THE UNOFFICIAL BATMAN

The first installment of a comprehensive oral history of the beloved TV series.

In this big, colorful book, Miller assembles interviews with many of the people who worked together to produce Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered on Fox Kids Network in 1992, ran for a total of 85 episodes until 1995, won three Daytime Emmy Awards and one Primetime Emmy Award (plus a slew of nominations), and became a cherished, iconic realization of the Batman character and supporting cast. In a series of profusely illustrated chapters, Miller presents interviews with virtually all of the people involved in the series, each of whom has an array of broad and specific memories of their time working on the show. The series was created by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski and developed by Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian; storyboard artist Brad Rader reflects on some of Timm’s artistic shortcomings: “As much [of] a huge fan of Bruce Timm as I am, one of the things that has always struck me about—like a potential flaw, depending on your point-of-view, in his artwork—is that all of his woman characters tend to look alike, which is, they all look basically like 12-year-old girls.” Miller does a sweeping, incredibly thorough job grounding readers in the lore and history of not only the Batman comics, but also the character’s countless iterations on screen. Fans of the old show will appreciate the visuals (storyboards, comic-book covers, photos, animation stills) and the frankness of the creators, as when Dini himself comments on the unusual amount of creative freedom the Warner Bros. gave him and his colleagues (“The executives there really appreciated the integrity of the show”). The book’s riches will send many newcomers hurrying off to find the show and savor it for the first time.

An invaluable account of the creation of a legendary Batman TV series.