Robbins' early career included work as an assistant to
Edward Trumbull on his NBC building murals, and creating promotional materials for
RKO Pictures. later reprinted in
Eastern Color Printing's
Famous Funnies. That same year, the
Associated Press hired Robbins to take over the aviation strip
Scorchy Smith which he drew until 1944. Robbins created his
Johnny Hazard strip in 1944 and worked on it for more than three decades until it ended in 1977. Robbins'
Johnny Hazard comic book was published by
Standard Comics from August 1948 to May 1949. The Sunday strips were reprinted in a full-color volume published by the Pacific Comics Club. Other reprints were published by Pioneer Comics and
Dragon Lady Press.
Comic books '' #7 (April 1949) In 1968, Robbins began working as a writer for
DC Comics. His first story for that publisher appeared in ''
Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #83 (May 1968). He became the writer of Superboy as of issue #149 (July 1968) and began writing Batman and Detective Comics'' the following month. Robbins and artist
Irv Novick crafted the story which revealed the last name of
Batman's butler
Alfred Pennyworth in
Batman #216 (Nov. 1969). It was later revealed that Robbins had simply used the name created by former DC editor
Whitney Ellsworth for the Batman syndicated comic strip. The Robbins and Novick team was instrumental in returning
Batman to the character's gothic roots as in the story "One Bullet Too Many". Working with editor
Julius Schwartz and artists
Neal Adams and
Irv Novick, he would revitalize the character with a series of noteworthy stories reestablishing Batman's dark, brooding nature. He introduced
Jason Bard as a supporting character in
Detective Comics #392 (Oct. 1969) and later wrote a series of backup stories featuring the character.
Man-Bat was co-created by Robbins and Neal Adams in
Detective Comics #400 (June 1970). Robbins and Novick created the
Ten-Eyed Man in
Batman #226 (Nov. 1970) and the
Spook in
Detective Comics #434 (April 1973). Robbins helped launch the
Plop! title and briefly drew DC's
licensed version of
The Shadow before moving to
Marvel Comics. There he launched the
Invaders series with writer
Roy Thomas in 1975 and co-created the characters
Union Jack,
Spitfire, and the Kid Commandos. Other Marvel work included
Captain America and
Ghost Rider as well as the licensed characters
Human Fly and
Man from Atlantis. His final new comics work was published in the black-and-white magazine
The Tomb of Dracula vol. 2 #2 (Dec. 1979). ==Later life and death==