Frank Robbins

 A few weeks ago, blogger Mark Evanier did a series of posts about writer/artist Frank Robbins. I enjoyed the posts so much I dropped him a line and in a follow up post, he acknowledged my email.   

I have once more had my existence validated by a person I do not personally know so "Yay! Self esteem!" 

But who was Frank Robbins?

Frank was a writer for DC Comics back in the late 1960's/early 1970's where he wrote for the Flash, Superboy and most significantly Batman.

While a lot of credit is given to writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams for moving Batman into a darker, grittier direction (after the camp silliness of the 1960's TV show starring Adam West), Frank Robbins was writing stories that were just as instrumental in moving Batman from Caped Crusader to Darknight Detective.  

Where the name Frank Robbins generates controversy is not in his role as a writer but as an artist.

While Robbins was primary paired up with artists like Irv Novick or Bob Brown, occasionally Robbins would take up pencils and ink and draw his own Batman stories.   

Robbins' style was not well received by those used to Adams, Novick and Brown. His art was sketchy and stylized.  

Frank Robbins drew some issues of DC's comic book version of The Shadow where his style was perhaps a better fit.  

Before taking up work in comic books, Frank Robbins was the creator, writer and artist for a comic strip called Johnny Hazard,  a pulp influenced action strip where Robbins' art was more at home.  

Around 1974 or so, Frank Robbins pulled up stakes from DC and took up residence at Marvel where Roy Thomas put him to work drawing his World War II comic book featuring heroes from Marvel's Golden Age, The Invaders.  

Which is where the hate for Frank Robbins, artist really took hold.

It didn't help that Robbins was not allowed to ink his own work with Vince Colletta pressed into service to ink those first issues of The Invaders.   

Then Colletta's spare inks were replaced by Frank Springer whose own art style was sketchier than Robbins.   

In addition to his work on The Invaders, Robbins was often called up to produce fill in work at a moments notice.  For example, Daredevil.   

At his best, Frank Robbins had an almost film noir look to his art. Unfortunately, by the 1970's the comics industry did not have a real home for Robbins' style of art, pressed into drawing super heroes he was not particularly adept at drawing and frequently paired up with inkers who obliterated or obscured his work. And often being called on to produce last minute rush jobs did not help his reputation among comics fandom. 

When his contract with Marvel was up, Frank Robbins moved out west, focused on painting and never did a damn comic book again for the rest of his life.  

When I was a kid in the 1970's, my heart would sink when I saw Frank Robbins name in the art credits.  It took years after his death to see what his art could be like when left to do what he wanted how he wanted it.