Frank Robbins


Franklin Robbins was a notable American comic book and comic strip artist and writer, as well as a prominent painter whose work appeared in museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, where one of his paintings was featured in the 1955 Whitney Annual Exhibition of American Painting.

Early life

Born in Boston, Robbins was in his teens when he received a Rockefeller grant and scholarships to the Boston Museum and the National Academy of Design in New York.

Career

Robbins' early career included work as an assistant to Edward Trumbull on his NBC building murals, and creating promotional materials for RKO Pictures.

Comic strips

In 1939, the Associated Press hired Robbins to take over the aviation strip Scorchy Smith which he drew until 1944. Robbins created his Johnny Hazard strip in 1944 and worked on it for more than three decades until it ended in 1977. Robbins' Johnny Hazard comic book was published by Standard Comics from August 1948 to May 1949. The Sunday strips were reprinted in a full-color volume published by the Pacific Comics Club. Other reprints were published by Pioneer Comics and Dragon Lady Press.

Comic books

In 1968, Robbins began working as a writer for DC Comics. His first story for that publisher appeared in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #83. He became the writer of Superboy as of issue #149 and began writing Batman and Detective Comics the following month. Robbins and artist Irv Novick crafted the story which revealed the last name of Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman #216. It was later revealed that Robbins had simply used the name created by former DC editor Whitney Ellsworth for the Batman syndicated comic strip. The Robbins and Novick team was instrumental in returning Batman to the character's gothic roots as in the story "One Bullet Too Many".
Working with editor Julius Schwartz and artists Neal Adams and Irv Novick, he would revitalize the character with a series of noteworthy stories reestablishing Batman's dark, brooding nature. He introduced Jason Bard as a supporting character in Detective Comics #392 and later wrote a series of backup stories featuring the character. Man-Bat was co-created by Robbins and Neal Adams in Detective Comics #400. Robbins and Novick created the Ten-Eyed Man in Batman #226 and the Spook in Detective Comics #434. Robbins helped launch the Plop! title and briefly drew DC's licensed version of The Shadow before moving to Marvel Comics. There he launched the Invaders series with writer Roy Thomas in 1975 and co-created the characters Union Jack, Spitfire, and the Kid Commandos. Other Marvel work included Captain America and Ghost Rider as well as the licensed characters Human Fly and Man from Atlantis. His final new comics work was published in the black-and-white magazine The Tomb of Dracula vol. 2 #2. He moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and spent his final years focusing on painting. He died of a heart attack on November 28, 1994.

Legacy

The Frank Robbins collection at Syracuse University has 1,090 original Johnny Hazard strips, consisting of 934 daily strips and 156 Sunday strips.

DC Comics