Bruce Timm

Bruce Walter Timm (born on February 8 1961) 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.

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. 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.

Although he shared character designer duties on ' and "Justice League" with James Tucker, Timm did virtually all the original character designs for ' himself (with the exceptions of Mr. Freeze and the Riddler, who were designed by Mike Mignola and the characters Man Bat & the Mad Hatter, who were designed by Kevin Nowlan).

Animation

Early career

Timm's early career in animation was varied; he started at Filmation, working on the layout of "Blackstar", ', "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", and "The Lone Ranger" (Timm also did background work on '). 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 1989, Timm joined Warner Bros. At Warner, Timm worked on "Tiny Toon Adventures".

DC animated universe

However, he is best known for his subsequent work on the animated series based on various DC Comics superheroes, popularly referred to as the "DCAU" (DC animated universe). Along with his "Tiny Toons" partner Eric Radomski, Timm co-created and produced ', which premiered in September 5, 1992, and went on to co-create and produce ' (premiered in September 1996), "The New Batman Adventures" (premiered in September 1997), and "Batman Beyond" (premiered in January 1999). He also served as producer on the feature-length "" before taking the helm as creator and producer of the animated version of "Justice League", which debuted in November 2001. This series continued in the form of "Justice League Unlimited". Timm actually had very little to do with the production of the "Teen Titans" animated series, though because of a mistake in the first season end credits he is often mistaken for an executive producer. Timm was also the producer and co-director of the direct-to-video "Superman Doomsday".

DC universe animated series, including "Justice League", "Justice League Unlimited", "Batman Beyond", and other DC-set works associated with Timm (and his collaborators') 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 (such as Harley Quinn, alterations to The Question's personality and background, or Batman and Wonder Woman's romantic fling).

His 2008 project "" 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".

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"/"Angel" connection

On the commentary for the "Justice League Unlimited" episode "This Little Piggy", Timm stated an interest in the WB teen dramas "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Several "Buffy" and "Angel" cast members provide their voices for the Timmverse shows, including Alexis Denisof (Mirror Master and Zander in "Justice League Unlimited" and "Batman Beyond", respectively) Amy Acker (Huntress) Juliet Landau (Tala and Plastique) Adam Baldwin (Hal Jordan, Jonah Hex and Rick Flag) Gina Torres (Vixen) Nathan Fillion (Vigilante) and Daniel Dae Kim (Metron). Morena Baccarin (Black Canary) features in another of Whedon's series, Firefly

The DC Universe direct-to-video films have also used mulitple Buffyverse actors. Adam Baldwin (Superman) and James Marsters (Lex Luthor) in , David Boreanaz (Hal Jordan) in and Nathan Fillion (Steve Trevor) in the upcoming Wonder Woman film.

Work as an actor

Though Timm does not usually work as an actor, he has provided the voices for some 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".

Comics

While Timm is known primarily for his work in animation, his first ambition was to become a comic-book artist. Although this dream did not materialize, leading him to a life in animation, Timm nevertheless produced several one-shots and miniseries, mostly for DC Comics.

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", (a one-shot with several Christmas-themed stories) 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, (with writer Paul Dini) 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 (assisted by Shane Glines as inker) released a three-issue "Harley and Ivy" miniseries, which was in the works for years.

Timm also drew the 1999 "Avengers 1 1/2" 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 2 page Harley Quinn origin story for Paul Dini's countdown.

References

* Nolen-Weathington, Eric & Timm, Bruce (2004). "Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm". TwoMorrows Publishing. ISBN 1-893905-30-6.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0863622/ Bruce Timm] at the Internet Movie Database
* [http://www.popcultureshock.com/timm/ The Bruce Timm Gallery]
* [http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/jla/_docs/artcl-timm-iview.htm An interview with Bruce Timm] primarily discussing the (then yet-to-be-aired) second season of Justice League