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The celebrated Mr. K does a deep dive for JOKER WEEK…
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Welcome to JOKER WEEK! One of the greatest characters in comics history debuted 85 years ago, in Batman #1, on April 24, 1940 — and we’re celebrating with a series of features saluting the Clown Prince of Crime, just like we did with CATWOMAN WEEK. For the complete index of JOKER WEEK features, click here.
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Picture it!
A newsstand. April 24, 1940. A young reader with 10 cents clutched in their fist approaches and the first thing that catches their eye is the bright yellow and red cover of Batman #1! Swinging across the cover, smiling confidently at one another are the Dynamic Duo, both introduced within the last year in the pages of Detective Comics.
The cover exclaims, “All brand new adventures of The Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder!”
Intrigued, but needing more to commit their precious dime, the young reader takes the comic from the stand and opens it to an introduction to the star of the book, the two-page, “The Legend of the Batman—Who He is and How He Came to Be!” And then, a shift of the eyes to the right, to page three, to an untitled tale with a most startling splash panel, introducing one of the earliest and most enduring comic book criminals, the Joker!
Comic book buyers of 1940 got a helluva lot for their dimes!
Not only were they 68 pages for 10 cents (the 2025 equivalent of $2.25), but, as I was reminded by the recent facsimile editions of Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27, the books themselves were larger, 7.75” x 10.5” versus the modern 6.75” x 10”.
And if any single issue of any comic gave its readers bang for their buck (or is that a din for their dime?) it was Batman #1 (Spring 1940). On the one hand, neither of the protagonists were new to readers, but on the other, it was a first issue, and it did introduce not only the Joker (who guest-villained in two separate stories) but “the Cat” — later known as Catwoman — as well, with a Hugo Strange story thrown in for good measure.
Jerry Robinson’s original Joker card
While it’s always been Bob Kane’s signature on Batman, it’s well known that the Caped Crusader would have been a very different character were it not for the input of others, most notably writer Bill Finger and artist Jerry Robinson. In my book Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in Their Own Words (which you can order here), Robinson—who started working for Kane after meeting the cartoonist on vacation—said, “I was responsible for the initial concept drawing and name of the Joker, the playing card, and that first sketch which has been reproduced everywhere. The rest was really a collaboration. Bob and all of us would throw ideas around and then they would get fleshed out.
“So, I would say, being very objective, things were mostly co-creations, except that the original concept of the Joker, the bizarre villain with the contradictory sense of humor, that was my concept. Bill wrote that first story and I think in words rounded out the concept and deserves as much credit as Bob or myself. And Bob fleshed out the rough visual of the character.”
The Joker appeared in 43 issues of Batman and Detective Comics in the 1940s, 16 in the 1950s, and only nine in the 1960s, a case of diminishing returns despite the Clown Prince of Crime’s appearance in 22 episodes of the 1960s Batman TV show. As I wrote in the essay, “From Mountebank to Monster: The Bloody Road from ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ to ‘The Killing Joke’” for The Man Who Laughs: Exploring the Clown Prince of Crime, “(Comic book editor Julie) Schwartz didn’t particularly care for the Joker. He thought the clown imagery was overused and outdated, and so he used the character sparingly in Batman and Detective Comics until his editorial preference was overruled by the popularity of Cesar Romero’s live-action portrayal of the Joker on the Batman TV show.
Still, with as ample a Rogues Gallery as Batman’s to call on, the editor was able to keep the Joker’s appearances to a minimum during the two-and-a-half-year run of the show. Then, after the nonlethal and particularly uninspired “Public Luna-Tic Number One!” (Detective Comics #388, June 1969), he put the character away for four years.
But the abovementioned Schwartz-edited “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” (Batman #251, September 1973) brought the cackling clown back with a vengeance and he hasn’t relinquished his grasp on comics (and films) since.
I was never a Batman office guy, so my opportunities writing the Joker were limited to a team-up with Superman and the Phantom Stranger in a strange, other-dimensional adventure in DC Comics Presents #72 (August 1984) and in the wacky and far, far out of continuity DC Challenge #7 (May 1986)…
…And the April 18–August 1, 1982, continuity of The World’s Greatest Superheroes Presents Superman syndicated strip from the Tribune Syndicate!
Why the Joker in the Superman newspaper strip?
It was done at the suggestion of the editor at the time, Joe Orlando, overruling my reluctance to pit the Man of Steel against a non-superpowered foe for 14 or 15 weeks of continuity. “Don’t think of it as a bad choice,” he said. “Think of it as a challenge.”
Whether I was up to the challenge or not, you be the judge (be kind; it was a long time ago), but in retrospect, I’m glad the choice was made, giving me a proper shot at writing one of the greatest villains in comics. All that was missing was Batman.
Here then, MY 13 FAVORITE JOKER APPEARANCES IN THE SUPERMAN NEWSPAPER STRIP:
(All strips penciled by Jose Delbo, inked by Vince Colletta, and lettered by Gaspar Saladino.)
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May 9, 1982. Gas-generated grimaces? Who can be behind this?
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May 15, 1982. The diamond-studded reveal!
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May 16, 1982. How crazy is he? Let me demonstrate!
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May 18, 1982. Joker’s lethal hand-buzzer? Check!
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June 1-2, 1982. Joker’s poison pie in the puss? Check!
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June 23, 1982. At last, the B-plot about a missing scientist meets up with the Joker A-plot!
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June 25, 1982. I like the cheek pinch bit.
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July 6-7, 1982. Joker’s patented maniacal exclamation, “And they call me crazy!” Check!
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July 8, 1982. “Zee Zee Zee!” I don’t know what it was about this sound effect, but it used to amuse the hell out of me as a kid in the old Mort Weisinger comics.
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July 11, 1982. Superman should never use doors!
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July 15, 1982. “Faster than a speeding… something… something…”
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July 21, 1982. A callback to Joker’s patented maniacal exclamation, “And they say I’m crazy!” Double-check!
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July 23, 1982. Joker’s trademarked resigned, “That’s not funny!” Check! And… scene!
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MORE
— The Complete JOKER WEEK Index of Features. Click here.
— The JOKER Has the Most Punchable Face in All of Comics. Click here.
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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. He also wrote an essay for DC’s Aquaman: 80 Years of the King of the Seven Seas. Check out his new memoir, Panel by Panel: My Comic Book Life.
Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/
Shop: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/shop-1
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