Bruce Walter Timm (born February 5, 1961) is an American artist, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for contributing to building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably as the head producer behind Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000), The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), Batman Beyond (1999–2001), Justice League (2001–2004), and Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006).
He also co-created Freakazoid! (1995–1997) alongside Paul Dini and developed Green Lantern: The Animated Series (2012–2013). Following the conclusion of the DCAU, Timm went on to produce several DC animated films under the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, such as Wonder Woman (2009), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010), Justice League Doom (2012), Superman vs The Elite (2012), The Dark Knight Returns (2013) and Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015).
Outside of animation, Timm has also drawn and written several comic books. Timm and Dini collaborated on The Batman Adventures: Mad Love, which told the origin story of Harley Quinn and won the Eisner Award for Best Single Story in 1994.
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Early life
Bruce Timm was born on February 5, 1961, in Oklahoma, the third of four brothers. 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.
Timm began drawing from a young age and developed a serious interest in comics around age 12 or 13. His first exposure to superhero media was the 1960s Batman television series. Timm went to college for only one year before dropping out due to bad grades. After dropping out, he began working full-time at Kmart until he saw a Filmation ad inviting new artists to take a layout test. Timm applied in mid-1980, but wasn't offered the job and went back to working for Kmart. The next year, Filmation began hiring again. Timm passed the layout test on his second try and from that point on began working in animation.
Career
Animation
Timm's early career in animation 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. He also did background work on G.I. Joe. He also worked for numerous other employers, including Ralph Bakshi and Don Bluth Productions, and attempted to find work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics, but was unsuccessful. During an animators strike in 1982, Timm found himself out of work and went back to Kmart for about half a year, before being hired by Don Bluth to help work on The Secret of NIMH. In 1987, he was hired by John Kricfalusi to do layouts for Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which Timm called "artistically and creatively the most fulfilling job that I'd had in the animation business". He worked at DIC Entertainment on The Real Ghostbusters for one season in 1988, then joined Warner Bros. in 1989. At Warner, Timm worked on Tiny Toon Adventures.
Timm was one of the creators and producers of the animated series based on various DC Comics superheroes, known as the DC Animated Universe. The DCAU has also named the "Timmverse" or "Diniverse", after both him and Paul Dini, a writer and producer.
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 and Dini co-created the character of Harley Quinn. Timm created 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.
After the success of Batman: The Animated Series, Timm 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 and Dini co-created Terry McGinnis, the teenage Batman of the future, and his supporting cast. He also served as producer on the feature-length Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) 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 in July 2004. Timm was also the producer and creator of Green Lantern: The Animated Series (premiered in November 2011). Along with Dini he created the animated series Freakazoid! (premiered in September 1995).
Comics
Outside of his work in animation, Timm's first ambition was to become a comic-book artist and has thus produced several one-shots and miniseries, mostly for DC Comics. His earliest comic book work was drawing He-Man and other Masters of the Universe mini-comics that would be packaged with Mattel toys in the 1980s.
In 1994, Timm and writer Paul Dini won both the Eisner Award for Best Single Story and the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story for Batman Adventures: Mad Love. Timm won the same Eisner 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.
In 2000, he did the art for an issue of DC's Vertigo imprint horror title, Flinch.
Timm co-created Harley Quinn (with 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, he 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. Timm provided the art work for a short two-page Harley Quinn origin story for Dini's Countdown in 2008.
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. One month later, O'Brien aired a clip on his show in which the character, named "The Flaming C", appears in Young Justice.
In 2013, Timm provided the cover artwork for Adventures of Superman #4.
Art books
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. In 2020, he released another 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 self-taught, having never received any formal art schooling. Timm lists his artistic influences as Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Jim Steranko, John Buscema, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Dan DeCarlo, and Alex Toth.
Personal life
Timm is married to his wife, Marta. They have one daughter.