Meet Catfan himself!

Timothy John Forbes, webmaster

Born: 1 June 1959 in Troy, New York, USA

My interest in comics began 20 years ago when I was working and living in the Rochester, New York area. Times weren’t easy there, but by chance, TV Land was showing the 1966 Batman series. It got me thinking about whether or not Catwoman was still appearing in the comics. I soon learned that she had her own comic book series, and I was soon reading up on her. She had changed a lot since the Sixties, and I liked the direction Ed Brubaker and the late Darwyn Cooke were taking her in.

The first decade of this century was a turbulent time for me, and I had to relocate to New York’s Southern Tier in fall 2005, and spend a decade there dealing with some financial obligations. My interest in the comics grew, as I joined an online forum, and in August 2004, I began this web site. It would go onto its own domain, catwomanfan.com, in January 2006, and then be converted over to the WordPress format three years ago this summer.

As I started learning more about the comics, I also became aware that there were fan films being made of various shows, and not just the Caped Crusader. I stumbled across work that James Cawley did for Star Trek, and that of Chris R. Notarile, then a New Jersey-based indie filmmaker. They inspired me to start work on what was to become Batman 1969 in 2005. The actual filming of that began in August 2007, and continued on for the following three years, most of it in Canada. Though flawed, it turned out at least to be a coherent story, and a lot of fun to make.

It also got me into cosplay.

As a kid, I never gave any thought about portraying a super hero. In 1966, my interest was in either being a cartoonist or someone who worked with traffic signals. But out of necessity I decided to play the Caped Crusader. That was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone, and I still prefer to restrict my cosplay for video. That said, it has been a lot of fun.

While I don’t eat, drink or sleep Gotham City, I am thinking of the fan series, and want to start by finding a leading lady, much the same way as I did with The Conquest of Batman. We’ll keep you posted as things develop!