DAVE BULLOCK TALKS SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, NEW FRONTIER

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dave Bullock, director of the recently released Justice League: The New Frontier, told The Continuum he has directed four episodes of Kids' WB!'s The Spectacular Spider-Man.

"The first one I directed was the Lizard episode," Bullock said. "I specifically asked for that, knowing it would absolutely be a much moodier, darker type story. Curt Connors is such a great character, so I pushed for that."

The episode, "Natural Selection," will be the series' third.

Bullock directed one episode in each of the first season's four arcs.

Bullock was a storyboard artist on previous DC animated series -- Justice League, Batman Beyond, Superman and Batman -- and was happy to direct on Justice League: The New Frontier, based on Darwyn Cooke's comic series.

"To get a chance to direct the key players in the DC Universe was a dream come true," he said. "There's such fantastic properties to work with. Darwyn's take, especially, I was much more in line with, retro early Silver Age versions of the heroes.

"It really seems to suit me as a person. My perspective on them is they're just good-hearted, good-natured people trying to find their way in the world. And it doesn't always line up with the latest incarnations being published. I feel the Silver Age is the purest versions of the characters."

Bullock has also directed three episodes of the upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars, as well as helping out on other episodes.

"I did that before working on New Frontier," he said. "It kind of shows you the difference time-wise between 2D animation and CG. Some of the stuff with Lucas has been in the can for quite a while. It's just that they wanted to build up a volume so they wouldn't have to go into reruns."