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.
Early life
Bruce Timm was born on February 5, 1961,[2] 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.[3]
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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[10] 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, and 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.[11] He also served as producer on the feature-length Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)[12] 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.[13] Timm was also the producer and creator of Green Lantern: The Animated Series (premiered in November 2011).[14] Along with Dini he created the animated series Freakazoid! (premiered in September 1995).[15]
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. He shared character designer duties on Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League with James Tucker.[16]
Timm worked with Man of Steel director Zack Snyder in creating a 75th anniversary short of Superman in 2013.[24] In 2014, he released Batman: Strange Days, an animated short celebrating the 75th anniversary of Batman and an homage to one of Hugo Strange's first appearances in the comic books.[25]
During DC FanDome 2021, Timm was announced to be executive producing a new Batman animated series titled Batman: Caped Crusader alongside J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. Comparing the new series to Batman: The Animated Series, Timm stated, "There were certain limitations on what we could do in terms of adult content; in terms of violence and adult themes. My idea is basically to say, 'OK, it's 1990 again, I get to do what I want to do this time, and I got JJ and Matt backing me up.'"[26]
Acting
Timm has played several characters in the animated series he has been involved in. His cameos include the 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series, "Beware the Gray Ghost", playing the toy shop owner,[27] as himself in the 1997 episode of The New Batman Adventures, "Holiday Knights", and as the leader of the Jokerz gang in Batman Beyond, which he joked he did under duress and was "Emmy Award-winning material".[28] He subsequently appeared in an animated form in the 2009 episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, "Legends of the Dark Mite", in a comic book convention parody scene, in which he wore Joker's costume, alongside Paul Dini in Harley Quinn's costume.[28] He played a guard in the 2000 direct-to-videoanimated filmBatman Beyond: Return of the Joker.[29]
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.[31] 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.[32][33]
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.[34][35] 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.[36] Later, Timm was involved with Batman Adventures and has also worked on Avengers and Vampirella.[37][38]
In 2000, he did the art for an issue of DC's Vertigo imprint horror title, Flinch.[39]
Timm co-created Harley Quinn (with Dini), working from Dini's original design.[40] 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.[41]
Timm also drew the 1999 Avengers 1½ special for Marvel Comics, written by Roger Stern.[39] 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.[41] Timm provided the art work for a short two-page Harley Quinn origin story for Dini's Countdown in 2008.[41]
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.[42] One month later, O'Brien aired a clip on his show in which the character, named "The Flaming C", appears in Young Justice.[43]
In 2013, Timm provided the cover artwork for Adventures of Superman #4.[44]
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.[45] 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.[46]
