Paul Dini has a mantle full of Emmys for a TV-writing career that has included such shows as Tiny Toon Adventures, G.I. Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Star Wars: The Clones Wars, and even ABC’s Lost. But he’s revered for his work expanding the Batman universe, first on the seminal Batman: The Animated Series, where he famously created the character of Harley Quinn, and later with DC Comics. His most recent graphic novel, however, is not fantasy — it’s the harrowing account of a brutal mugging that left Dini a broken man… and how the characters in his mind, led by the Caped Crusader, helped pulled him back from the brink.

Related: The Secret History of Harley Quinn—a Brief Oral History by Paul Dini

Illustrated by Eduardo Risso and published by DC imprint Vertigo, Dark Night: A True Batman Story is uncompromising in its depiction of Dini’s depression, his inability to work or go out in public, his reliance on alcohol as a crutch, and his imagined conversations with Joker, Penguin, and other members of Gotham’s rogues gallery taking the writer to dark places. Ultimately, though, it’s a version of Batman who, along with intense therapy, manages to rouse Dini from his depths. The writer recently met with Yahoo Movies in an office at DC headquarters, where he discussed the attack, his struggle to regain his life, and which of those comic-book characters still pop up in his head.

This book gives a very unflinching portrayal of what you went through. Was there ever any hesitation in putting yourself out there so candidly?

I knew I was going to open myself up, and I feared I was going to get a fair amount of derision from peers. It’s almost like stage fright: “What if they’re going to boo at me.” But some of them are going to boo and some of them are going tease [me] over this, but f**k it. Like I say in the book, if I let what people say bother me that much I would never have become a writer. As a writer you’re your own worst enemy. You have to fight your fear. This is something I had to say.

Memory is so visual — is that why you decided to tell Dark Night as a graphic novel?

I never thought I could tell this as a prose story. It wouldn’t have the same impact. I’m a very visual person, with a career in animation and comics. I thought, “Why not tell this story visually, why not illustrate the story?” And the graphic novel format was perfect. It would bring out everything I was hoping the readers would feel.

I don’t think I could have described the mugging as in prose as dynamically, as eloquently as Eduardo rendered it. It was so dramatic that when I first saw the pages, I shrieked and closed the book and couldn’t look at the file for a week. I just couldn’t look at it. But it had that emotional impact for me. I thought if I could look at this and burst into tears then it has the effect I want it to have. It’s really going to convey what I went through and the impact the incident had on me to readers.

Related: The Evolution of Harley Quinn—From Sketch to Screen Queen

It’s like I’m telling the story to friends and I make the point at the end, when I say I tell the story occasionally just to see what I’ve learned and where I’ve come from so I don’t forget what happened. And maybe if someone else is going through something similar, I can tell them not to block it out, not to be in denial. You don’t have to be ashamed of it.

View photos Dark Night Interior (Vertigo) More