#i love bruce timm's art

[cherrysnax]

actually one last thing. when I was like 16-20 I thought I was soooo cool for being able to draw faces without guidelines and it’s like. Bud. Buddy. Broski. the characters eyes are so far apart you couldn’t even tell they’re on the same face

[poisonousquinzel]

and the fact that it's a musical just adds a whole 'nother level to the wtf factor cause wtf

what the actual heck is this joker 2 movie

[cooketimm]

Hardboiled #10-25 (1990-98) cover artwork by Bruce Timm

Interview from Cool Stuff Magazine #1 (1995):

Gary Lovisi: Much of your work is characterized by raw, intense energy and action, or beautiful women in stylish, dangerous settings. Some is obviously influenced by the pulps.

Bruce Timm: I’m big pulp fan, have been since the early 70s, when I started reading Doc Savage and Avenger reprints. I can’t really say how they’ve influenced my artwork much, except when doing pulp-homage stuff like the Bob Price books. But I do sometimes wish I was born decades earlier so I could have worked for some of the old pulps, which was why it was so much fun doing the Price stuff, and the «mock 50s» paperback covers for your Gryphon Books.

The hero pulps — Doc Savage, The Spider, The Shadow, etc — did have a big impact on my approach to the Batman cartoons. It’s something I tried to inject into the show from early on, the atmosphere, danger and illicit excitement, and especially that Norvell Page-type feeling of impending doom — the «doomed city» mood. It’s also why I set the sense in a timeless, 40s-styled world of big cars, padded shoulders, gangsters, shadowy streets, etc. I only wish we’d gone farther with it.  

For instance, my original version of Batman himself was actually close to the Shadow: rarely seen close-up, speaking in short, clipped phrases, more mysterious, literally. I wanted to play him cold and remote, almost unhuman. But the network and our various story editors would have none of that!  «We need to humanize him», «He needs to have a sense of humor», «We need to more about Bruce Wayne, the person», etc! Whereas I could care less about Bruce Wayne! He’s much more fascinating if you don’t know what he’s thinking, or what drives him.

A few «Shadowy» touches did survive. Batman is rarely seen be the public, almost never on TV. Even when dealing with the police, he’s usually off in shadows conferring with Commissioner Gordon only. And when he’s in the Batcave, he’s almost always in costume. My way of saying he’s Batman, not the other guy, not Bruce Wayne. Like Lamon Cranston, his true, «legal» identity is a facade.

I’ d love to do straight-ahead pulp hero adaptation someday. Doc or The Shadow or The Spider, either in comics or animation, without the senseless updating and over-explaining «character development» like in the Alec Baldwin-Shadow-fiasco-film.  

Gary Lovisi: Your stunning covers for my Hardboiled mag are very popular with everyone who sees them. What are your feelings on hardboiled crime-related art?

Bruce Timm: It’s hard, actually, to define «crime-fiction» art. There’s pulp crime-fiction art, and digest crime-fiction art, both of which cross over with paperback crime-fiction art. Basically, I’m a fan of good illustration. Period. Regardless of subject matter. Composition, emotionally intensity, color and lighting effects are what I look for. And pretty girls, of course!   

My favorite pulp crime artist is H. J. Ward, hands down. Gorgeous gals in twisty curvy poses, painted in luscious, creamy, wet-on-wet oil technique. My favorite paperback artists include Robert McGinnis, Robert Maguire, and Mitchell Hooks, the usual suspects.

My approach to the Hardboiled covers is different from my earlier «homage» work. When the covers were black and white, I used to experiment with different b&w textures, coquille board, zip-a-tone, xeroxed newsprint, whatever worked. Now that I’m doing them in color, I’m trying to make them as exciting and eye-catching as possible, with loud color, sexy gals, exaggerated action, and simple, graphic, almost cartoony styling.

[neon-ufo]

FINALLY finished the art style challenge with vampirka 👁️👁️ This was such a blast omg I love analysing art styles <3

In order of appearance: My style™️, Hirohiko Araki (JJBA), Bruce Timm (Batman TAS), Ai Yazawa (Nana/Paradise Kiss), Monster High, Ousama Ranking, Samurai Jack, Clone High, Pokemon (yes, i did draw this one over James' forbidden beach body)

[poisonousquinzel]

"I want truly evil and sadistic female villains!"

"please you losers can't even handle harley quinn without reducing her to Poor Abused Victim™️ of their boyfriends who Never Actually Wanted to Kill... even though it's canon she wasn't/isn't a victim and very much enjoyed/enjoy hurting others"

hmm, is the canon in the room with us?

is it?

