PRESENTING: FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST PART FIFTY-SEVEN - "THE MAN FROM TRANSILVANE!"

Copyright DC COMICS

Two for the price of one this time around, Crivs - SUPERMAN'S PAL THE NEW JIMMY OLSEN #s 142 & 143 (a two-parter), which I originally purchased in the early '70s, though I'm uncertain as to which house I was living at the time.  I have an impression that I bought the first while living in my previous home and the second in my new one, but it's possible I got both of them while living in the same residence, whichever one it happened to be.  I do remember buying 142 in the newsagent's across from my old abode, perhaps during my school lunch-hour (I attended the same school after flitting), which may account for my associating the comic with the neighbourhood, but it is actually possible I was still living there at the time.

However, you're not interested in any of that, so let's get down to business.  I've always thought (and often said) that JACK KIRBY's turn on Jimmy Olsen was the best thing he ever did at DC COMICS, and these two mags are ample testimony to that fact.  An ingenious plot, great art (inked by the unfairly maligned VINCE COLLETTA), and a freer-flowing dialogue than Kirby was normally capable of, the tale rips along at a cracking pace and is hugely entertaining.  In fact, out of every mag that Jack produced for DC, these two (along with #s 139 & 141) are ones which are difficult to imagine being in any way improved had STAN LEE been involved with them.  Which is not to say that he wouldn't have left his mark, but his absence here is far less obvious (to a significant extent) than in Jack's other DC titles.

Anyway, DC published all of Jack's Jimmy Olsen issues (sans '40s reprints) a year or two back in a single volume collected edition, so if you missed these stories back in the '70s (being too busy or unborn), now's the chance to catch up on them.  Visit your local comics shop today - though you may find them less expensive on Amazon or ebay.  In the meantime, whet your appetite by perusing the powerful pages on dynamic display in this 'ere pulsating post.

Posted in: Cartoons