The man who created the Joker and was instrumental in the creation and guidance of Batman and his world, has reportedly passed away.
I was lucky enough to hang with him a number of times. He was always genial, informative, and a true gentleman. He will be sorely missed.
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RIP, Jerry. You will be greatly missed.
I wonder, if there’s anything to the whole multiverse idea, if The Joker, wherever he is, is crying right now.
This is REALLY the end of an era.
R.I.P Jerry, you earned it.
I’m glad I got to photograph him at the Big Apple Con back in May.
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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:5.21.11JerryRobinsonByLuigiNovi1.jpg
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At the time, I lamented that I hadn’t brought my copy of The Killing Joke for him to sign on the Saturday of the convention, when he was there, and after he didn’t show the following day, I wondered if there’d be another opportunity. But at least I got a chance to meet him.
I was lucky enough to meet him a few years back at a big convention in London. He was a very modest and charming gentleman.
So sad.
I recall reading a story in Wizard magazine once that Jerry Robinson, working with one of the Comics Professional organizations to which he belonged, created a cartooning award with the specific intent of getting an imprisoned cartoonist out of jail in whatever totalitarian nation he was from. I wish I could remember names here, but I always felt that was a remarkable story.
Wasn’t Mr. Robinson primarily responsible for the creation of Robin, too?
How’s that for a contradiction…
The man who by all accounts was a hëll of a good guy being responsible for creating the world’s most noteworthy fictional psychopath.
RIP.
Gray, the name you were probably looking for was Uruguayan cartoonist Francisco Laurenzo Pons, the editorial cartoonist for Marcha. After the 1973 coup, that installed a right-wing repressive military regime, Laurenzo was arrested in 1978 and sentenced to a six and a half-year prison term. Robinson was largely responsible for creating the Distinguished Foreign Cartoonist Award for the AAEC and one of the artists that was to get the new award was Laurenzo, who was going to be invited to the US to accept it in 1981. The artist’s wife and son were given a one-week visa to come to America, and by then a number of US congressmen had taken up the cause. Laurenzo was ultimately released in 1984, six months before his sentence was up.
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A lot of people probably aren’t aware that Robinson was hugely responsible for getting Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster financial compensation for creating Superman. While Neal Adams drummed up support within the comic book industry, Robinson did the same thing with his peers in the comic strip business. In fact, it was Robinson that handled some of the final negotiations with Warner Bros while Adams was out of town.
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I heartily recommend Jerry Robinson, Ambassador of Comics, which was published by Abrams last year. It covers a lot of the above ground and a lot more, including the fact that Robinson was one of the very first comic book artists to ask for original art to be returned from the color seperators, for whom that art had virtually no value whatsoever. I had the good fortune of interviewing Robinson last year for Sci-Fi Now Magazine and I am so grateful that I had a chance to meet him, less sit down and talk. He will be hugely missed.
That’s it exactly! Much thanks, Joe!
Is this the same Jerry Robinson who did books called “Flubs and Fluffs” illustrating student bloopers?
It’s one and the same guy. I hadn’t put it together until I read ‘Ambassador of Comics,’ and I couldn’t believe it. When I was kid here in New Jersey, I used to collect those strips, which to my young mind were the funniest thing I ever saw. When I got to meet Robinson last year, the first words out of my mouth were not about Batman or the Joke, but how much I loved Flubbs and Fluffs when I was a kid.
I still have the two FLUBS AND FLUFFS books that were put out. I remember laughing myself silly over a cartoon of a dog with a bathroom sink in its mouth with the caption “A big black dog used by hunters is called a lavatory retriever.”
“Jerry Robinson”
To the Tune Of “Mrs. Robinson” By Simon and Garfunkel
And here’s to you, Jerry. Robinson
Joker loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Jerry Robinson
Gotham holds a place for those who say
(Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey)
We’d like to know a little bit about you for Bat-files
We’d like to help you learn about yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic guys
Stroll around Wayne Manor until you feel at home
And here’s to you, Jerry. Robinson
Joker loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Gotham holds a place for those who say
(Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey)
Drawing from a hiding place where no one ever knows
Put it in your Bat-Cave with your “Bob Kane”
It’s a little secret, just the Robinsons’ affair
Most of all, you’ve got to hide it from the kids
Coo, coo, ca-choo, Jerry Robinson
Joker loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Jerry. Robinson
Gotham holds a place for those who say
(Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey)
Drawing on an artboard on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the comic book debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Ev’ry way you look at it, your muse
Where have you gone, our Dynamic Duo
A nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What’s that you say, Jerry. Robinson
Mistah J. has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey)
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Robinson in 2005. “Batman Begins” was coming out and I chose to do a story featuring the criminally overlooked and under-compensated Bill Finger. I really needed Mr. Robinson because the story wouldn’t have been the same without him, someone who had been there and knew exactly what both Bill Finger had Bob Kane had contributed to the legend of Batman.
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While he noted Kane’s contributions he said he basically said, in a manner of speaking that Finger had kind of gotten the shaft.
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I also got to meant him, shake his hand, thank him and chat with him for a while at a con in 2006. It was either NYCC or Baltimore.
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I loved every minute of it.
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The word is quite overused today, especially in comics. But Mr. Robinson was truly worthy of the term.
While he noted Kane’s contributions he said he basically said, in a manner of speaking that Finger had kind of gotten the shaft.
Luigi Novi: Or more appropriately, the finger.
Mr. Robinson also did what he could to right that particular wrong, I believe, although he had to do so after Bill Finger’s untimely passing. He is responsible for the creation of the Bill Finger Award, which, as I understand it, is awarded to creators who, like Mr. Finger, have not been properly recognized in their lifetime. A classy move by a very classy gentleman.
He’s high on my list of people I wanted to meet but never did. He put a smile on a lot of people`s faces, and not just fictional dead people. We`re a lot poorer for his absence.