In www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/thread?forumid=248951&messageid=1077642776&lp=1077687409 JB says: "The voice casting on "Batman" was truly extraordinary. There was hardly a character who opened his or her mouth on that show who did not speak with something very close to the voice I have heard in my head all these years.

Altho I did not enjoy the show as much, "Superman" did equally well with the casting. Ed Asner as Granny Goodness was inspired, and it was downright spooky when Maggie Sawyer turned up and spoke with exactly the right voice (Joanna Cassidy, as it happens),"

People who write often hear characters talking in their own voices (writing guides encourage writers to help characters to "find their own voices" and this is literal as much as figurative). And we are all readers here, of comics at least, so I suspect that many of us hear the characters speaking in particular voices (indeed, many of us may well speak comic dialogue out loud while we are reading: I confess that I do, though only on re-reading!).

So there are two directions I encourage this thread to go in. Part One is open house, for everyone to comment on voice casting they have thought was very appropriate, and voice casting they would like to hear, and Part Two is specifically for JB. JB, you hear character voices from a perspective which is different to most of us - many of the characters are "toys which were already in the playchest", but some of them are characters you have originated (Maggie Sawyer being a case in point). Is it different for you when you hear one of your own characters speak for the first time to when you hear one of the toys which was already in the box and, if so, how? (also, do please feel free to leap into Part One if you feel like it!)

Not sure I understand the question. Are you referring to the moment of creation, when a character "speaks" for the first time, or to voice casting when I hear one of my characters actually speak? If the second, I have no real answer, since Maggie is thusfar the only one of my characters I have heard speak via an actual human voice. If the former, there's no conscious difference between "hearing" the voice of a character when I first read him/her and "hearing" the voice of a character when I first writer her/him.

Pretty good answer considering I didn't explain myself properly! I think I was most interested in the characters which you had had a hand in creating - a little surprised to hear that Maggie was the only one (maybe the only one you've heard? How about any of the X-Men cartoons?)