Jerry Robinson, 1922–2011

The summer before Jerry Robinson was to head off to Syracuse University, he showed up at a resort’s tennis court wearing a white linen jacket covered with his own cartoon drawings. Bob Kane, then in the process of developing the Batman comics, saw them as proof of Robinson’s talent and invited him to join his budding team of illustrators. Robinson quickly transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he not only became a seminal figure in the comic world but also created one: Batman’s nemesis, the Joker.

Kane himself always claimed credit for dreaming up the Caped Crusader’s most famous enemy, but comic-book historians tend to give Robinson principal credit, said The New York Times. “Villains, I always thought, were more interesting,” Robinson once said, claiming that his most famous creation was inspired by the image of the joker on playing cards. No one disputes that Robinson also created Batman’s sidekick, Robin, as a “character youngsters could connect with.” His inspiration for that figure, he said, was an N.C. Wyeth illustration of Robin Hood.

After leaving the Batman team, Robinson created a number of less memorable superheroes, said the London Telegraph, including one named London, who fought Nazi plotters. But he was most proud of his political cartoons, which he produced six days a week for 32 years. Eager to have cartoons considered works of art rather than entertainment, Robinson curated exhibits, wrote books, and taught at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Yet there is little doubt that his “vivid Batman illustrations, created during the golden age of comic books,” remain his most lasting legacy.