Some people may defend the Joker in TDK looking nothing like his comic counterpart by saying the original Joker wasn't... but I'm not quite sure that's the case. In his very first appearance, he's never seen without his clown appearance, except for one scene where he's disguised... but he's most likely put makeup on to cover up his skin. His next appearance, he's seen without his shirt on, and he's entirely white, so it's not makeup like in Dark Knight. It's hard tracking down the old issues, so does anyone have any other things to note in the comic? When was his official backstory revealed? Thanks.
He was always chemically bleached. He was white. Not pale, white. There are people people in those Batman comics and theyre not nearly as white as Joker. As you said, his entire body was white and he used flesh makeup to coverup his white skin. He was actually shown putting on a flesh colored makeup. Not only that, but he was also confirmed in and outside of comics to have frozen grin. His origins appeared 10 years after his first appearance and were written by Joker's creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane (I dont believe Robinson's story). The reason why they appeared so late is very simple - at the time NO ONE had origins, simply because it was 1940's and comics were different. It wasnt some mysterious ambiguous thing because again, no villain had origins in the early years. Once certain villains became a staple in Batman's stories, everyone was getting backstories
Heres an entire, detailed and mythbusting history of Joker - http://gothamalleys.blogspot.com/2010/09/complete-history-of-joker.html (http://gothamalleys.blogspot.com/2010/09/complete-history-of-joker.html)
Thanks, I suspected Joker was always bleached (those sources sealed it), but I never knew his permanent grin was always a part of the character. Interesting.
Here's more evidence, from 'The Joker's Advertising Campaign' (Batman #11, June 1942).
(https://www.batman-online.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi396.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp42%2Fsilver-nemsis%2Fb11-1.jpg&hash=7de4f85de8356097d36a4269511a655302d46a89)