In the afterword, artist Bruce Timm shares that their Harley was based in part on a real-life friend who was stuck in an abusive relationship: “I’m happy to report that the ‘real-life Harley’ did finally break away from her ‘Joker’ and has been happily married to another man for several years now.”

[Source]

is it?

fucking is it?!

Just because some of you lack the ability to understand literally anything about her character and the nuances she's always had doesn't mean folks are just "unable to handle" accepting she's actually a Bad Guy and are reducing her character down. Y'all are the ones spouting fanon nonsense.

You're the ones unable to handle Harley Quinn. You're the ones reducing and dismissing the canon complex moral dynamics and trauma responses her character canonically holds/has held for over 30 fucking years because you want her to fit a specific mold she never has primarily.

She is a poor abused victim because she is in fact, a fucking abuse victim. by definition she is, like ????? have you not looked at her content beyond Mad Love fan art and fan edits on YouTube? Genuinely???

cause oh no how dare people sympathize with an abused woman who's been shown being beat and abused and belittled by her boyfriend since the goddamn 1990s. do you hear yourselves? you're either ridiculously misinformed, delusional, or just actually glamorize and fetishize the physical violence inflicted on her by The Joker if you think she's not, canonically, an abuse victim.

Her status as a survivor of domestic violence is written in permanent ink on the foundation for her existence. You can't erase that, Harley Quinn, since the very beginning in Batman: The Animated Series and that universe, has been an abuse victim of the Joker's and has growth outside of him. She lives a normal, crime free life without him in the end, she gets married, she has kids, she has grandkids. She is not inherently prone to violence, she is not a female Joker.

Reducing her character down to "evil sinister woman who blindly and obediently follows her uh loving boyfriend's lead and loves hurting everyone who isn't them and never cared ever because she's a bad person and we need to accept that she's just a rotted heartless, selfish person in her core and always has been and always should be." is stripping all the actual canonical complexity / interesting layers of her existence down to a shallow, hollow foundation.

And it's just fucking boring. Omfg, it's such a lame, one dimensional idea for a character that otherwise is vibrant with characterization, who's full of meaning and layers and flaws and who encompasses the core of Batman's hope for his rogues.

Pure evil female villains are wonderful and we deserve more of them, but one day you guys will have handle and accept the fact that Harley Quinn has never been one of those characters and she never will be primarily.

Get. Over. It.

[direpunk]

Hihihi I love your art sm! Would it be a criminal offense punishable by torture labyrinth to ask how you draw faces and expressions? You’re really good at those and I’m writhing on the ground at how nice ur art looks!!!!!!!

uwaaaa you’re so kind!!! thank you!!!!!! made my freaking night!!!!!!! :DDD not punishable by torture labyrinth at all! i will instead put you in my schooling labyrinth 💙🩵💙🩵

the best way i can explain it is i try to use as little detail as possible to convey information. if you can master simplifying info down to the basics, drawing faces gets a lot easier (in my experience, at least!) these ⬇️ are probably my best examples of doing this. i’m really proud of them!! :D

i’m hugely inspired by artists like mike mignola, bruce timm, and genndy tartakovsky! hellboy is one of my favorite medias ever, i grew up watching the dc cartoons timm worked on and samurai jack, so those are my go-to artists whenever i feel like i’m stuck. they’re all insanely good at shape language and simplifying faces in an aesthetically pleasing + concise way. freaking awesome stuff ⬇️

side note: mignola worked as a production designer on disney’s atlantis: the last empire, so that’s another good character design/simplification source!

also, the dreaded anatomy studies :/ I H8 ANATOMY! but i rewatch sinix design’s videos for his crash courses on them OFTEN. he’s funny and charming, always sounds like he’s smiling when he talks, and explains everything in a way that doesn’t make my head want to explode. i highly recommend watching his vids :) ✏️🔗

all in all, it’s just important to not get bogged down by agonizing over details. i still struggle with this a LOT, so this is advice to myself as much as it is to anyone else.

thank you for the ask and kind words, i hope this isn’t too long winded and is helpful in some way! :’) i love YOUR art so much!!

[jesncin]

Do you think DC should do more with animation? (Personally I think theatrical animated movies would be amazing, plus animation is less restrictive than live action so more freedom, but y'know that's kind of a pipe dream ashkshsk)

Yes absolutely! I think animation is perfect for superheroes over live-action any day.

