villains who lend themselves to many different interpretations - you have to keep in mind that you're writing for a different medium. Things are a bit more straightforward than it is for a feature film or a TV show.
As much fun as it is gaming, I have so much to do that I've had to get away from them. I still enjoy them. When I go to a friend's house and they have a game on, I'll happily join in and play.
The old Rankin-Bass animated specials seemed to exist in a loosely shared reality, which is what attracted me to them. Santa, Snow Miser, Rudolph, Frosty, even the Easter Bunny seemed to be on nodding acquaintance with each other, even if only in cameo appearances in each other's cartoons.
Wonder Woman is out there very much defending the right and being strong and being a positive role model.
'Boo & Hiss' has been a passion project of mine for a couple of years. I was intrigued with the idea of what would happen in a classic cartoon predator/prey relationship if the predator - in this case, a cat - got to finally do in his adversary only to have the mouse return as a ghost and bedevil the cat.
You don't have to limit yourself or feel that you've been limited by an act of cruelty.
I've always felt in my own small, little way that if I could just write a story where it works out well, where the scales of justice are balanced, then that's something that I do really love to see in the world.
When you do an animated series and add characters who are not from the canon, you really have to win over the hardcore fans.
You have to be kind to yourself to survive in the world.
We're all painfully aware of how suddenly violence can occur, how crippling it is, and how survivors have to find a way back from that.
What makes Batman and what makes other superheroes work is the myth that when life is at its lowest, and when you need a hero, a hero swings down and helps you.
With 'Tower Prep,' Cartoon Network wanted to go into a new area where no other kids' programming was going. There were a lot of kids' sitcoms on the air, but they wanted to really go with more of like an adventure/drama feel.
I have played games like Angry Birds and, you know, Plants vs. Zombies and things like that just for fun on the phone and everything.
Characters do change over time; there are surprises, role reversals, and things like that.
If the opportunity came my way, if somebody wanted me to look over a script or sit in a room in sort of like a brainstorming session... I would certainly be open for that.
There are some short stories in R. Crumb comics that are just wonderful and touch me in ways no other comics do.
I felt that, with 'Zatanna,' I had a chance to do a story about a strong, driven woman.
To some degree, I don't think 'Batman' works in a completely modern city; I think Gotham has be reflective of his personality and those of his enemies.
As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.
I was one of those goofy kids whose year narrowed down to focus on Christmas from about September on. I guess I was like Ralphie in 'A Christmas Story,' in that I would get swept up into the anticipation of the holiday, watching the lights go up, hearing the songs in the stores, getting special Christmas issues of comics and all that.
There's something very, very liberating about Harley Quinn. Much more so than a character like Catwoman or Poison Ivy. Those are great characters. But then again, those characters are more of the femme fatale and the temptress roles.
In those times when a kid first tries to express themselves creatively, it sets them on a different path. Sometimes, that path can be really wonderful and can lead to a career doing some of the things you love. I also think that the price on that is a certain amount of alienation or distance created between a lot of the people around you.
If you let tragedies stop you along the way, then you're never going to grow as a person.
In every story I've written with Batman, there's an element of justice - you never want to have the story end on a defeatist or a cynical note.
I was writing a script about the Joker menacing a regular person who had strayed into his path, and I needed to give him a gang of henchmen to work with him. The idea occurred to me, let's put in a female henchperson, because that seemed like a fun variation on the regular big thug guys.
You have to remember, when someone hurts you, that you are so much more than what they took from you.
There's a little bit of Sid and Nancy to the Joker and Harley look, which I always felt would not be a bad look if they were in a live-action movie.
If we made the 'Batman' games more realistic, you'd have to be Bruce Wayne for half the game, counting his money and dating supermodels.
I look at the Marvel movies and the DC movies and various creators' creations, and I think, you know, that's really pretty cool.
It's wrong to become a bully yourself or to take it out on other people, and in my case, I just retreated to a place where I was safe. And that place was my imagination, books, and television.
Most female characters have either been the temptress - like a Betty Boop type - or the victim - like an Olive Oil type.
You can have villains like the Penguin, who strut around in a tuxedo with an umbrella, and Poison Ivy and all of the fantastic stuff she does, but unless there's a bit of a human in there, and unless there's a credible threat, then Batman himself doesn't work.
With 'Wonder Woman,' I did one story with Alex Ross, and I had a lot of fun doing it, but I don't think I could do a 'Wonder Woman' book on a regular basis, because there's so much history there and so much mythology and everything.
Mr. Freeze is motivated by different things. He doesn't really have that much of an axe to grind with Batman. Batman is an irritation and an impediment to him, not an enemy that he hates. He doesn't have the hatred that the Joker has for Batman.
I take inspirations from newspaper strip cartoonists who look for ways of expanding their characters' worlds once they have established the initial concept of their strips.
Quite often in comic book movies, very good actresses are relegated to being the girlfriend or the helper or the sidekick or something.
I really didn't have any plan for her other than the henchgirl role, who was better at getting laughs out of the other gang members than the Joker was. I gave her the name Harley Quinn because I thought Harley was a fun name for a girl, and a lot of 'Batman' character names have a bit of a pun to them, like E Nygma.
Creativity, for a lot of young people, is a coping mechanism. It's the only place they feel comfortable. It's the only time they feel like they're being heard or can make a difference, is if they can go into a room and do a drawing or go to a garage and play a song or retreat to this world.
When it's only you that you can rely on, you're surprised at the resilience you have.
Mickey Mouse did not stay the little squeaky guy in 'Steamboat Willie.' He went on to have many different versions.
There's a sort of eternal, indefinable 20th century quality to 'BTAS.' We never really pegged the decade, but it's anytime in the 20th century, so I often harkened back to things from the '40s or '50s.
My story is just my story, and it's not nearly as traumatic as some.
I'm not saying I talk to cartoon characters all the time, but the characters are very real to me. In a very non-insane way.
