Joe Shuster Signature: Legit or Not?

[Captain Canuck]

What's up with Robinson's Batman? Very unusual for him, unless it is Bob's Batman sketch. Great piece!

[archiefan]

Oh, and what's up with the "B.O." around Julius Schwartz?

 

It was his nickname. It stood for "Be Original". Not kidding!!

[MedicAR]

Oh, and what's up with the "B.O." around Julius Schwartz?

 

It was his nickname. It stood for "Be Original". Not kidding!!

 

I have never heard that! It's odd that it is in a different color, though.

[MedicAR]

What's up with Robinson's Batman? Very unusual for him, unless it is Bob's Batman sketch. Great piece!

 

I wondered the same thing.

[Captain Canuck]

Oh, and what's up with the "B.O." around Julius Schwartz?

 

It was his nickname. It stood for "Be Original". Not kidding!!

 

I have never heard that! It's odd that it is in a different color, though.

 

"Be Original" was Julie's cry to all of his writers.

 

Quote

[Greg Coben]

The "B" and the "O" surrounding Julie Schwartz' autograph was indeed a reference to his slogan, "Be Original." What happened was, he signed my book, and after I looked at, it I joked, "That's not very original," you know, just to get his goat, so he played along and -- using the pen already in his hand to sign the book of the next convention guest -- added the "B" and the "O."

 

The Batman sketch was indeed drawn by Jerry Robinson at the same time he signed his name. I obtained his autograph following a panel discussion about Batman. As I met him, I remarked, "I always wanted to meet the Joker," and he replied, "Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about that!" (As an aside, the principal photograph of him in his tcj.com obituary is how he looked at the event: http://www.tcj.com/jerry-robinson-january-1st-1922-december-7th-2011/.)

 

I do have a question that perhaps someone in the forum can address: At the Batman panel discussion, one of the panel members talked about the "New Look" Batman change in appearance. Everyone knew that Carmine Infantino was the principal artist for this, and then the other staff artists copied the style, supposedly to include Bob Kane himself. This was mentioned by the panel, and the comment was something like, "Bob's artwork during this time was some of the best work of his career." At which point I agreed and was about to applaud the comment, except that nobody else did. I did not know then about the controversy surrounding what Bob Kane did and didn't do. So my question is, was he still actively contributing to Batman at the time, either as writer or artists, and did he in fact draw some of the Batman "New Look" comics of the day in that "New Look" style?

 

 

[Greg Coben]

Just in case anybody here watches "Comic Book Men" on AMC, my autographs discussed here were featured on last night's episode (Season 4, Episode 8).