My feelings about the current wave of animation for DC specifically is that they feel overly self referential and are in serious need of fresh new perspectives. We have MAWS, which only pulls from anime as shallow aesthetic and tries to "modernize" Superman lore by superficially adding "more diversity", while hyper-focusing on surface level Superman discourse. We're about to have Caped Crusader which from the early look of it we can see is pulling from a classic era of comics but with no personal touches or interpretation that feels fresh or inspired. Harley is Asian now, but why? I doubt there's going to be a narrative reason for it, and she's just going to be superficially "more diverse". The art style feels like xeroxed Bruce Timm. It's been feeling empty. And the Harley Quinn show is just there. Adult jokes, gross, provocative, flat art style.

Which is a shame because animation has evolved in such fascinating ways and right now I'm just not seeing that reflected in DC animated properties. I hate to say "back in my day" but shows like BTAS, The Batman, Teen Titans, GLTAS- all had unique art styles, takes, and voices. Teen Titans didn't just pull from anime artistically, but narratively as well. The Batman has such a bold art style! BTAS and the DCAU were groundbreaking. GLTAS expanded on that. But now all DC animation does is reference their material- a glorified citation. I think the only show that felt fresh and had a genuine desire to create new fans was DCSHG. MLP dynamic x DC girlies is such a wild pitch but I love it! I'm glad out of the DC Nation Shorts, it got expanded. I honestly wish a lot of the DC Nation Shorts got that treatment!

[yanabeardoodles]

dude! your art is so delicious!!! how did you start drawing and who were your inspos and stuff?? you have a seriously unique and beautiful art style and i’m just eating SO good right now

I love telling this story!

I started drawing around 9 y/o and it was because my mom (who in no professional way is an artist. She works in law) was able to draw the cartoons me and my sister would see on TV.

I always looked up to mom as a little kid and wanted to figure out how to do that as well.

Time went on, I got into anime in middle school, checked out a bunch of Christopher Hart "how to draw anime books", and continued to draw all throughout high school.

Just to realize I didn't like how I was creating art.

I felt stuck and looking at the 7 years of art I did from middle school and high school I really felt I wasn't...changing.

Then I didn't change how I approached art for a few years after that. I was a workaholic so I never really dedicated as much time as I had wanted to figuring out how to change.

I tried branching out with different sources like studying Glen Keane gestures and loose western cartoon styles. Still felt stuck

THEN QUARANTINE HAPPENED 🗣️

Remember that workaholic life I mentioned? I use to work at least three jobs all at once before quarantine. Then I had no jobs. And I freaked out cause I saw my self-worth was connected with how much work I could do at once.

Not healthy, be better than me folks.

Anyway I needed a way to kill time and feel like I was accomplishing something. Then art reared her shiny ass in my face and said

"...draw, bitch"

So I did. All day. Every. Single. Day.

And there wasn't a goal to be a better artist this time. I just needed a damn project 😂. And it wasn't until the end of 2020 I saw improvement looking back to April

As seen below April vs December 2020

(Don't ask me why but the youth drawing is still one of my all time favorites)

Also I won't lie, I made a tik tok in April, it blew up outta no where in August cause of Rock (freakin) Lee of all things. And I liked the attention. Don't be like me. I burned out very quickly due to that mindset of "make art people want to see as fast as possible!" Not make art for myself.

Anyway, by then I was use to drawing everyday. Not even full blown illustrations but like doodling everyday. And I wanted to keep that routine. So I got jobs that would allow me to at least be able to sketch at breakfast before work.

Then I got a job as a paint and sip instructor, so I was able to try painting more often

As seen here

And from there I just started playing with art supplies all around. I treat art like math. My brain gets easily distracted and with that in mind, if I get tired of digital art, I go to color pencils or watercolor or gouache and then rinse and repeat.

I feel this is going on forever so to wrap it up

Current artists I'm inspired by:

For colors -

JC Leyendecker

@japhers on tumblr and twitter

For ink- Bruce Timm (worked on BTAS/STAS/Justice League etc)

Dan Mora (@ Danmora_c on Twitter)

Lastly character designs - A BUNCH OF ART OF THE MOVIE BOOKS

Spiderverse, Klaus, Maya and the Three, Luca, Dreamworks, Miyazaki etc

If the movie or show was cool. I went hunting for that art book to figure out what they were thinking when they made the characters.

And that's it.

The end of my spiel

[gio-scrabbles]

Finished Batman: Caped Crusader and it was great!!! I love the art and animation of the series since it gave me Batman: the Animated Series vibes but also being unique with its own aesthetics. Guess it makes sense because Bruce Timm was an executive producer on it.

