A spirited, vibrant, and visually striking oral history of Batman: The Animated Series.
This second volume about a beloved animated TV show offers interviews, storyboards, insights, and more.
In this book, Miller continues his thorough and exhaustive oral and pictorial history of Batman: The Animated Series, which ran from 1992 to 1995 on the Fox Kids Network and immediately became both a critical success and a popular favorite. The author breaks down every episode of the Emmy Award–winning show, interviewing the writers, producers, directors, actors, and artists who brought the series to life. Virtually all of these creators echo one another in considering their time on the show as one of the high points of their professional lives. Almost all of them agree with series writer Mitch Brian in their enthusiastic estimation of the show itself. “The legacy of Batman: The Animated Series is it is one of the most ground-breaking, impressive, magnificent television shows in the history of television,” Brian asserts. “Notice I didn’t say animated television. It is one of the great TV shows of all time, in my opinion.” In addition to these interviews, Miller includes hundreds of stills, screenshots, and storyboards from the show, along with a wide variety of standout quotes (from the Joker, for instance: “What? Compare me to Batman?! I’ve got more style, more brains. I’m certainly a better dresser!”). In assembling all this colorful material, the author once again strikes the perfect balance between information and testimony, carefully drawing out of his interview subjects both background tidbits and personal insights. As with the first volume, this book doubles as an intriguing insiders’ look at the workings of the entertainment industry; the people Miller interviews aren’t giving him sanitized press releases. When one of these creators describes Batman: The Animated Series as “a show that just made its own vision and stuck to it,” fans will nod in agreement. Those aficionados will certainly want this definitive second volume.
A spirited, vibrant, and visually striking oral history of Batman: The Animated Series.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9798887710938
Page Count: 820
Publisher: BearManor Media
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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