Author: Paul Dini and Chip Kidd
Publisher: Dey Street Books
Rating: 5/5
Buy: Amazon

Batman: The Animated Series is the greatest animated show ever made. I’d go further than that. I think it belongs in any serious conversation about the best television shows period, animated or not. I’ve thought that since I was a kid and nothing has changed my mind.

So this book was always going to get my attention.

Batman Animated is a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the series put together by Paul Dini and Chip Kidd. The art is what pulled me in. Storyboards, character designs, background paintings — the kind of stuff you always wanted to see more of but never got. Flipping through it feels like going back to something you forgot you missed.

Bruce Timm’s visual style gave the show an identity that held up then and holds up now. Dark and sharp, with a look that felt more like film noir than a kids cartoon. But that’s the thing about this show. It never really felt like a kids cartoon. The villains were genuinely menacing. Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, the Joker — these weren’t joke characters. They had weight to them. Batman had weight to him. The show treated its stories seriously and you felt it in every episode.

That’s what put it in the same conversation as the best live action television of its era. It had writing and atmosphere that most shows never manage.

Batman Animated captures a lot of that. It won’t replace watching the show but it gives you a real look at how something that good gets made. If you grew up with this one, the book is worth your time. Five stars.

If this show meant something to you growing up, you might want to know that my debut poetry collection Fading Light: Echoes of a 90s Childhood includes a poem called Gotham — written for exactly the feeling this show gave a kid sitting in front of the TV in the 90s. It releases August 30th. More details coming soon.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.