(Image links to Robinson’s site)

Michael here.

Just saw over at iFanboy that the great Jerry Robinson has passed.

Robinson isn’t a huge name outside of comics, but he absolutely should be. A boy who got his start inking panels at Bob Kane’s studio eventually became one of the men who co-created Robin and the Joker.

On a personal note, I got to shake Robinson’s hand at my first New York Comic-Con, back in 2010. It was at a panel of “Golden/Silver Age Greats,” and featured the likes of John Romita, Sr (a HUGE Spider-Man artist) and Al Jaffe (big in the heyday of MAD Magazine). Jaffe and Romita, Sr told great stories with a lot of bombast, and Robinson was this soft-spoken, smaller man. But he was a giant. Romita and Jaffe would just silence themselves any time Robinson spoke up. It was a hell of a thing.

And, at the end, I got out of my seat (I was there seat-warming for the next panel, so this was a tricky proposition) and made a bee-line for Mr. Robinson. I remember him sort of nodding as I told him a simple “thank you” and shook his hand.

I realized that nothing else at this Con was going to matter to me. It was my first press pass, the year I previewed Young Justice and Green Lantern Animated, but none of those things stuck.

Because that was the moment I shook a hand that created legends.

Safe journey, Mr. Robinson.