Here's part of a storyboard that I published in an edition of Animato way back when. A Las Vegas-based writer named Christopher Kindred wrote two great pieces on the first Batman animated series for me and was able to get all sort of art from the show courtesy of Paul Dini. Thanks to both of you!
I loved this series as I thought it was doing something that few other animated superhero series ever did: it treated the subject matter with respect and style. When I was at my college p.r. job that I hated I had an odd Mac computer that allowed me to watch television as I worked! So at 4 p.m. each day I usually tuned into a Batman re-run as I churned out some fodder for the press.
I was never a fan of the Hanna-Barbera school of super-heroics. While Space Ghost is great fodder for parody it was a lousy formulaic show as was such tripe as "Super Friends," "Birdman", etc.
The first Batman series cleverly brought to it artistic influences from the Tim Burton films and Frank Miller's Dark Knight as well as the Fleischer "Superman" cartoons. it was an animated superhero show that could appeal to both kids and adults.
Over the years there have been several series that have used the first one as an artistic foundation. And I think it's still the best.
© 2008 by Gordon Michael Dobbs
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