''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' is an

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

series published by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

from September–October 1954 until March 1974, spanning a total of 163 issues. Featuring the adventures of

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

supporting character Jimmy Olsen, it contains stories often of a humorous nature.

Publication history

The 1952 television series '' Adventures of Superman'' co-starred actor Jack Larson, who appeared regularly as Jimmy Olsen. Largely because of the popularity of Larson and his portrayal of the character, National Comics Publications (DC Comics) decided to create a regular title featuring Jimmy as the leading character, which debuted with a September–October 1954 cover date.

Curt Swan Douglas Curtis Swan (February 17, 1920 – June 17, 1996) was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 195 ...

was the main artist on the series for its first decade. ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' saw strong sales, selling an average of 498,000 copies of each issue in 1960, which was well behind top-selling series such as ''

Uncle Scrooge ''Uncle Scrooge'' (stylized as ''Uncle $crooge'') is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck ("the richest duck in the world"), his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in ...

'' and ''

'' but ahead of other widely recognized series such as ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' (later retitled as ''Batman Detective Comics'') is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is ...

'', ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

'', and even ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National ...

'', which starred Superman himself. The series's success prompted DC to introduce a second title which revolves around a supporting character, '' Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane'', in 1958. Lucy Lane was introduced in issue #36 (April 1959) and became the primary romantic interest of Jimmy Olsen for the run of the series. In an "Imaginary Story" seen in issue #57, he marries

Supergirl Supergirl is the name of several fictional superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original, current, and most well known Supergirl is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Kara Zor-El, the cousin of superhero Superman. Th ...

( Kara Zor-El/Linda Lee Danvers) after she loses both her powers and memories of being Supergirl, only for her to recover her powers and memories after their marriage; once she lets him know that she is Supergirl, he is perfectly happy with it. She was also the anonymous "Miss X" whom Jimmy kissed in issue #44 to break the spell that turned him into a werewolf. Early issues of ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' had few fantasy elements and typically focused on Jimmy trying to do his job as a reporter, but towards the end of the 1950s most of the stories used bizarre premises and frequently involved Jimmy undergoing supernatural transformations. Jimmy acting like a jerk and turning on his friends was a common motif, to the extent that DC published an 80-page giant size issue (''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #113) which consisted of reprints of the best "Jimmy Olsen betrays Superman" stories. When

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (; born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew ...

began working at DC in 1970, he insisted on taking on this title since it was the lowest-selling in the publishing line and without assigned talent at the time, so he would not cost someone their job. Kirby's first issue was #133 (August 1970), and made a very clear break between the old style and the new. During his run, Kirby introduced the Fourth World's

New Gods The New Gods are a fictional extraterrestrial race appearing in the eponymous comic book series published by DC Comics, as well as selected other DC titles. Created and designed by Jack Kirby, they first appeared in February 1971 in ''New Gods'' ...

Darkseid Darkseid () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Kirby, the character first made a cameo appearance in ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #134 (December 1970), before being fully in ...

Project Cadmus This is a list of teams and organizations that appear in various DC Comics publications. Note: Please check :DC Comics superhero teams before adding any redundant entries for superhero teams to the page. 0-9 100 1,000 2000 Committee A ...

and Transilvane. He also reintroduced the Newsboy Legion and

the Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

. The faces of the Superman and Jimmy Olsen figures drawn by Kirby were redrawn by Al Plastino or Murphy Anderson. Comedian

Don Rickles Donald Jay Rickles (May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was known primarily for his insult comedy. His film roles include ''Run Silent, Run Deep (film), Run Silent, Run Deep'' (1958), ''Enter Laughing ...

guest starred in a two-part story by Kirby in issues #139 and #141. Kirby left the series with issue #148 (April 1972). Lucy Lane was believed to have died in '' Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane'' #120 (March 1972) but was revived in a story in ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #160 (October 1973).

Nick Cardy Nicholas Viscardi (October 20, 1920 – November 3, 2013), known professionally as Nick Cardy and Nick Cardi, was an American comics artist best known for his DC Comics work on Aquaman, the Teen Titans and other major characters. Cardy was induct ...

was the cover artist for ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' for issues #154-163. Following Kirby's departure from the series, sales floundered slightly. ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'', ''Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane'' and the short-lived ''

'' title (launched in 1972) ended in 1974 by merging into the new omnibus title '' The Superman Family''. The new series continued the numbering from ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen''. ''Superman Family'' was canceled in 1982, ending with issue #222. A ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' special one-shot was published in December 2008, following on from the "

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

" storyline, and leading into '' Superman: New Krypton''. ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' was revived for a well-received 12-issue maxiseries beginning in September 2019.

Jimmy's transformations

Many of the issues include Jimmy undergoing some form of transformation. These include: * Speed Demon - In a story published in 1956, a month before the debut of

Barry Allen Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the second character known as the Flash, following Flash (Jay Garrick), Jay Garrick. The character first appeared in ''Showcase (comic ...

as the new Flash, Jimmy drinks a potion produced by a Professor Claude and gains super-speed. * Jimmy the Imp - A prankster imp vision of Jimmy. * Colossal Olsen - A Colossal Kid version of Jimmy Olsen. * Radioactivity - After being exposed to a radioactive substance, Jimmy begins to irradiate everything in his presence. * Super-Brain - Jimmy evolves into a "man of the future" with superhuman mental powers. * Monstrous beard growth - The machinations of the sinister Beard Band cause Jimmy to grow an immense

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, beards are most commonly seen on pubescent or adult males, though women have been observed with beards ...

