Bruce Timm

Bruce Timm
Timm at the 2019 WonderCon
Born	Bruce Walter Timm (1961-02-05) February 5, 1961 (age 60) Oklahoma, United States
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Artist, animator, writer, producer, director, voice actor
Notable works	Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000) Batman Beyond (1999–2001) Justice League (2001–2004) Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006) Green Lantern: The Animated Series (2012–2013) Freakazoid! (1995–1997) Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015) Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles (2015) All Star Superman (2011)
Awards	Inkpot Award (2013)[1]
Children	1

Bruce Walter Timm (born February 5, 1961)^[2] is an American artist, character designer, animator, writer, producer and voice actor. He is best known for his contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably the DC Animated Universe.^[3]

Early life[]

Bruce Timm was born on February 5, 1961, in Oklahoma, the third of four children. His father was an engineer and his mother worked for the phone company. Timm's family first moved to Ohio when Timm was two years old, and then to California when Timm was five or six.^{[citation needed]}

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, its spin-off She-Ra: Princess of Power, and The Lone Ranger (Timm also did background work on G.I. Joe). 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" (DC animated universe) and also named Timmverse or Diniverse after both him and Paul Dini. Along with his Tiny Toons partner Eric Radomski, Timm co-created and produced the Emmy Award-winning Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered on September 5, 1992 through which he created the character of Harley Quinn who would go on to become a popular character both in comics and eventual television and film media, and went on to co-create and produce Superman: The Animated Series (premiered in September 1996), The New Batman Adventures (premiered in September 1997), and Batman Beyond (premiered in January 1999), through which he created the character of Terry McGinnis and his supporting cast who like Harley Quinn would also become a character in the comics and later television and film media. 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 creator of Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Along with Paul Dini he created the animated series Freakazoid! (premiered in September 1995).

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 (with the exceptions of Mr. Freeze and the Riddler, who were designed by Mike Mignola and the characters Man Bat and the Mad Hatter, who were designed by Kevin Nowlan).^{[citation needed]}

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 Dark Knight Returns animated feature, Timm stepped down as DC animation supervising producer; James Tucker was named as his replacement. Timm still works at Warner Brothers, and executive produced the DC Universe Original Animated Movies^[4] Justice League: Gods and Monsters and Batman: The Killing Joke, and series Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles.^[5]

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, an animated short celebrating the 75th anniversary of Batman and an homage to one of Hugo Strange's first appearances in the comic books.

Acting[]

This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Timm 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 as the leader of the Jokerz gang in Batman Beyond, which he joked he did under duress and was "Emmy Award-winning material". He appeared in animated form as Arkham Asylum patient in The Batman. He subsequently 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, in which he wore Joker's costume, alongside Paul Dini in Harley Quinn's costume. He 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, he played The Riddler in the 2010 film Batman: Under the Red Hood, and appeared as 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, (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 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 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.^[6] One month later, O'Brien aired a clip on his show in which the character, named "The Flaming C", appears in Young Justice.^[7]

In 2012, Timm released a book of erotic art, "Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm," showcasing more than 300 pencil, line, and full color erotic drawings of women.^[8]

In 2013, Timm provided the cover artwork for Adventures of Superman #4.^[9]

In 2020, Timm released a book of erotic art, "The Big Tease: A Naughty and Nice Collection," showcasing more than 208 pencil, line, and full color erotic drawings of women.

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.^[10]

Personal life[]

Timm is married and has one daughter.^[10]

Filmography[]

Film[]

List of voice performances in films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker	Guard[11]	Direct-to-video
2009	Wonder Woman	Attacker[11]	Direct-to-video
2009	Green Lantern: First Flight	Bug Boy[11]	Direct-to-video
2009	Superman/Batman: Public Enemies	Mongul[11]	Direct-to-video
2010	Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths	Uncle Super (credited) / Captain Super Jr. (uncredited)[11]	Direct-to-video
2010	Batman: Under the Red Hood	The Riddler[11]	Direct-to-video
2011	Green Lantern: Emerald Knights	Galius Zed[11]	Direct-to-video
2012	Justice League: Doom	Ace[11]	Direct-to-video
2012	Superman vs. The Elite	MI-5 Agent[11]	Direct-to-video
2012	The Dark Knight Returns Part 1	Thomas Wayne[11]	Direct-to-video
2016	Batman: The Killing Joke	Patrolman[11]
2017	Batman and Harley Quinn	Michael J. Carter / Booster Gold[11]	Direct-to-video
2018	Batman: Gotham by Gaslight	Arkham Radio Man[11]	Direct-to-video
2019	Justice League vs. the Fatal Five	Two-Face[11]	Direct-to-video

Television[]

List of voice performances in television series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992–1993	Batman: The Animated Series	Red / The Mad Bomber / Ted Dymer[11]	2 episodes
1999–2001	Batman Beyond	J-Man / Jokerz Leader / Top Hat Joker[11]	5 episodes
2003	Justice League	Soldier	Episode: "The Terror Beyond"
2004	Justice League Unlimited	Solomon Grundy / Stu / Husband (uncredited)[11]	2 episodes

Writing[]

Year	Title	Credited as				Network	Notes
		Writer	Exec. producer	Developer	Showrunner
1992–1995	Batman: The Animated Series					FOX
1996–2000	Superman: The Animated Series					The WB
1997–1999	The New Batman Adventures					The WB
1999–2001	Batman Beyond					The WB
2001–2004	Justice League					Cartoon Network
2003–2004	Teen Titans					Cartoon Network
2004–2006	Justice League Unlimited					Cartoon Network
2012–2013	Green Lantern: The Animated Series					Cartoon Network
2017	Batman and Harley Quinn					Film
TBA	Batman: Caped Crusader					HBO Max/Cartoon Network

Bibliography[]

References[]

Sources[]

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

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bruce Timm.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bruce Timm

• Bruce Timm at IMDb
• The Bruce Timm Gallery
• An interview with Bruce Timm primarily discussing the (then yet-to-be-aired) second season of Justice League