As for the plot, I liked how it was more episodic while having an over arching plot surrounding Harvey Dent. While I can see why it could be boring, I thought it was interesting to see how his character progresses to being Two Face. The storytelling style also reminded me a lot of The Batman and many of the comics where it was focused on mystery solving. Although I do like seeing Batman as just someone who stops crime, I prefer to see him also being a detective.

Overall. The show was great! Had a few flaws here and there, but PLEASE LET THERE BE ANOTHER SEASON!

[javaelemental]

Re: Batman: Caped Crusader

I just finished Amazon Prime's ten-episode run of the new Batman cartoon, Batman: Caped Crusader, and I have thoughts.

They did some super cool stuff with the villains they used this season. (It was good. I'm assuming there'll be more seasons.)

The show offers some commentary on class warfare, police and government corruption, the nature of crime and criminals, and the nature of Batman.

So let's talk about the villains, and let's start with Firebug because holy shit, he had one of the most horrifying scenes I've seen in a cartoon in recent memory. Firebug's an arsonist, and there's this amazing and absolutely bone chilling scene that shows how he sees the world: Everything is aflame and everyone is on fire and he's happy, and it's happy, and it's appalling. I loved it. More plz.

Harvey Dent - God, I loved how they handled him. So, he's generally presented as a multiple personality to some degree or another, and they did that here, too. But usually Harvey's evil side is his ugly side, and his good side is his pretty side. This show reversed that. They made it very clear through camera positioning and angles that it was Harvey's "pretty" half talking all the evil shit.

I liked how all the villains had a motivation. Except Penguin, whose main thing seemed to be, "Look, she's a girl now! That's different, right?" Other than that, it was pretty much the same character doing the same things.

Harley was fun, and I really appreciated how her motivation was "OMG, I am so. sick. of all these rich, narcissistic-ass bastards who will not learn better," and not domestic abuse at the hands of a psychopath. Her origin and motivations are completely divorced from the Joker, and I love that.

Gentleman Ghost. I was all, "Wow, they're just diving head first into supernatural shit, eh?" Also, he was a bad guy who was mad about The Poors getting uppity. Who then got his ass beat by the richest guy in Gotham.

Bullock and Flass. Oh, man, I cannot wait for Bullock's face-turn when Flass finally pushes him one step too far.

The dynamic between Alfred and Batman. I was not loving it at all, but then Dent called Bruce out on it, and the Gentleman Ghost episode, and the ending... and now I'm like, okay, we're watching a healing journey for Bats, here. And the way he was treating Alfred was a symptom. Okay. I'll allow it for now.

Still can't see any version of Alfred not sassing Batman all the way into the ground, though. Alfred's being way too nice.

Christina Ricci played Catwoman. Yeah, that Christina Ricci. They got a bunch of great voice talent for this show.

Really liked the 40s vibe and tech.

Loved the art. You can tell Bruce Timm had something to do with the cartoon. Solid gothic art deco aesthetic. I was also vastly amused with how 75% of the characters on the show were built like a refrigerator.

The Nocturna episode where Bruce Wayne gets his ass beat by the carnies because they mistook him for a child predator. LOOOOL

The Nocturna episode where Batman gets gumped by a skinny little preteen (with super powers, but still) and another child has to swoop in and save him, almost certainly staged that way because nobody wants to watch Batman beat up a twelve-year-old girl.

It was good stuff, folks. Go watch it.

[flashdoesahundredyarddash]

eyeballing at gl:tas halbarry even barry didn't appear at that show at all (idk I feel like if barry appears in gl:tas the halbarry fandom will explode)

Can we all agree that the portrayed writing for the characters in GL:TAS is one of the best-perceived versions (<- Might be me but that show actually understood the characters, let me be honest...) Especially the comics they have on this show...

(UHM YOURE SO RIGHT BTW. I would explode)

So, if we ever got a glimpse of Hal's civil life + league life in the show every now and then... I feel that we would get to explore partially his relationships with people, like how they did for characters in the show. Not to mention, we don't exactly get Hal content, because that DCAU GL and FLASH over different media has kinda been John and Wally, unless we talk for movies but I also love that duo though, they're funny...

I would let the people in charge of GL:TAS write for Barry... Or PLEASE if he did, I would enjoy seeing them with The Brave and The Bold dynamic... (Would literally kick my legs and giggle). I could image that the series version of Hal and Barry would be a take on their friendship, specifically with how they act with one another. They would also personally portray Barry as a nerd, let's be honest... Or just the way (If anyone has ever seen Star Trek: The Original Series) (TOS) Spock (<- Star Trek reference, uhmm K/S is so Halbarry..)

