Alright, it’s time to feel old.

Batman: The Animated Series is 17 years old. It’s been that long since Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and the gang changed the way superhero cartoons went about being made, and while the memory lives on in DVDs and reruns, it’s easy to lose focus on how innovative a series it was.

So let us go back to the beginning. 1990. 1 year since Tim Burton gave Batman a new lease in the world of pop culture, 2 years before airdate, the team behind the show had to plot their world in a Writer’s Bible.

And, thanks to the magic of the internet, it’s downloadable in PDF form. It’s an AWESOME read, and really gives you a look behind the scenes of a TV show, to see the work done before script #1 is even written. You’ll easily lose your afternoon or evening to this.

Click here for the file.

Or, if you prefer, I’ve uploaded it myself on my own hosting here: Batman Writer’s Bible.

Original Post:  “This Is Batman, Not Jonathan Swift” - Batman - io9.