. * Gorilla - When Jimmy switches minds with a gorilla, he goes about his reporting duties as a gorilla in Jimmy's clothes. * Elastic Lad - Jimmy, by serum or by alien virus can sometimes stretch himself, akin to the recently reintroduced

Plastic Man Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a superhero featured in American comic books first appearing in ''Police Comics'' #1, originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by cartoonist Jack Cole (artist), Jack Co ...

. As Elastic Lad, Jimmy is inducted as an Honorary Member of the

Legion of Super-Heroes The Legion of Super-Heroes is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, the Legion is a group of superpowered beings living in the 30th and 31st centuries of t ...

. * Alien-form - Aliens transform Jimmy into a telepathic Jovian for a week. This turns out to be a Jovian week which is much shorter than an Earth week, about 70 hours (slightly less than three days). * Fire-Breather - An accident involving an experiment gives Jimmy fire-breath. * Human

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

- After eating an extraterrestrial fruit, Jimmy grows four extra arms. According to Superman, this is actually a hallucination, but Jimmy suspects that Superman said this to teach him a lesson since Jimmy had foolishly ignored advice from Superman that would have saved him a lot of trouble. *

Genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

- Jimmy finds a genie's lamp and is tricked into replacing its villainous occupant. * Wolf-Man - In the vein of the 1957 film '' I Was a Teenage Werewolf'', Jimmy is transformed into a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

in a 1961 story. * Woman - Jimmy goes undercover dressed as a woman in #44, #67, #84, and #159. * Morbidly Obese - Jimmy gets fat in an attempt to stop a jewel smuggler and to impress a Circus Fat Lady. * Giant

Turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

Man - One of Jimmy's most frequently cited transformations is his turning into a giant turtle man. * Human

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...

- Jimmy transforms after rejecting the romantic advances of an imp from the Fifth Dimension. * Bizarro Jimmy - Although Jimmy has a counterpart on

Bizarro World The Bizarro World (also known as Htrae, which is "Earth" spelled backwards) is a fictional planet appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Introduced in the early 1960s, Htrae is a cube-shaped planet, home to Bizarro and compani ...

, he is turned into a Bizarro himself. *

Hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

- While investigating a colony of hippies at "Guru Kama's Dream Pad", Jimmy grows a beard and participated in a mock "hate-in". On the cover of this story's issue, Jimmy is wielding a sign that says "Superman is a freak-out!" *

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

- Jimmy puts on Viking armor and mistakenly believes he has been transported 1,000 years backward in time.

Proposed TV series

In 1959, the producers of the action/adventure series '' Adventures of Superman'' were hit by a snag as to how to continue the series after series star George Reeves had died that summer from a gunshot wound. Jack Larson, who played Jimmy in the series, was approached with the idea of continuing the franchise as a spin-off for two new seasons of 26 episodes each to begin airing in 1960. Titled ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'', it would focus on a more serious angle of Olsen's rising career as a reporter and journalist with Larson reprising his role. In place of Reeves,

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

of Superman flying and a look-alike

stunt double In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes for another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...

would be used to play the Man of Steel. Larson rejected the proposal, and the project went unmade.

Collected editions

* ''

Showcase Presents ''Showcase Presents'' is a line (comics), line of black-and-white paperback books that were published by DC Comics (from 2005 - 2016) at an average rate of two per month. Much like Marvel Comics' ''Essential Marvel'' volumes, each book usually incl ...

: Superman Family'' ** Volume 1 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #1–22, 576 pages, March 2006, ** Volume 2 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #23–34, 520 pages, February 2008, ** Volume 3 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #35–44, 576 pages, March 2009, ** Volume 4 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #45–53, 520 pages, March 2013, * ''Superman: The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen'' includes stories from ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #22, 28, 31–33, 41–42, 44, 49, 53, 59, 65, 72, 80, 85, and 105, 192 pages, July 2007, * ''Showcase Presents: Supergirl'' Volume 1 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #40, 46, and 51, 528 pages, November 2007, * ''Superman: The Bottle City of Kandor'' includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #53 and 69, 200 pages, October 2007, * ''DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories, Vol. 1'' includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #57, 192 pages, September 2005, * '' Legion of Super-Heroes Archives'' ** Volume 2 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #72, 224 pages, 1992, ** Volume 3 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #76, 224 pages, 1993, ** Volume 7 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #106, 240 pages, May 1998, * ''Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby'' ** Volume 1, collects ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #133–139, and 141, 160 pages, August 2003, ** Volume 2, collects ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #142–148, 192 pages, December 2004, * ''Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus'' ** Volume 1 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #133–139, 396 pages, May 2007, ** Volume 2 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #141–145, 396 pages, August 2007, ** Volume 3 includes ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #146–148, 396 pages, November 2007, * '' Countdown Special: Jimmy Olsen'' #1 (January 2008): collects ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'' #136 and #147–148.

References

External links