THEY WOULD SO BE KIRK AND SPOCK IF THEY WERE IN GL:TAS!!!!?!?!?!!? Hellooo...

It's a literal crime that they canceled this show, have you SEEN the promo art for GL:TAS season 2 (<- The art by Bruce Timm, I hate him but we get to see a little glimpse of what could have been)

[kamenstranger]

Batman: Caped Crusader Review.

Well, I didn't expect to be reviewing another cartoon so soon but I forgot this was still happening and here we are. So much like X-men '97 I will be getting into spoilers, even some finale stuff. But it's nothing you probably wouldn't already know. Like is saying something along the lines of "Harvey becomes Two-Face" or "Selina becomes Catwoman" really a spoiler? Still, if you want to go in completely clean then I'll give short spoiler-free summary: It's fine. It's good, even very good. It has enough going on without being overly reliant on nostalgia, though a lot concepts and ideas that never made it into TAS are used; which is obvious in some episodes like 2 and 8 which honest to god feel like lost episodes (sans the obnoxious references in 8.) But even a number of other episodes feel like they could've fit right in.

Likewise, the animation is simply lovely and feels like an appropriate continuation of the DCAU while also working as a throw back to TAS with its use of shadows and art deco design. They even have a film grain effect that looks shockingly good; uplifting the show's late 30s early 40s aesthetic by adding some literal grit. I've seen numerous productions go overboard with adding grain in post, but Caped Crusader keeps it very subtle and is probably the best you're going to do with a modern production. Frederik Wiedmann's score also complements the atmosphere, adding that quintessential gothic noir vibe. The entire soundtrack is on youtube and is well worth listening in isolation.

If I had one compliant... it's that Batman is the weakest and most underwritten part of the show. Regardless, the show has enough quality elements to make it worth a watch.

However, if you're interested in leaning more about my thoughts, hit the jump.

Let's start with some background information. Contrary to how it seems, this isn't nor was it ever intended to be a prequel to TAS-- at least that's what they say. It was originally a sequel to The New Batman Adventures before transmogrifying into another 30s-ish setting and using abandoned episode concepts from TAS along with completely original works. A number of episodes at the very least feel like they were written with a prequel mindset, and the final shot of the series was absolutely conceptualized as lead-in to TAS and is begging for the Walker Theme to kick in. But despite how much this could work as a prequel with just a few tweaks, I think making it disconnected was the right call. For one thing, with Conroy gone I don't think you could ever make something that leads into that very specific version of Batman, it wouldn't feel right. Secondly, it allows the series to stand on it's own and not rely on TAS as a crutch; even if comparisons are inevitable with the period setting and Bruce Timm's designs. Additionally the tone of the series is right in line with The Animated Series, only slightly darker and never going overboard just to be considered "adult." Characters say damn, people die, sometimes there's blood, the occasional gruesome character design, some stories are super pulpy and even have a slower pace than what they would've done on network TV for Y7+. But otherwise this would've fit fine on Toonami back in the day and the option to go darker is there should the story demand it. I will admit I'm a bit of an easy mark for this, particularly the heavy pulp elements that remind of The Shadow and The Spider.

On that note, Cape Crusader is a bit more basic in terms of setting and scope. I'm using "basic" loosely because there are still some eccentricities like Gentleman Ghost showing up, but outside the one supernatural aspect-- and an umbrella cannon-- there's nothing too crazy. No Freeze guns, mutant plant ladies, robots, Lazarus pits, mind controlling cards, airships etc. Clayface might be the one other outlier, but even that's just a guy who can change his appearance, not a big clay monster who can form a mace hand. I'm perfectly fine with all of this. We've already had a vintage Batman series that did all that anyway, so why not do something a little different and keep it simple? In maintaining that simplicity, most of CC is episodic with a larger narrative sprinkled throughout: Ruport Thorne is slowly taking over Gotham and begins trying to leverage Harvey Dent who is running for Mayor. That's it, that's the main plot. The more nitty-gritty parts largely center on relatively self contained adventures around the trio of Lawyer Barbara Gordon, GCPD detective Renee Montoya, and Therapist Harleen Quinzel.

It's a decent compromise between how involved modern shows have become sprawling season long stories while still maintaining the appeal of a self contained case in any given episode.

Of the three, Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown) has the most active role throughout the entire run and is arguably the main character of the show. She's compassionate about people, her clients, criminals and their circumstances. She has a strong balance between someone who is optimistic yet not naive, although still young enough to not have the harsher experiences as her father. This allows a contrast between her and Gordon's world weary, almost Black and White POV. In fact, her willingness to hear people out and consider alternatives leads to her establishing a form of contact with Batman before her father.

