Batman cartoonist Jerry Robinson dies
Cartoonist Jerry Robinson, who worked on the earliest Batman comics and claimed credit for creating the super-villian The Joker, died Thursday at the age of 89, his family confirmed.
"Batman has lost another father," said Batman movie producer Michael Uslan said. "Farewell to my dear, dear friend, mentor, and idol, Jerry Robinson."
Robinson, in a panel discussion at New York Comic Con in 2009, said he was a 17-year-old creative writing student at Columbia University when he was hired as a writer and illustrator at DC Comics.
Although he was initially just assisting Batman creator Bob Kane and Bill Finger, his chance to create The Joker came in 1940 when the demand for more Batman stories overloaded Finger.
"This was going to be a problem, so I volunteered to do one of the stories," Robinson said.
He handed in the work for a grade in his college creative writing class, he said.
"I wanted a very strong villain because I thought that's going to carry the story," Robinson said. "Villains are more exciting."
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Jerry Robinson fans might also enjoy this November 2011 Mr. Media audio interview with the legendary comic book artist, editorial cartoonist and international human rights crusader: http://www.mrmedia.com/?p=1092 .
Jerry Robinson was a often-overlooked great, and he was easily one of the best artists of the Golden Age, or any age. Although he modified his style when he did Batman stories in order to make it more compatible with Bob Kane's more cartoony style, Robinson's other work tended to be much more illustrative and realistic. His Black Terror work his both highly realistic and very dynamic, in a way that didn't become common in comic books until the sixties, but Robinson drew those stories in the forties!