Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and thirteenth week of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false.

Here's Part 1 of this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed! Let's continue!

COMIC LEGEND:

Bruce Timm first tried to do a "Kamandi" animated series before he did "Batman: The Animated Series"

STATUS:

False

Last week, I wrote about how Bruce Timm tried to pitch Warner Bros. on doing a "Kamandi" animated TV series, but it didn't work.

Well, interestingly enough, reader Tony P. then wrote in to me to tell me that he had heard that not only had Timm pitched Warner Bros. on a Kamandi series after he had already had had success with "Batman: The Animated Series" and "Justice League," but that he had actually FIRST pitched Warner Bros. on doing a "Kamandi" series before he ever pitched them on "Batman: The Animated Series"!

Batman The Animated Series

Is that true? Did we almost have a "Kamandi" series INSTEAD of a "Batman" series?

Simply put, no. Bruce Timm addressed the rumor back in 1998, years before he actually did end up pitching a "Kamandi" series, in an interview with George Khoury for "Jack Kirby Collector" #21:

Khoury: I read somewhere there was a possibility of a Kamandi or a Fourth World animated movie. Was there any truth to that?

Timm: I don't know how that rumor even got out! That's something we've just started talking about among ourselves. It was a kind of a truthful rumor. We talked about it once, when we finished the new season of Batman and we hadn't yet got the pick-up on Superman or Batman. We were just going through the whole list of DC characters that we had the rights to, and we thought, "What would be a good series for kids?" I just immediately thought of Kamandi. I thought Kamandi would be a great kids' show. We never really did much more on it than that; we just talked about the possibility that we might do it. Then we got busy doing the new Batman and Superman, and kind of put it on hold for a while, but I'd still love to do a Kamandi show. I think Kamandi is a great character. It's actually my favorite Kirby comic from the DC era. I like the New Gods and Mister Miracle and everything, but there's something about Kamandi. I think it's his best writing.

So no, at the time, they had not even ever developed the idea at all, let alone try to pitch it instead of Batman!

So there ya go, Tony! Thanks for the suggestion!


Check out my latest TV Legends Revealed at CBR: How Did The Simpsons Deal With a Whiny Baseball Guest Star?


Check back Sunday for part 3 of this week's legends!

And remember, if you have a legend that you're curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!