Skippy and Percy Crosby: The Life and Work of a Great American Cartoonist

by Jerry Robinson, Percy Crosby (Archival Art), Jules Feiffer (Introduction)

hardcover with dust jacket

Genres: Art, Comic Strips, Humor, Comics, Biography

155 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Sherrill David Robinson, known as Jerry Robinson, was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and the Joker and for his work on behalf of creators' rights.
He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004.

Reviews

[Al McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tragic story of a genius cartoonist, told by the creator of The Joker.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating biography of the troubled artist and writer who began with such promise, who sold works to the Louvre and the British Museum, whose comic strip became as popular as Charles M. Schulz’s PEANUTS would later become, but whose self-destructive tendencies put him in the loony bin (perhaps somewhat unjustly) for the last sixteen years of his life. Well worth reading, with many wonderful illustrations, especially from the comic strip SKIPPY, but Robinson leaves too many unanswered questions for the book to be completely satisfying.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for the Skippy strips, so I didn't pay much attention to the parts about Percy Crosby. The strip itself is ok. Crosby has an interesting art style that has a very sketchy look and feel. There's some heart, and the jokes are just ok. Feels like an inferior Peanuts.