Jerry Robinson, RIP

The father of a major live-action (and animated) villain has passed.

Jerry Robinson, a prolific comic-book artist, comics historian and editorial cartoonist who is credited with having created the Joker, the archenemy of Batman with devilish eyes and ghoulish smile, died on Wednesday at a hospice on Staten Island. He was 89 and lived in Manhattan. ...

“Villains, I always thought, were more interesting,” Mr. Robinson said last year ... “I think the name came first: the Joker. Then I thought of the playing card.” (His parents were bridge players).

The Joker made his debut in 1940 and has created havoc ever since, in print as well as on television ...

Seventy-one years on, the Joker remains a force in Batman's universe, whether that universe is in the live action or animated realm.