Alter Ego #39 August 2004 (magazine review).
This early issue of Alter Ego is devoted to comic book artist/writer Jerry Robinson (1922-2011) and features a two-part interview, spanning around 60 pages, conducted by Jim Amash. The fact that part one is on the flipside means you need to pay attention to which side you start on, although I presume the digital version has all the pages the right way up.
Jerry Robinson was the first ghost artist at the age of 17 on the Batman comic book when it first took off. Although Bob Kane was the credited creator, many of the best ideas came from writer/co-creator Bill Finger and Robinson, the latter creating Robin and the Joker. When Kane wouldn’t raise their pay, both of them went to National Periodicals/DC Comics and were taken on as staffers with better pay to do the same job. As Robinson notes, the main reason they moved on later was to get credited work under their own names, although both were already freelancing to other companies to make more money. Part one deals with his time at DC Comics in their bullpen and the other artists he was friendly with there. If you’re a fan of Batman and want to know more about his real roots, this is the Alter Ego to get. Robinson is a fair assessor of his own career and only started in comic books to pay his university journalism tuition fees, initially drawing/inking/lettering at night.
In part two, during the 1950s, Robinson taught night school at the School of Visual Arts, where he instructed students on how to tell a story in pictures. Among his pupils were Steve Ditko, Jack Abel, Don Heck, and others you can look up—he helped them break into the business when jobs became available. His time with other cartoonists visiting military bases, doing art on stage, and in VA hospitals got call-backs, only hindered by them all having to get ahead on their day jobs before being off for a month. A lot more details are given about how Robinson helped Neal Adams in securing compensation for Siegel and Schuster from Warner Brothers/DC Comics over Superman, and in assisting dissident political cartoonists in Russia and Uruguay. Jerry Robinson really packed a lot into his career. This is a must-read if you want to explore an extensive career across comic books and newspapers.
The rest of the material includes the second part of the interview with Al Feldstein by Michael T. Gilbert. This segment, focused on Feldstein’s tenure as the longest-serving editor of Mad magazine, delves into Wallace Wood’s growing alcoholism, missed deadlines, and what Feldstein did after retiring.
This issue encapsulates so much American comic book history, especially on crucial elements, that you’ll never underestimate single-issue interviews. I do think it was more effective presented this way than being spread over two issues.
GF Willmetts
June 2024
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 104 page illustrated magazine. Price: varies. ISSN: 1932-6890. Direct from them, you can get it digitally for $ 4399 (US))
check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=469
