‘Gotham’ Fan Art Imagines Jerome and Other Characters in Animated Series

Despite Batman’s successes on the big screen, the iconic comic character has only had a handful of noteworthy outings on television. Until Gotham came along, the only TV show starring the Caped Crusader in the last couple of decades that kept fans buzzing was Batman: The Animated Series.

What if the worlds of Gotham and Batman: The Animated Series were to be combined? An artist by the name of Rick Celis recently explored that possibility, and the results were certainly exciting.

On Tuesday morning, Celis released a couple of character portraits from his take on the mashup, titled Gotham: The Animated Series. These images examine what characters like Jim Gordon, Lee Thompkins, R’as al Ghul, Ed Nygma, and Jerome Valeska would look like if Gotham were actually an animated series, rather than live action.

You can check out all five of the portraits below!

What Celis does so well in these designs is blend the styles that have made both Gotham and Batman: The Animated Series so beloved. The art takes hints from the ’90s series, finding a way to make cartoons that seem down to Earth, but still feel like they could be watched by both children and adults. Instead of basing the designs off of the comic characters however, Celis used Gotham to inspire the portraits, giving them a look all their own.

Of course, the one image that garners the most attention amongst fans is the portrait of Jerome, played on the show by Cameron Monaghan. The character has become the most popular on the show for his Joker-like mannerisms, though the cast and creative team insist that Jerome won’t go on to be the Joker in the future.

During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Gotham star David Mazouz tried his best to clarify the Jerome/Joker comparisons.

“We’ve been asking ourselves this question, ‘Is Jerome the Joker? He obviously is acting a lot like the Joker. Is he the Joker?,’” Mazouz explained. “This is a perfect way to answer that, because we don’t want to say yes, but we don’t want to say no. We don’t want to say no because Jerome is so much like the Joker, so what they end up doing is kind of a great balanced way to answer that question and to have Jerome maybe be involved in the creation of the Joker but have him not be the Joker.”

Gotham airs on Thursday nights at 8pm ET on FOX. The upcoming episode, “A Dark Knight: A Beautiful Darkness,” will feature the the highly-anticipated return of Jerome.