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Topic: Question for JB: Female Robin Post Reply | Post New Topic
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John Popa
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 March 2008
Posts: 4778
Posted: 06 August 2026 at 12:32am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Hello

I'm reading Frank Miller's new autobiography and he states that it was actually your idea to make a female Robin in "Dark Knight Returns." He says you even doodled a version.

Do you remember this - was it an off-hand comment or a more serious creative conversation between you and frank? 

Do you remember the doodle - if so, was it anything like what Frank used? 

Thanks in advance for any insight -somehow I'd never heard this before, even though I've read a million interviews with you and Frank over the years!
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136793
Posted: 06 August 2026 at 6:34am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I recall I made the suggestion, quite seriously, on a flight back to NYC from a con, tho I don’t recall which one.
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8653
Posted: 06 August 2026 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I could swear that the doodle showed up in one of the Dark Knight hardcover editions. 
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 32167
Posted: 06 August 2026 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I had the same thought, Vinny.
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136793
Posted: 06 August 2026 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

I think they did.
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Frank Stone
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 03 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 183
Posted: 07 August 2026 at 12:58am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

It's a longstanding (and true!) bit of comics lore that JB's female Robin suggestion was inspired by a Jaime Hernandez drawing of Love and Rockets character Maggie as Robin (see below).

The 10th anniversary edition of DKR includes a supplemental booklet with early artwork, but it doesn't have JB's Robin sketch, only Miller's initial concepts (where she had a mask instead of the glasses/goggles). I don't know if the JB version was published elsewhere.

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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136793
Posted: 07 August 2026 at 5:15am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Pretty sure that Hernandez drawing was somewhere in my mind. Plus a little Jill St John.
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Jason K Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 23 September 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 848
Posted: 07 August 2026 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Not the napkin drawing, but from 2008, which was....18 years ago, it really flies:

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