Batman is dark and moody and spooky and, in some cases, methodical.
When it's only you that you can rely on, you're surprised at the resilience you have.
The Joker is a tremendous vehicle for talented actors. Cesar Romero's was a bubbly, lunatic criminal. Nicholson did him as a vain, preening manipulator. Heath's performance of the Joker was remarkable, too. His was a low-simmering crazy street clown. Joker can be played all these ways, and they're all true.
In every story I've written with Batman, there's an element of justice - you never want to have the story end on a defeatist or a cynical note.
Nobody loves a good 'Batman' story more than I do.
There's a little bit of Sid and Nancy to the Joker and Harley look, which I always felt would not be a bad look if they were in a live-action movie.
Kids love the Hulk, but they're not really sure: 'Is he a monster or is he a hero?'
Everybody looks back on what they studied and what they grew up with.
In those times when a kid first tries to express themselves creatively, it sets them on a different path. Sometimes, that path can be really wonderful and can lead to a career doing some of the things you love. I also think that the price on that is a certain amount of alienation or distance created between a lot of the people around you.
What makes Batman and what makes other superheroes work is the myth that when life is at its lowest, and when you need a hero, a hero swings down and helps you.
It's a lot of fun to identify with a character who lives by their own rules.
As much fun as it is gaming, I have so much to do that I've had to get away from them. I still enjoy them. When I go to a friend's house and they have a game on, I'll happily join in and play.
Without Wonder Woman, there would be no Black Canary; without a Superman, there would be no Flash. They all come from that.
If your child has something creative they really want to do, it's up to you, their parent, to help make that happen.
Hugo Strange is interesting in the sense that he's a master manipulator. He doesn't really engage Batman in any sort of physical way. His weapon is his mind, and he's very incisive and clever: he reads people and sizes them up almost instantly.
I'll continue doing 'Jingle Belle' as long as I've got a good story for her.
I like artists to have some freedom.
You can have villains like the Penguin, who strut around in a tuxedo with an umbrella, and Poison Ivy and all of the fantastic stuff she does, but unless there's a bit of a human in there, and unless there's a credible threat, then Batman himself doesn't work.
I remembered what it was like: the weirdness, being the odd man out, trying to make my way around campus, and trying to figure out who my friends would be, who to steer clear of. I wrote it all down in a fanciful way - the feelings of alienation, the feelings of uncertainty, of being away from home for the first time.
I have a great fondness for any character I work on. Whether it's somebody like Batman or Harley Quinn or whatever character I'm writing, I just really enjoy the heck out of it, and I try to do the best job I can with it.
When you're writing for a game - even if you're using very well known characters like Batman and his villains who lend themselves to many different interpretations - you have to keep in mind that you're writing for a different medium. Things are a bit more straightforward than it is for a feature film or a TV show.
I was writing a script about the Joker menacing a regular person who had strayed into his path, and I needed to give him a gang of henchmen to work with him. The idea occurred to me, let's put in a female henchperson, because that seemed like a fun variation on the regular big thug guys.
Most female characters have either been the temptress - like a Betty Boop type - or the victim - like an Olive Oil type.
That's the thing about writing for a lot of the villains is that, as a writer, you kind of have to put the best part of your own personality aside and instead focus on whatever little strange quirks you may have in your personality.
In 'Batman Beyond,' Terry McGinnis has the responsibility of protecting Gotham City, as well as maintaining a home and social life. He's also got a single mom and a pesky younger brother, which young kids will relate to.
As cool as it is to be Spider-Man at times, there's also a price to pay for that - and he has to learn to balance things out.
Creativity, for a lot of young people, is a coping mechanism. It's the only place they feel comfortable. It's the only time they feel like they're being heard or can make a difference, is if they can go into a room and do a drawing or go to a garage and play a song or retreat to this world.
The old Rankin-Bass animated specials seemed to exist in a loosely shared reality, which is what attracted me to them. Santa, Snow Miser, Rudolph, Frosty, even the Easter Bunny seemed to be on nodding acquaintance with each other, even if only in cameo appearances in each other's cartoons.
To some degree, I don't think 'Batman' works in a completely modern city; I think Gotham has be reflective of his personality and those of his enemies.
If we made the 'Batman' games more realistic, you'd have to be Bruce Wayne for half the game, counting his money and dating supermodels.
You don't have to limit yourself or feel that you've been limited by an act of cruelty.
I think you have to serve a lot of masters when you're doing a video game: you're not just telling a linear story or doing something that's all action.
There's something very, very liberating about Harley Quinn. Much more so than a character like Catwoman or Poison Ivy. Those are great characters. But then again, those characters are more of the femme fatale and the temptress roles.
I grew up loving cartoons, comics, magic, and writing.
I really didn't have any plan for her other than the henchgirl role, who was better at getting laughs out of the other gang members than the Joker was. I gave her the name Harley Quinn because I thought Harley was a fun name for a girl, and a lot of 'Batman' character names have a bit of a pun to them, like E Nygma.
There was a time I was willing to be a clown for people who I felt were the perfect person for me.
Mr. Freeze is motivated by different things. He doesn't really have that much of an axe to grind with Batman. Batman is an irritation and an impediment to him, not an enemy that he hates. He doesn't have the hatred that the Joker has for Batman.
There are some short stories in R. Crumb comics that are just wonderful and touch me in ways no other comics do.
I've always felt in my own small, little way that if I could just write a story where it works out well, where the scales of justice are balanced, then that's something that I do really love to see in the world.
I looked at comics like a buffet table, where you take a little bit of something and leave the other stuff behind.
You have to be kind to yourself to survive in the world.
I remember when I saw 'The Dark Knight' movie, and I was sitting there watching it, and there actually came one or two places where I had trouble divorcing myself from the reality of the locations because it was filmed in Chicago, and I know that city quite well.
We're all painfully aware of how suddenly violence can occur, how crippling it is, and how survivors have to find a way back from that.
'Jingle Belle' spins out of my love for just sitting down and reading a good, fun Sunday morning comic strip panel.
As a writer, every time I create a character, I try to go for something to captivate the audience in some way. It's also an extension of how the audience would like to see themselves.
I wouldn't call the Joker exactly easy to write.
As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.
Batman's got this whole cloaked 'man of mystery' thing around him and represents a wish fulfillment. He's more driven than Superman yet is also very human.
We had established Harley Quinn as an accomplice to the Joker who was also crushing on him and found herself in the middle of this weird relationship being at the beck and call of his every whim. We wanted to stretch her and make her a stronger character, so to have her leave him and go off on her own was a story I wanted to tell for a while.