Renee Montoya (Michelle C. Bonilla) is about on par with Barbara in playing an active role in the series, albeit almost always work related for obvious reasons. She's a consummate professional, brilliant detective and the only trustworthy cop outside Gordon. That last part is particularly note worthy since it actually gives Gordon a reliable subordinate and not just Bullock. She has solid chemistry with Barbara and there's a lot of untapped potential with her and Harley. And hey, nice to get little bit of the two dating and smooching. Speaking of, Harley (Jamie Chung) is surprisingly prominent in the first half and I love how they handle her. She's legit intelligent and even knows there's something up with the public perception of Bruce. She's quirky without rehashing the whole bubbly blonde routine, she's delightfully flirty with Renee and she's also fucking demented. Oh yes, Harley is already cracked, but in a curious way where she's not exactly insane but clearly has a dark side she indulges. Honestly? Really neat to see a version of a character not influenced by Joker. She's still a Harlequin, of course, but much more traditional and I love that we don't waste time going through an origin. She just uses her therapist profession as a means to hash out her idea of justice against clients she can't reach, often mind breaking rich jackasses who refuse to better themselves. Harley assigns them personalities and forces repetitive tasks or absurd tortures. In a cute little meta nod she's responsible for creating the persona of King Tut, a character originally created for the '66 show, just as she was a creation for TAS.

I also have to mention Chung's voice acting, which the VA in the show is great all around, of course. But villain roles always get to stick out, and this is a prime example. The shift between that very intelligent caring quirky woman to… what I can only call an analytical seductive manipulator and abuser, well it's just wonderful. We've had so much of bubbly Quinn and silly crass Quinn that this version is so refreshing and one of the most pleasant surprises out of the show.

There are other characters outside the trio, but I simply don't have much to say about Gordan, Flass, or Bullock. The VA is impeccable, as previously mentioned; I love Eric Morgan's Gordon, Gary Anthony Williams' Flass and John DiMaggio's Bullock. Perfect casting. But character wise they simply serve a role and I don't have much to say about them. Gordon is, well, Gordon trying his best among a corrupt department full of people like Flass and Bullock. Flass himself is brilliantly sly and Bullock is a slob who does all the dirty work. I will say that even if I don't have much to go into with them, I do appreciate how much Flass and Bullock are featured and how effectively they're utilized.

The only major reoccurring character left to go in-depth on, outside Batman, is Harvey Dent; ironically voiced by Brave and the Bold Batman, Diedrich Bader. Harvey is… odd in this series. He's a dick headed "tough on crime" sleazy DA who is self interested in becoming Mayor, no matter who he has to steamroll to get there. On one hand it is an interesting angle; a man of once upstanding morals slowing eroding them to gain political favor with the ultimate goal of proper reform-- assuming he even has any left by the end of it. There is an inkling of a great idea in the political process of Gotham grinding you down, bringing out your worst, makes you compromise too much. The system changes you, not the other way around.

The issue is the tragedy of a good if flawed man giving into his worse impulses doesn't entirely work due to the simple fact we hardly see a good side to Harvey. No signs of a different better person underneath or who he used to be before DA. The show only gives Harvey one very minor scene of empathy and moral upstanding before his disfigurement, so he kinda goes from jaded cynical asshat to homicidal asshat. To give the show credit, that is in part the intent. We don't like Harvey all that much but still feel bad when we see how sad and broken he is, all because he finally did something good and he's punished for it. The episode dealing with the aftermath of the acid attack is really solid at showcasing his slip into insanity and drawing forth pathos. In a bubble it works beautifully; A man who was already breaking, even if they didn't know, now thinks everyone is out to get him. Almost every invasive thought is acted upon. They also don't make Two-Face the default or more common of the personas, it's a lot of back and forth. Harvey is relatively calm one moment but suddenly becomes violent the next. Hell, he even has moments of clarity and great remorse not only for his actions as Two-Face but as DA. The episode is handled very well and Bader is selling the hell out of it. I just wish there was more before that change, a little more to like about Harvey Dent. Bruce was friends with this guy and from an audience perspective it's kinda hard to see why, Harvey is a shit head, an absolute knob. I dunno, Batman is kind of dick in this so maybe there's something to be said there? But even so, his dynamic with Barbara is FAR more engaging and nuanced than with Bruce because Barbara has more impactful scenes and is the direct opposite of the same coin. I kinda wonder if the stuff with Bruce was something shoved in at the last minute because they felt they had to. Which I guess that finally bring me to Batman, who you may have noticed I've talked very little about in this Batman show up until now.

