Michael E. Uslan

Uslan was the honorary speaker at the 2012 Westfield State University commencement ceremonies, held on May 19, 2012.

On October 10, 2012 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey.

2011 saw the publication of his autobiography, The Boy Who Loved Batman. Uslan then wrote the foreword to the 2012 Wiley & Sons book Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight, by Dr. Travis Langley.

In 2011, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Peace River Film Festival.

With only some brief (foreword) writing and editing stints in between, Uslan scripted the 2009 six-part story, Archie Marries Veronica.

In 2009 he was awarded the West Point Cadet Choice Award for the character Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight.

Uslan was the honorary speaker at the 2006 Indiana University commencement ceremonies, held on May 6, 2006.

In 2005, Uslan donated his 30,000 comic book collection to Indiana University's Lilly Library (rare books and manuscripts library), a collection which (according to his wife Nancy) "filled three rooms of their house."

As a film and TV producer, in addition to their many DC Comics film credits (in addition to all the Batman films and the two Swamp Thing films, Uslan and Melniker were executive producers on the Swamp Thing TV series, 2004's Catwoman and 2008's The Spirit film, among others), Uslan has "produced a surprisingly diverse list of film and television."

With his co-executive producers, Uslan won a 1995 Daytime Emmy for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and he was also awarded an Independent Spirit Award at the 2005 Garden State Film Festival.

Uslan is best known as an executive producer with Benjamin Melniker of all of the modern Batman films to date, starting with Tim Burton's 1989 film, and continuing to Justice League and also including various direct-to-video feature-length films, including those based on Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman.

These include Three Sovereigns for Sarah (1985), starring Vanessa Redgrave, part of the American Playhouse series on PBS dealing with the Salem Witch Trials and the children's geography-teaching TV show Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?.

Uslan created and co-produced the 1980s cartoon Dinosaucers and wrote a few episodes on the series. Uslan and Melniker were also associate producers on Disney's National Treasure.

Uslan attempted his first comics writing in 1975 at DC Comics' version of The Shadow and publishing competitor Charlton Comics' Charlton Bullseye. He also wrote a comic-book adaptation of Beowulf for DC Comics in 1975. He wrote some Batman comics before moving on to motion pictures.

Press coverage led to Uslan being invited to lecture at a number of colleges and high schools, as well as participate in talk shows on radio and TV (his first television appearance was alongside writers Steve Englehart and Gerry Conway). It also led to phone calls from Stan Lee, and eventually to a job offer from DC Comics. Uslan wrote a textbook dealing with his course, The Comic Book in America (Indiana University, 1971).

Uslan was born in Bayonne, New Jersey and was an avid comic book collector from a very young age, owning a collection that included the second issue of Batman and the first Superman comic, among others. He grew up in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey and graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1969, by which time his collection filled the garage of his home with 30,000 comic books. While still an undergraduate and a graduate at the same time at Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington, attempting to break into the film industry by sending off over 300 résumés (typed on a typewriter), Uslan "developed a course idea for the Experimental Curriculum program at IU".

Michael E. Uslan (/ˈ j uː s l ən / ; born June 2, 1951) is an American producer of the Batman films and was the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university.