The Joker has never looked more at home than in the shadows of Gotham, scheming in the background of a film that still stands as the finest hour of the entire DC Animated Universe. This original production cel from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm captures Mark Hamill's Joker, sporting a bloody nose, in a moment of quiet menace, set against a printed lithographic Gotham skyline, and carries the hand-written signature of director Kevin Altieri on the cel face.

Mask of the Phantasm arrived on Christmas Day, 1993, under circumstances that could easily have killed it. Originally planned for home video, it was pushed into theatrical release on short notice, compressed into an eight-month production schedule, and it still delivered. Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm, written by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko and Michael Reaves, it was the first theatrically released feature from Warner Bros. Animation, and by almost any measure it remains their best. The Joker's role in the story was the subject of debate in the writers' room, Burnett wanted a tale as far from the regular rogues' gallery as possible, but the character found his place anyway, and with devastating effect. He emerges mid-film as the man who murdered Carl Beaumont on the mob's orders, the thread that ties the Phantasm's revenge back to Bruce Wayne's own tragedy. It is a cold, clever piece of plotting, and in the hands of the Animated Series' creative team, the Joker feels genuinely dangerous in a way the character had rarely managed on screen.

The cel itself is 12-field with bottom peg holes intact, and carries the Warner Bros. Animation official Studio Art Programme seal upper right. Production codes #FA15496 and 095 P137 are annotated on the mounting board, and the Clampett Studio Collections Certificate of Authenticity, numbered to match, confirms this as a genuine original production cel. The Warner Bros. I.D. number on the certificate reads IFA15496.

For anyone who grew up watching this series, owning a Joker cel from Mask of the Phantasm, signed by one of the show's directors, is a deeply specific kind of satisfaction. This is the film that proved the animated series was operating at a level beyond television.