In the Grand Scheme of Comic Strip and Comic Book History,
Frank Robbins will probably be most remembered for his own
Johnny Hazard comic strip which he wrote and drew from (gulp!) 1944 to 1977. Click
here to read some background information about
Johnny Hazard.
My interests lean far more toward comic
books than comic
strips, however, and I remember the comic book work of
Mr. Robbins very fondly. He was a writer, he was an artist, and he was a writer/artist. I liked his artwork the best when he inked it himself, which he did with all the boldness of the Grand Canyon.
Do you know that
Frank Robbins created the character of
Man-Bat? In fact he wrote a number of
Batman stories in the late 1960s before writing
and drawing a few. He also drew
The Shadow after
Michael Kaluta left. He then moved over from
DC Comics to
Marvel Comics and produced a greater body of work, including drawing
Captain America and
The Invaders. The former
Hayfamzone Collection itself included one
Morbius, The Living Vampire page drawn by
Mr. Robbins.
Of all the work
Mr. Robbins did in comics, my favorites are the
Batman stories he drew. I was young when those comics came out, and I can't say that I liked them at the time! But they made an impression on me. The artwork was so unusual, so unlike any other
Batman art, that I was drawn to it. The images of that bold brushwork on the Bat are embedded in my memory.
From time to time I search the internet to see if any pages of
Robbins Batman art are for sale. I've never come across a single one yet. On ebay one of my
Favorite Searches is for
Robbins Batman in the Original Artwork category, and I keep waiting for that long-awaited email to arrive. Who owns that artwork anyway?
What prompted me to write today about
Frank Robbins Batman art is an incredible tidbit of information I came across while surveying the internet last week. I found
this website, which points out that
Frank Robbins drew only five
Batman stories.
Only five stories! My faulty memory had duped me into thinking there were
many more than that! The article goes on to point out that the
Robbins style on
Batman did not meet with universal approval, but that no less an icon than
Neal Adams himself
colored one of the five
Robbins art jobs in a show of solidarity with and appreciation for the
Robbins approach.
Click
here to see scans of seven luscious pages of
Batman by
Robbins, as well as some of his
Shadow and other
DC work. And please notify me immediately if you ever learn of a page of
Robbins Batman art becoming available!