I was one of those goofy kids whose year narrowed down to focus on Christmas from about September on. I guess I was like Ralphie in 'A Christmas Story,' in that I would get swept up into the anticipation of the holiday, watching the lights go up, hearing the songs in the stores, getting special Christmas issues of comics and all that.

As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.

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.

One Thanksgiving weekend, I had a lost weekend at a friend's place with 'Grand Theft Auto.'

I always think of the Joker as the ultimate bully. Nothing he says is funny except to him.

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.

Bruce Wayne needs a sense of humor to do his job. Batman, for a very long time, was going to a very dark place.