Editing Joker (character) (section)

===Concept===
{{multiple image|total_width=350
| direction = horizontal
| footer = (''left'') [[Jerry Robinson]]'s 1940 concept sketch of the Joker. (''right'') Actor [[Conrad Veidt]] in character as Gwynplaine in ''[[The Man Who Laughs (1928 film)|The Man Who Laughs]]'' (1928). Veidt's grinning visage inspired the Joker design.
| image1 = Jerry-Robinson-Joker-Sketch-Card.jpg
| alt1 = Sketch of a playing card with a grinning Joker
| image2 = The Man Who Laughs - Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine.jpg
| alt2 = A young man looks away from the camera with a stretched-wide smile
}}

[[Bill Finger]], [[Bob Kane]], and [[Jerry Robinson]] are credited with creating the Joker, but their accounts of the character's conception differ, each providing his own version of events. Finger's, Kane's, and Robinson's versions acknowledge that Finger showed them an image of actor [[Conrad Veidt]] in character as Gwynplaine (a man whose mouth is disfigured into a perpetual grin) in the 1928 film ''[[The Man Who Laughs (1928 film)|The Man Who Laughs]]'' as an inspiration for the Joker's appearance, and Robinson produced a sketch of a [[Joker (playing card)|joker playing card]].<ref name="ImpactCBR"/><ref name="Creation1"/>

Robinson stated that it was his 1940 card sketch that served as the character's concept, and Finger associated that image with Veidt in the film.<ref name="ImpactCBR"/> Kane hired the 17-year-old Robinson as an assistant in 1939, after he saw Robinson in a white jacket decorated with his own illustrations.<ref name="Creation4"/> Beginning as a [[letterer]] and background inker, Robinson quickly became primary artist for the newly created ''[[Batman (comic book)|Batman]]'' comic book series. In a 1975 interview in ''[[The Amazing World of DC Comics]]'', Robinson said he wanted a supreme arch-villain who could test Batman, not a typical crime lord or gangster designed to be easily disposed of. He wanted an exotic, enduring character as an ongoing source of conflict for Batman, designing a diabolically sinister, but clownish, villain.<ref name="Creation5"/><ref name="Origin3"/>{{sfn|Tollin|1975|pp=2–3}} Robinson was intrigued by villains; he believed that some characters are made up of contradictions, leading to the Joker's sense of humor. He said that the name came first, followed by an image of a playing card from a deck he often had at hand: "I wanted somebody visually exciting. I wanted somebody that would make an indelible impression, would be bizarre, would be memorable like the [[The Hunchback of Notre-Dame|Hunchback of Notre Dame]] or any other villains that had unique physical characters."<ref name="Creation8"/> He told Finger about his concept by telephone, later providing sketches of the character and images of what would become his Joker playing-card design. Finger thought the concept was incomplete, providing the image of Veidt with a ghastly, permanent [[Risus sardonicus|rictus grin]].<ref name="Creation5"/>

Kane countered that Robinson's sketch was produced only after Finger had already shown the Gwynplaine image to Kane, and that it was only used as a card design belonging to the Joker in his early appearances.<ref name="Creation1"/> Finger said that he was also inspired by the [[Steeplechase Face]], an image in [[Steeplechase Park]] at [[Coney Island]] that resembled a Joker's head, which he sketched and later shared with future editorial director [[Carmine Infantino]].<ref name="Creation2"/> In a 1994 interview with journalist [[Frank Lovece]], Kane stated his position:

{{blockquote|Bill Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer. Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of the Joker. That's the way I sum it up. [The Joker] looks like Conrad Veidt&nbsp;– you know, the actor in ''The Man Who Laughs'', [the 1928 movie based on the novel] by [[Victor Hugo]].&nbsp;... Bill Finger had a book with a photograph of Conrad Veidt and showed it to me and said, 'Here's the Joker.' Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it, but he'll always say he created it till he dies. He brought in a playing card, which we used for a couple of issues for him [the Joker] to use as his playing card.<ref name="Creation101"/><ref name="KaneLovece"/>|sign=|source=}}

Robinson credited himself, Finger, and Kane for the Joker's creation. He said he created the character as Batman's larger-than-life nemesis when extra stories were quickly needed for ''Batman'' #1, and he received credit for the story in a college course:<ref name="Creation102"/>

{{blockquote|In that first meeting when I showed them that sketch of the Joker, Bill said it reminded him of Conrad Veidt in ''The Man Who Laughs''. That was the first mention of it&nbsp;... He can be credited and Bob himself, we all played a role in it. The concept was mine. Bill finished that first script from my outline of the persona and what should happen in the first story. He wrote the script of that, so he really was co-creator, and Bob and I did the visuals, so Bob was also.<ref name="Creation103"/>}}

Finger provided his own account in 1966:
{{blockquote|I got a call from Bob Kane.... He had a new villain. When I arrived he was holding a playing card. Apparently Jerry Robinson or Bob, I don't recall who, looked at the card and they had an idea for a character ... the Joker. Bob made a rough sketch of it. At first it didn't look much like the Joker. It looked more like a clown. But I remembered that Grosset & Dunlap formerly issued very cheap editions of classics by [[Alexandre Dumas]] and Victor Hugo ... The volume I had was ''The Man Who Laughs'' — his face had been permanently operated on so that he will always have this perpetual grin. And it looked absolutely weird. I cut the picture out of the book and gave it to Bob, who drew the profile and gave it a more sinister aspect. Then he worked on the face; made him look a little [[clown]]-like, which accounted for his white face, red lips, green hair. And that was the Joker!<ref name="Batmania 14"/>}}

Although Kane adamantly refused to share credit for many of his characters, and refuted Robinson's claim for the rest of his life, many comic historians credit Robinson with the Joker's creation and Finger with the character's development.<ref name="ImpactCBR"/><ref name="Creation1"/><ref name="Creation4"/><ref name="Creation2"/> By 2011, Finger, Kane, and Robinson had died, leaving the story unresolved.<ref name="Creation5"/><ref name="Creation2"/><ref name="GoldenAge6"/>