Today in Comics History, January 1: Happy birthday, Jerry Robinson!

Born on this day in 1922: Jerry Robinson, comic book artist who co-created the Joker, Robin, and many other aspects of the Batman mythos. His other work includes Green Hornet, Fighting Yank, The Vigilante, Johnny Quick, Bible Tales For Young Folk, Atoman, the comic strip Jet Scott, and many of the Dell Comics movie and TV tie-in comic books. Not to mention his long-time work asa political activist, comics historian, and president of the National Cartoonist Society!


from Direct Currents #29 (DC, May 1990)
Curiously enough among Batman creators, Jerry doesn't seem to have been featured as a character within any comic books at DC. But here's =panels from Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's brilliant Comic Book Comics featuring Robinson (Jerry's represented as the Joker, not for any villainy, but to represent the character he created) and his fight for creators' rights for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster:



from Comic Book Comics #5 (Evil Twin, March 2011); script by Fred Van Lente; pencils, inks, and letters by Ryan Dunlavey
Read more about it department: I highly recommend tw excellent books by/about Jerry Robinson: his autobiography Jerry and the Joker: Adventures and Comic Art (Dark Horse, August 2017) and N.C. Christopher Couch's Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics (Abrams, August 2010).


Happy birthday, Jerry!