B:TB&tB episode 20

B:TB&tB episode 20, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 20 "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!" directed by Brandon Vietti.

Interior of Catwoman's plane.

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 19 B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19 B:TB&tB episode 19, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 19 "Legends of the Dark Mite!" Directed by Ben Jones.

By this point on Brave and Bold, we already have had plenty on Easter eggs hidden within our show. In this episode however, Bat-Mite had that egg laying rabbit working overtime. Not only did this episode have our usual nods to Silver Age comic covers and stories, but there were nods to "Batman: The Animated Series", Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", Adam West, cameos from members of our crew, and two Comic Con attendees that look suspiciously like Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (who also wrote the episode). I think one of the sharpest left turns that Bat-Mite took viewers to was an homage of Bob Clampett's classic, "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery". If you have never seen "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", do yourself a favor - stop reading this and watch it right now!:

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 19 "Legends of the Dark Mite!" Directed by Ben Jones.

O.K., now that hopefully everyone is familiar with one of the best cartoon shorts of all time, we can get back to Brave and Bold's homage to the Clampett classic.

To get the gouache painted look of the original Clampett cartoon, I not only used Adobe Photoshop (which we usually use to paint the backgrounds on B:TB&tB), but I also used Corel Painter. Corel Painter was good for mimicking the paper and paint texture that you would get with water color paints. Whenever possible, I tried to match the color for our segment with backgrounds from "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery".

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19 "Legends of the Dark Mite!" Directed by Ben Jones.

All of the characters in this section were designed and drawn by James Tucker. Here on the left you can see James' Tweedledee character design without color and on left Tweedledum after he's been painted.

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 19 "Legends of the Dark Mite!" Directed by Ben Jones.

Usually when we send backgrounds overseas, they are used only as keys and are repainted. For this section though, we wanted to Korea to use our art as production art, so we sent it as "camera ready". This means we have formatted the art to correct size to be dropped in and that we had provided enough "bleed" on the artwork in case the art had to be reframed slightly.

Instead of Daffy's "Neon Noodle" foe, Bat-Mite had to contend with "Zebraman". To get the strobing stripe effect, I had to paint part of the character twice. As you see in the corners of the artwork, I provided registration marks so overseas can line up the artwork correctly.

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 19 "Legends of the Dark Mite!" Directed by Ben Jones.

A few more of Bat-Mite's foes: Mr. Polka Dot, Kite-Man, Mr. Zero (a predecessor to Mr Freeze), and Killer Moth. The snow on the Mr. Zero character was sent on a separate layer so all Korea had to do was slowly pan that layer.

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 19

B:TB&tB episode 19, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 19 "Legends of the Dark Mite!" Directed by Ben Jones.

What's the end of a wacky Warner Bros cartoon without a "That's All Folks!"? I tried to match the paint and color from the original Porky version with Bat-Mite's (even down to the wood grain on the bass drum).

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 18

B:TB&tB episode 18, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 18 "The Color of Revenge!" Directed by Michael Chang.

In this episode, we see Robin's city of Blüdhaven for the first time on Brave and Bold.


"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 18

B:TB&tB episode 18, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 18 "The Color of Revenge!" Directed by Michael Chang.

Also debuting in this episode is Wayne Manor, the Bat-phone, the Shakespeare bust, and the Bat-poles.

"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 17

B:TB&tB episode 17, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

B:TB&tB episode 17 "Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!" Directed by Brandon Vietti.

It was always fun when we would break out of our usual style for the show. For Booster Gold's slide show presentation to the toy company, we tried to make it look a little like an 80's comic. James Tucker drew these and I did the color on them.


"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.

B:TB&tB episode 17

B:TB&tB episode 17, a photo by William Joseph Dunn on Flickr.

These backgrounds were for the flashback scene that told Kru'll the Eternal's origin.




"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.