Batman Exec says, "Dreams More Important Than Box Office"

The self-proclaimed comic nerd did not dwell on his obvious success, apparent with his most recent film, which grossed more than $1 billion in the worldwide theatrical box office. Instead, the comic book writer put to use his well-honed story telling skills and his own life story to show his audience just how far “getting your foot in the door” can get you.

Executive Producer of the Batman movies and DC Comics writer, Michael Uslan, spoke Tuesday night at the University of Georgia’s Tate Student Center, presented by the University Union’s Ideas and Issues committee.

Uslan explained that fulfilling your dream, not breaking box office records, counted the most. He said that calculating your risks, rolling the dice, always having a Plan B—and sometimes a Plan C—and having a high threshold for frustration could only produce success.

He realized his dream as a young boy on a sticky, humid New Jersey afternoon when he was helping his father with masonry work.

“I had to figure out what my brick and stone was.” Looking over his glasses and clutching the lectern, Uslan shrugged unapologetically and said, “Mine was comics.”

Owning over 30,000 comic books before college, Uslan told his captive 224-person audience that his favorite was always Batman.

“He had the greatest superpower—humanity,” Uslan said. “I could relate to that…I thought I really could be this guy.”

Even at 8-years-old, this future comic revolutionist knew that one day he had to fulfill his own dream of writing for the Batman comic books. Eventually, Uslan would go on to succeed in his dream and more, owning rights to the second most profitable film ever produced.

By convincing the dean of Indiana University that comic books were comparable to contemporary mythology—and even going so far as to compare comic book Superman with the Biblical Moses—Uslan became the first credited college professor of comic books in the early 1970’s.

He soon after earned an internship at DC Comics under Saul Harrison where he had the opportunity to write for a comic called Shadow. When Julie Schwartz, “probably the most important comic editor of all time,” he remembered aloud, “said that ‘it didn’t stink,’” Uslan finally landed his dream job: writing for Batman.

Uslan did not sugarcoat his journey to success for his collegiate audience. He mentioned the 20,000 comic books he would have to sell for him to pay for his wedding rings as well as for law school.

He included grim statistics of receiving only two phone calls after he sent out 372 cover letters to entertainment agencies for a job after college.

He even acknowledged his “guardian angel,” who came in the shape of his surgeon father-in-law who paid his bills for five months while a television series contract was put on hold.

“I’ve been in the trenches battling for 32 years,” he said. “Doors will slam in your face. It happened to me regularly. But you have to knock and knock and knock until your knuckles bleed.”