Jerry Robinson
Jerry Robinson ( born January 1, 1922 in Trenton, New Jersey; † 7 December 2011) was an American cartoonist and caricaturist. He was known primarily for his involvement in the emergence of the figures Joker and Robin in the Batman comics.
Life and work
Early years (1922-1939)
Jerry Robinson was born in 1922 as the son of a Russian immigrant and a New Yorker. With the intention of becoming a journalist, he enrolled at Columbia University in New York as a journalism student. His studies he financed among other things as ice cream vendors, until in 1939 he was recruited by the freelance writer and artist Bob Kane as an employee for his team, the production of itself - then brand new - Comics to the dark avenger and nocturnal criminals Hunter Batman dedicated.
Work on Batman (1939-1947)
As an employee of Bob Kane and his partner Bill Finger, Batman had created, supervised Robinson from the summer of 1939 the comics as a technical pen. This was in particular the monthly or every three months series Batman and Detective Comics.
After Robinson had initially worked as a letterer and then as a technical pen of backgrounds and secondary figures, he was eventually entrusted by Kane with the ink drawings for the most important parts of the Batman stories. The pencil sketches were even created at the time of Kane himself while finger wrote the stories.
After Robinson and his assistant Roussos had to use the bedroom of Kane's apartment as a studio first, the enormous commercial success of their work eventually allowed the lease of own working spaces in the Times Tower in Times Square.
1941, Robinson and fingers that were previously both been employees of Kane, her employer, the publisher National Comics (later DC Comics ) lured away: Rather than as a freelance employee of Kane to write for these stories and mascara, both should henceforth as direct employees of the publisher of Kane's projects work. Robinson worked from then on in the main studio of DC Comics on Lexington Avenue.
Robinson, Robin and the Joker
The major Batman characters, has been involved in their creation Robinson, are Batman's assistant and junior partner Robin, and his nemesis, the insane, clowngesichtige Joker.
Controversial course is Robinson's part in the creation of these characters: Robinson himself has repeatedly made the claim that he had made the suggestion to give the conceived by Bill Finger Robin character of the name. His inspiration argues that it had been Robin Hood books he had read in his youth.
While this statement was never made by Kane and Finger deny both denied repeatedly insisted that Robinson had invented the character of the Joker, as he claimed. While Robinson claimed to have designed the figure after a Joker playing card, Kane and Finger always declared that Kane had designed the concept of the figure. Then fingers have proposed to revise this concept based on the role of the German actor Conrad Veidt in the movie The Man Who Laughs (1928 ). Robinson had only replenished the game card as an attribute of the Joker. Robinson, in turn, stated fingers have (not Kane ) presented him the recordings of Veidt as Lächler after he had seen his, Robinsons, concepts for the character, as this would have reminded him of Veidt.
Robinson's work in the 1950s and 1960s
1953 Robinson began working for newspapers as an illustrator of comic strips. During this time, together with Sheldon Stark Robinson created the strip 'Jet Scott ' for the Herald Tribune Syndicate, which is about an investigator, scientific secrets gets to the bottom.
In the early 1960s, Robinson returned to the comic book industry. He illustrated this time especially comic adaptations of films and television series for the publisher " Dell Publishing ". His work in this period included, among others drawings for the comic series Lassie, Bat Masterson, Rocky and Bullwinkle and Nancy Parker. Besides, he illustrated book covers.
Developed in 1963 Robinson Still Life and Flubs & Fluffs 1964, two series that have been passed from each full-page satirical cartoons and published in the newspaper New York Sunday News.
Later years
2006 Robinson was curator of an exhibition at the Jewish Museum of New York, which dealt with the contributions of Jewish artists to the American comic book and cartoon culture. Focal point was especially the self -assertion of Jewish artists as a minority in American society as well as the utilization of the " superhero " genre as a weapon of Diaspora Jews in their defense against their persecution by the Nazis in Europe. The exhibition was titled Superheroes: Good and Evil in American Comics.
Others
Robinson sat down during the civil-military dictatorship in Uruguay in 1978 and for the imprisoned and sentenced to 6.5 years in prison Uruguayan artist of the newspaper Marcha Francisco Laurenzo Pons.