While doing research for an article on Jerry Robinson and his Golden Age of Comics exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Southern California, Geoff Boucher had the chance to talk with the man himself. The exhibit uses Robinson's collection of vintage comics along with his original artwork to frame the Golden Age of comics in the 30s and 40s.
Robinson is the creator or co contributor on many now famous Batman characters such as Two-Face, Alfred and The Joker.
Here are just a few quotes from the video...
"Of course no one knows how long a character is going to last. A good character, a memorable character has some contradiction in terms. So, in thinking up a new character and a new villain, I thought a villain that had a sense of humor would be different and hopefully memorable. And then one that looked bizarre at the same time visually, those were the main ingredients in The Joker. But it had certain elements that we can look back on now and we can identify that were part of the magical ingredient."
"What we did make up as we went along because it was a new media, it was a new genre of comics, a new way of telling a story. We were growing, we were kind of drawing for ourselves. We were kids ourselves, drawing what pleased us what was entertaining for us. We assumed that we were fairly representative of the community, maybe a little more eccentric of course."
"A good hero is as good as the villains. Heroes, they are inherently dull they've got to win. The villains are much more exciting."
Hawksblueyes: I wonder if he had any idea at the time, just how famous the psychotic clown he was sketching would become? Make sure you check out the video. It is certainly worth a watch.