Bruce Walter Timm is an American character designer, animator and
producer. He is also a writer and artist working in comics, and is known for his
contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, the DC
animated universe. Career
= Animation= Timm's early career in animation was
varied; he started at Filmation, working on the layout of Blackstar, Flash
Gordon, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and its spin-off She-Ra:
Princess of Power, and The Lone Ranger. He also worked for numerous other
employers, including Ralph Bakshi, Don Bluth Productions, and attempted to find
work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics, but without luck. In 1988 he worked at DiC
on The Real Ghostbusters for one season, then joined Warner Bros. in 1989. At
Warner, Timm worked on Tiny Toon Adventures.
However, Timm is best known for his subsequent work on the animated series
based on various DC Comics superheroes, popularly referred to as the "DCAU".
Along with his Tiny Toons partner Eric Radomski, Timm co-created and produced
Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered on September 5, 1992, and went
on to co-create and produce Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman
Adventures, and Batman Beyond and Static Shock which premiered at 2000. He also
served as producer on the feature-length Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
before taking the helm as creator and producer of the animated version of
Justice League, which debuted in November 2001; the series continued in
the form of Justice League Unlimited. Timm was also the producer and
co-director of the direct-to-video Superman Doomsday. Because of a mistake
in the first season end credits of Teen Titans animated series, Timm is often
mistaken for an executive producer, despite having very little to do with
the production. Although he shared character designer
duties on Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League with James Tucker,
Timm did virtually all the original character designs for Batman: The
Animated Series himself. DC universe animated series, including
Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond, and other
DC-set works associated with Timm art styles are often referred to by fans as
"The Timmverse" of DC comics, relating to those series' distillation of popular
storylines from the comic book versions or the outright introduction of new
characters or relationships. His 2008 project Batman: Gotham Knight
is a departure from the "Timmverse" style, with Timm in a producer role
collaborating with Japanese animators on a direct-to-DVD anthology that takes
place between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
In 2013, following the release of the The Dark Knight Returns animated
feature, Bruce Timm stepped down as DC animation supervising producer, James
Tucker was named as his replacement. Though Timm still works at Warner
Brothers, he will no longer be producing DC Universe Original Animated Movies.
Although in 2014, it was announced that Timm will be an executive producer on
both Justice League: Gods and Monsters and Justice League: Gods and Monsters
Chronicles. In 2013, he worked with Man of Steel
director Zack Snyder, in creating a 75th anniversary short of Superman.
In 2014 he released "Batman: Strange Days." It is an animated short
celebrating the 75th anniversary of Batman and is an homage to one of Hugo
Strange's first appearances in the comic books.
Acting Though Timm does not usually work as an
actor, he has played several characters in the animated series he has been
involved in. His cameos include the episode of Batman: The Animated Series
"Beware the Gray Ghost", playing the toy shop owner, as himself in the episode of
The New Batman Adventures, "Holiday Knights", and also as the leader of the
Jokerz gang in Batman Beyond, which he joked he did under duress and also joked
was "Emmy Award-winning material". More recently, he appeared in an animated
form in Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite" in a
comic book convention parody scene, where he was wearing Joker's costume,
along with Paul Dini wearing Harley Quinn's costume. Prior to that he was
animated in The Batman, appearing as a mental patient in Arkham. He has also
played a guard in the direct-to-video animated film Batman Beyond: Return of
the Joker. Timm made a cameo appearance in the 2009
film Green Lantern: First Flight as Bug Boy, played The Riddler in the 2010 film
Batman: Under the Red Hood, and Galius Zed in the 2011 film Green Lantern:
Emerald Knights = Comics=
While Timm is known primarily for his work in animation, his first ambition
was to become a comic-book artist and has thus produced several one-shots and
miniseries, mostly for DC Comics. In the 1980s, he made some mini-comics for
Masters of the Universe. In 1994, Timm and writer Paul Dini won
the Eisner Award for Best Single Story for Batman Adventures: Mad Love. Timm
won the same prize the next year as well, for Batman Adventures Holiday
Special, with Dini, Ronnie del Carmen and others. Later, Timm was involved
with Batman Adventures and has also worked on Avengers and Vampirella. He is
also a popular cover and pin-up artist. In 2000, he did the art for an issue of
DC's Vertigo imprint horror title, Flinch.
Bruce Timm co-created Harley Quinn, working from Dini's original design.
Harley's popularity on television led to her inclusion in the mainstream DC
Universe. In 2004, Timm and Dini released a three-issue Harley and Ivy
miniseries, which was in the works for years.
Timm also drew the 1999 Avengers 1½ special for Marvel Comics, written by
Roger Stern. In 2005, Timm contributed artwork for
two comics. One was a short story in Conan #18, titled "Conan's Favorite
Joke". The other was a Black Canary short story in Birds of Prey #86.
In 2008, he provided the art work for a short two-page Harley Quinn origin story
for Paul Dini's countdown. Timm was featured in "Conan Gets
Animated", a skit in the December 9, 2010 episode of the TBS late night talk
show Conan, in which host Conan O'Brien enlisted his help in designing a new
superhero, based on O'Brien's specifications. The superhero, who was
designed to resemble O'Brien, included a typically muscular superhero body and
costume with chest insignia, as well as idiosyncrasies such as an oven mitt, a
jai alai glove, golf shoes, sock garters and fishnet stockings. One month later,
O'Brien aired a clip on his show in which the character, named "The Flaming
C", appears in Young Justice. In the summer of 2013, Timm provided the
cover artwork for Adventures of Superman #4.
Drawing style and influences Timm's minimalist, angular style is
heavily based in his love of 1950s and 1960s-era comics and art deco
architecture style. Very much inspired by the Fleischer Studios Superman
cartoons done for Paramount. He is also completely self-taught, having never
received any formal art schooling. He lists his artistic influences as Jack
Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Jim Steranko, John Buscema, Wally Wood, Frank
Frazetta, Dan DeCarlo, and Alex Toth. Personal life
Timm is married and has one daughter. Notes
References Nolen-Weathington, Eric & Timm, Bruce.
Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm. TwoMorrows Publishing. ISBN
1-893905-30-6. External links
Bruce Timm at the Internet Movie Database
The Bruce Timm Gallery An interview with Bruce Timm primarily
discussing the second season of Justice League