[3] He attributed the ability to develop his own style as a byproduct of limited entertainment choices, allowing him to focus on deconstructing the comics that inspired him.

[1] In 1985, Cooke left his family on his own for the first time in order to show his samples at DC Comics' New York City offices.

Deciding that comics was not an economically feasible job, Cooke worked in Canada as a magazine art director, graphic and product designer for the next 15 years.

[1] Originally freelancing from Toronto, Cooke met his animation colleagues at San Diego Comic-Con and was approached about moving to Los Angeles full-time.

Despite no desire to live in Los Angeles, Cooke moved there to take advantage of "an opportunity to be a part of something that was never going to come around again this way," the ability to associate with creators such as Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, and Eric Radomski.

Surprisingly, Cooke employed his personal Macintosh computer in his spare bedroom and Adobe After Effects for most of the animation, as opposed to Warner Bros.' resources.

[7] During the scripting process, Cooke intervened to preserve both Wonder Woman and Lois Lane's places in the film, which had originally been eliminated due to time constraints.

The story led into a new Catwoman title in late 2001 by Brubaker and Cooke, in which the character's costume, supporting cast, and modus operandi were all redesigned and redeveloped.

[2] An untold story concept Cooke held onto involved the return and revenge of Catwoman's betrayed ex-lover Stark in a similar manner to the lead character of the film Point Blank.

Cooke began brainstorming The New Frontier after completing Batman: Ego and being steered by Mark Chiarello to do a Justice League story.

"[2] The story, set in the 1950s, featured dozens of super-heroes and drew inspiration from the period's comic books and movies as well as Tom Wolfe's non-fiction account of the start of the U.S. space program The Right Stuff and the novels of James Ellroy due to Ellroy's skill in weaving fictional characters into real history.

For the book's visual style, Cooke was inspired by 1950s advertising along with the works of Marvel Comics' Jack Kirby and Hanna-Barbera's Alex Toth.

Cooke employed non-linear narrative that increasingly tied together toward the conclusion, likening the approach to films like Memento, Pulp Fiction, and The Limey.

[2] In a 2014 interview, New Frontier co-editor Chiarello named the book as the work he was the most proud of his involvement in, calling it "as pure a comic-reading experience as any comic that's ever been published.

Bone had to step down, and an editorial reshuffle at DC moved editors Scott Dunbier and Kristy Quinn from the book, believing that resulting quality would not be up to his standards.

As Cooke developed the plot with artist Tim Sale, he realized he had no creative hook for a Superman story until discovering that, surprisingly, none had been told regarding the character's early fear and uncertainty at the limits of his invulnerability.

[15] Feeling more comfortable with human characters like Catwoman and Batman, Cooke nonetheless had pitched one other unrealized Superman graphic novel around 2002 in collaboration with artist and future Justice League: The New Frontier director David Bullock.

Cooke playfully made fun of American conventional wisdom that Canadian weather was always a blizzard, but accepted the premise as a central plot element.

[19] Their collaboration, The Twilight Children, takes place in a Latin American fishing village and mixes elements of science fiction and magic realism.

[20] While preparing for DC: The New Frontier and before creating Selina's Big Score,[2] the success of Batman: Ego led Cooke to Marvel Comics freelance work such as X-Force, Wolverine/Doop and Spider-Man's Tangled Web.

[3] In January 2015, Image Comics announced a three-part fully creator-owned project by Cooke entitled Revengeance, originally intended to launch June 2015.

[24] Compared by Cooke to Mickey Spillane's I, the Jury,[14] the psychological thriller and dark comedy had been tentatively titled Thunder Bay,[2] and was to be set in Toronto in 1986.

[29] Cooke acknowledged himself as difficult to work with,[17] a trait that was ultimately recognized as beneficial by his comic book industry peers.

[2] However, upon winning his first Eisner Award in 2005 for DC: The New Frontier, Cooke did feel gratification for his pursuit of comics as a career and understood that he was genuinely on the right path.