I spent much of today telling Jerry Robinson's life story to reporters who'd been assigned to write obits of this man about whom they knew little. Which is understandable. Jerry lived a long and productive life but was rarely out front, taking bows for his many accomplishments.
What struck me in all the phone interviews was what a small fraction of Jerry's life was getting covered. I don't think most people realize how politically involved he was in issues of Free Speech (especially that of cartoonists) in countries where they don't cotton to any kind of dissent. I don't think most folks know how involved he was in the mid-seventies campaign to establish a credit line and pensions for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster on Superman. Most folks know that Neal Adams spearheaded that campaign and his efforts were vital in making Time-Warner realize that a horrendous situation had to be rectified and put right. Not to take anything away from Neal but it was Jerry Robinson who negotiated with senior Time-Warner execs of behalf of Siegel and Shuster. It was Jerry who closed the deal.
Over the years, I interviewed Jerry about ten times at conventions plus once at the Skirball Cultural Center here in Los Angeles. I was always torn between asking him the questions that I knew would lead him into great, audience-pleasing anecdotes…and asking about the nooks and crannies of his life. When I went the latter route, I always found out something I didn't know he'd done…heard of some moment that would have been a high point in the life of any other cartoonist but was just another passing incident in the life of Jerry Robinson.
Often, of course, we spoke of Batman. I tried to explain to a couple of reporters today that it wasn't just that Jerry came up with The Joker and Robin. He was largely responsible for the look and feel of the early Batman comics. Others later drew the character…but the ones who tried to imitate the "Bob Kane" style were largely going for a Jerry Robinson look, whether they knew it or not. Jerry took Kane's limited drawing ability and distilled it into something more compelling and less dependent on swipes. What emerged was something that was probably just what Kane himself would have produced if he'd drawn as well as Jerry Robinson.
I won't go over the career narrative here. The main points were covered today in obituaries like the one in The New York Times. I'll just add a personal note: Jerry was a helluva guy. He was smart. He was industrious. He was amazingly versatile. When I introduced him, I usually explained how as a kid, I assumed the Jerry Robinson who drew the Still Life newspaper strip was a different Jerry Robinson from the one who'd worked for DC and Marvel. I mean, how could a guy draw so well in two totally different areas of cartooning?
I was a fan of Jerry Robinson's work but I think I was even more a fan of Jerry Robinson. If I ever get around to growing up, I want to be as much like him as possible…especially the part of about continuing to do work worthy of your name until the day you die. Oh, and especially the part about being loved and admired by every damn one of your peers.