Batman is a boring wet white rice motherfucker with barely a character arc and almost no connections to the main cast.

Oh sure, every episode has Batman doing things that move the plot along, provides some very minor characterization or some plain 'ol detective work which is fun to see. But even when he does investigating, finds a clue, confronts a villain etc. it feels lacking because his interactions with the rest of the cast are severely limited and sporadic.

Batman himself is integral to the show, but he's more like an anchor for the rest of the cast who have far more captivating screen time and better defined relationships. Babs is friends with Harley and Renee, Harley and Renee are dating, Renee works for Gordon, Barbara is of course Gordon's daughter, Harley has a brief stint as a consultant for the GCPD, and Harvey works opposite Barbara. These people flow into each others stories, converse, have opposing or similar ideologies to make stories around. Batman lock picks and punches things. I mean, Christ, he doesn't have a friendship with Gordon because this is long before that, he treats Alfred like a valuable tool rather than family and he has more empathy for Nocturna in a one off episode than Harvey over the entire season. I'm serious when I say I think the friendship was tacked on, because there's a line in ep 6 about Dent's biggest donors pulling out of his campaign, implying Bruce never gave any money. Maybe they could've made an entire subplot about the Batman aspect taking so much priority that he ignored Dent's troubles until it was too late. Have Batman learn a lesson about balancing the personas and how Bruce Wayne can be equally useful in aiding Gotham-- and the consequences of forgetting that. Maybe even intersperse flashbacks to a younger Bruce and more optimistic and likeable Dent to show why and how they became friends. This could've been done in a two-parter just like how Robin was handled in TAS.

For the instances the show does put a spotlight on just Batman it's simply going through the motions. The best we get is Bruce Wayne attending therapy sessions with Quinn, which is a great concept ultimately wasted on flashbacks of Bruce's childhood I've seen a dozen times over and maybe should've been used to explore his relationship with Dent.

Another reason why this Batman is so bland is because there are almost no sympathetic villains, which you've probably gathered by now. Harvey in the last episode and Nocturna in ep. 8 are the only two that fit the criteria (And frankly Barbara does more to help Harvey.) But everyone else? No tragic backstory, no victim of circumstance, no injustice, and no chance to showcase Batman's greatest attribute. On paper I understand what they were going for; this is an early Batman attempting (and sometimes failing) to be emotionally walled off. He's in the background, he needs to learn to open up and temper his anger. Midway into the season have something drastic happen to shake his resolve (endangering Alfred, of course)

By the end of the series he begins casually referring to him as Alfred rather than "Pennyworth" and he's established connections with Barbara, Jim and Renee. I don't dislike this slow burn, I enjoy seeing Batman's humanity slowly seep through. The series has a lot of great little moments where we see that happening, like Batman chastising Barbara for being reckless right after she saved his ass and a friend of hers is assumed dead. She's going through a lot and Batman clearly doesn't know how to processes the situation, he doesn't know how to be comforting.

There's also a great scene in the finale that I'm pretty sure was a giant middle finger to a certain director. The problem is the entire season is doing things like that. Sure we get growth for the character, but that's grueling for a 10 episode season. Maybe it's just me, but I'd kinda like to be more invested in the title character before the season finale. But as is so often the case with streaming we're limited to just 10 episodes per season. It's... so tiresome spending an entire run getting Batman to a state where we can actually tie him in with the rest of the ensemble cast and show some goddamn empathy. I realize rushing through this could result in the opposite problem, but this once again leads to me pointing out, as always, the stories writers want to tell are too big for these gimped 6-10 episode season the modern streaming has pushed on all of us. You know the first season of The Animated Series was a whopping 65 episodes? I probably wouldn't be talking about this problem if we even had a quarter of that.

I do want to stress this is no fault of the performance, which I know is going to be on everyone's mind. This is a problem with writing, the limited episode count, and possibly Zaslav not seeing enough blood in his stool before dumping this production onto Amazon. Conroy alone wouldn't have been enough to elevate the more shallow aspects of Batman's character, it just wouldn't. The writing for Batman specifically is very by the numbers at best. If this was material that fell flat because of Conroy's absence that would be one thing, but it's just bland characterization from the get go and no amount of nostalgia, art style, or iconic voice work will cover that up. It's kind of funny because the show is enjoyable by in large, but the title character is the weakest part. I wouldn't be surprised if a great deal of the mixed reception was because of that. "Batman is the worst part of a Batman show" is a perfectly valid and damning criticism.

