PART FORTY-FOUR OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST - SUPERMAN'S PAL THE NEW JIMMY OLSEN #s 142 & 143... ~ Comics Live Updates

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I'm feeling a little self-indulgent tonight, so, if you'll all forgive

me, I'm going to talk about what might be a case of 'false-memory-

syndrome' in relation to two of my favourite JIMMY OLSEN mags by

JACK KIRBY. I'll try and make it more palatable for you by including

lots of great Kirby art, because we all know how long-winded I can be

when I get my teeth into a topic. The issues under discussion are #s

142 & 143, which I first bought sometime in 1971 or '72. Or did

I? It would've been '72 at the latest, but at what point in the

year did I buy them? Aye, there's the rub.

I associate this page with my new house - mainly because (I assume)
I remember drawing it while sitting at my dining table

You see, I moved houses halfway through June of '72, but

when I look at these two issues today, some pages take me right

back to my former abode, and other pages I associate with my cur-

rent residence. How can that be? I'm pretty sure I bought the two

comics (on different days in all likelihood) from the newsagent's over

the road from my old house during school dinner hour, so a variety

of possible scenarios present themselves. (First I should explain

that I still attended the same school in my old neighbour-

hood even after flitting from the area.)

Old house...

So I either bought the mags while yet residing in my old

home, or not long after having moved to my new one. That's the

choices on offer. If my previous dwelling, that would obviously ex-

plains the association in my memory, but if the new one, it doesn't. Or

does it? It may simply be the case that, having purchased the issues in

my former neighbourhood not long after having flitted, the afterglow

of subconscious association lingered in my mind. That would be ac-

centuated by the fact that, having retained our original furniture,

the ambience of our old living-room was perpetuated in

our new one. Could be, eh?

...same again

Of course, perhaps I'm over-analyzing things. Maybe I

associate some pages with my old house because I first read the

mags there and they made an impression, and other pages with my

new abode because, upon a later re-reading, they made a stronger

impression second time around than they had the first. Could be as

simple as that. "But what does it matter?" you may be asking. ("And

why bore us with it?") Well, I tend to use old comics as 'diaries' to

a certain extent, in that I usually put a date to past events by what-

ever issues I bought at the time. It can therefore be quite con-

fusing to look at a mag and have two different sets of

associations spring to mind.

Great as this page is, panel 3 is misleading because of the downward
angle of SUPERMAN's arm, and the speech balloon seemingly de-
scribing the figures as 'small'. Fact is, they're normal size, but in the
distance. Had STAN been editor, he'd have had JACK redraw it.
I associate this page with my old house

However, congratulations! You've managed to make it

through to the end (I hope) of my tedious ruminations, so you

can take comfort from the knowledge that you richly deserve the

joy you'll undoubtedly derive from perusing the pulsating pages

and panels of one of the masters of the comicbook medium -

JACK 'KING' KIRBY!

Ever been plagued by such perplexities? Any thoughts, theories,
or observations on my woeful waffle? Then let rip in the comments
section, Effendis! The lines are now open!