Glen Murakami

American animator, artist, character designer, director and producer

Glen Murakami is an American animator, artist, character designer, director and producer best known for his work on Teen Titans, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans Go!, Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. Murakami is the creator and producer of the Cartoon Network series Teen Titans.

Murakami originally wanted to be a comic book artist. His friend from junior high and high school, Keith Weesner, got a job working on Batman: The Animated Series as a background artist and informed Murakami when they were hiring artists at Warner Bros. Animation. Murakami was given a storyboard test, which he failed. But seeing his drawing talent, he was hired anyway. Working closely with Bruce Timm, Murakami worked as a character designer and storyboard artist from 1991 to 1993. From 1995 to 1999, Murakami worked as Art Director on Superman: The Animated Series and The New Batman/Superman Adventures. With the direction for the new show put in place, Murakami, as the show's creator, would co develop the series with Register and television writer David Slack and serve as the show's producer. After a decade working on shows produced by his friend and mentor Bruce Timm, Murakami produced the Teen Titans without Timm, which was his first series without him. In addition to being series creator and producer, he was also character designer on the series. Murakami approached the show with an unusual design style, setting them apart from the rest of DC Comics animated programing. The show's style was dubbed Murakanime or "Americanime". On developing the characters from the comics to the show, Murakami made sure that they were unique and different enough from other former DC shows. He stated: "We picked the characters that we thought were the most iconic and the most symbolic." "I wanted it to be very, very clear to understand them. Robin's the leader. Starfire's the alien, but she's also the metaphor for the foreign exchange student or outsider. Cyborg's the strong man. Beast Boy's the funny one, but he's insecure. He can be all of these animals, but at the same time he's still really insecure. Early on, my whole thing was I wanted to understand their flaws because I thought that's what will make them human. I think sometimes with the Justice League, all the characters are in some ways so perfect it makes it hard to relate to them!'

Murakami illustrated the Star Wars comic Death Star Pirates originally published in issues #16 through #20 of the Star Wars kids magazine in 1998 and later collected in Star Wars Tales Volume 2 by Dark Horse Comics. He also drew a cover for Teen Titans Go!, and wrote and drew for stories in Batman Adventures and Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories, winning an Eisner Award for his work in the Batman Adventures Holiday Special.

Murakami's influences include Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, John Byrne, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, and Dave Stevens.