That said, I do want to praise Hamish Linklater, the poor guy's got his work cut out for him, being in the Shadow of the Bat, as it were, and he does a fine job. I can tell it's not Conroy, obviously, and sometimes it sounds like a mix of Brave and the Bold with New Frontier Batman where I'm not sure if he's trying to do an impression or not. But midway through the series it starts to get really close, there are even moments that remind me of Conroy's performance in TAS' Two-Face two parter, glimpses where Linklater almost has the softer tones down pat. And his Bruce is damn near spot on. I hope he stays on as a voice for Batman and gets more opportunities as the character, he could potentially become to Conroy's Batman what Matthew Lillard is to Casey Kasem's Shaggy; It's not the same, but goddamn do they do a fine job capturing the tone and vibe while being a fine performer in their own right.

But they have GOT to give him better material because this Batman is sorely lacking in the things I love most about the character.

Speaking of, I don't want to spend too long discussing the second season (Which it is getting) but I have concerns there. The big one for me is foreshadowing that Alfred is keeping a secret about the night the Waynes were shot. I HATE when they over complicate the murder and try to make it something more like a targeted hit, or the court of owls or some other stupid shit. That's the one major thing I hate in The Batman movie is them muddying the waters with a perfectly good victim of circumstance story-- although it's kinda worse there because they wouldn't even fully commit. But I digress. I do not want the shit with the Waynes more complicated than it needs to be. If Alfred suggested a shortcut and he feels responsible for their deaths, sure, whatever. That's simple enough to add some character drama without going overboard. But it's probably gonna be the big overarching story next season with secret twists and- blegh. Honestly, I think I'd rather just have stand alone episodes without a running narrative thread; just have the characters and their dynamics developing and that be it. The show is clearly better when it's just that. But alas, modern streaming.

But with all that said, I still liked the season well enough. As I said at the beginning, the series is good to very good. I love the atmosphere, I enjoy most of the character and the cast, the self contained stories are solid and there's plenty of potential. But next season I need Batman and the villains to be more interesting, let Linklater give a sympathetic performance for fucks sake. If Season 2 is just more of the same, I'll clock out.

Still, I guess anything is better than say Harley assaulting Nightwing... Or the Killing Joke. You know what, there's a blurb of recommendation for Caped Crusader: "No weirdo awkwardly shoved their fetishes into the story." So check it out.

[inhumansforever]

Opinions on Alex Ross?

A tremendous illustrator. And I love that he has shown a particular fondness for the Inhumans. Kingdom Come remains one of my favorite limited series.

Photo-realistic comic art is not really my bag... I prefer a more cartoony, minimalistic style (like Bruce Timm, Alex Toth, Babs Tarr and Darwyn Cooke). But there is no one who does photo-realistic better than Ross and his art never fails to impress.

[katlyntheartist]

Honestly I love how you do character designs, they're very cartoony!! What's your art style inspired from? was it from a cartoon or movie?

Thank you!

My art style is inspired by the movies and cartoons from my childhood to the present day. There are way too many to list but if I had to boil it down, my artwork is a hybrid of Laika Studios, Cartoon Saloon, Genndy Tartakovsky, Bruce Timm, and The Flying Bark Studios. With just a touch of Titmouse and Studio La Chachette.

[cozmicspacecow]

So apparently everyone was posting their Scooby Doo redesigns in January. As usual, I'm late to the party but here's my take on an update of the gang

I did it in Bruce Timms art style because it's my favourite style to do designs in, and honestly these started out as fashion designs inspired by the gang that I ended up developing more thoroughly 😅 I like to imagine he'd produce the series, I love his style and find it so aesthetically pleasing.

I feel like the Velma show (from what little clips I've seen) just really didn't capture the essence of what Scooby Doo is, and I feel like these versions of the characters would be, just like, so much more compatible. I actually came up with a plot line and loads of little ideas for their show in my head, I'll do another post detailing it more if people like them lol 😅

And because I ran out of space, here is each character's personal anthem:

DUNCAN BLAKE - I Think We're Alone Now (Tiffany)

SHERRY - Bad Reputation (Joan Jett And The Blackhearts)

FRIEDA JONES - Push It (Salt-N-Pepa)

VILHELM DINKLEY - Kiss (Prince)

[brucetimmbs]

These were the first drawings that got me back into drawing. I loved Batman Beyond, Batmas TAS, Justice League and JLU. Bruce Timm's animation style along with his art are a feast for the eyes. I am practicing/admiring this style on this blog. More to come soon.