Crazy In Love
SFX|September 2016

Joseph McCabe meets Paul Dini, Creator of Harley Quinn

Joseph McCabe
Crazy In Love

While no Batman foe since the Dark Knight’s golden age has had quite the cultural impact of Harley Quinn, maybe it’s a little unfair to call her a villain. The former Dr Harleen Quinzel – a psychiatrist who carried her fascination with the Joker a little too far – is really a free-spirited antihero, a loveable sprite who was led astray by her “Mistah J”.

Writer-producer Paul Dini created Harley for Batman: The Animated Series in the ’90s, and partly based her on his friend, actress and comedienne Arleen Sorkin; who voiced the character throughout the show’s run.

“I knew I wanted a henchgirl in one episode,” Dini tells SFX. “And I felt it was a character that Arleen could play really well. I had seen her play a jester character in a fantasy sequence on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. I thought, ‘That’s really funny. Maybe I’ll use some of that for the henchgirl character…’

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