Comics artist, writer, teacher, and creator’s rights advocate Jerry Robinson died Dec. 7, just weeks short of his 90th birthday.
Born Jan. 1, 1922, in Trenton, N.J., Robinson’s comics career began as an assistant to Batman writer and artist Bob Kane, where he helped create such characters as The Joker and Robin. Kane and Robinson would argue over credit for the work for years. DC soon hired Robinson away from Kane’s studio and made him a staff artist, where he produced numerous covers during the Golden Age.
After taking classes in journalism at Columbia University, Robinson moved to newspaper comic strips, a career he would pursue from the late 1950s through the 1970s, with political cartoons, including his long-running series Still Life with Robinson. He was elected president of both the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and the National Cartoonists Society, the only comics creator to hold both posts.
Robinson’s work included curating comics exhibits at fine art galleries beginning in 1972. That led to his creation of The Comics, a historical overview of comic strips in 1974, which was recently reprinted by Dark Horse.
With Superman: The Movie in development in the mid-’70s, Robinson joined with artist Neal Adams to get Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster credit for their work. Those efforts led to more recognition for various characters’ original creators and Robinson eventually being hired as a creative consultant on The Dark Knight.
In recent years, Robinson has appeared at Comic-Con International: San Diego where he and Mark Evanier have presented the Bill Finger Award during The Eisner Awards to two creators, one living and the other deceased. The Finger Award was named in honor of another member of the original Batman creative team.
Just a few weeks ago, art from Robinson’s collection, including the cover by Robinson for Detective Comics #67 (Sep 42), was sold by Heritage Comic Auctions.
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