Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby, Vol. 1 is a collection of early 70s Jimmy Olsen comics authored by the legendary artist/writer, Jack Kirby. How to explain Jack Kirby to someone who doesn't know comics history? One way might be to say that he was the Jimi Hendrix of comics. Except he was also the Charlie Christian, Les Paul and Wes Montgomery -- doing groundbreaking work in at least four decades, pioneering a number of genres -- even inventing romance comics with his long-time collaborator, Joe Simon. After tearing the roof off the superhero genre in the 1960s at Marvel Comics (Fantastic Four, X-Men, The Avengers, Thor, Silver Surfer, etc), Kirby moved to National/DC in the early 70s and created his mind-blowing Fourth World trilogy (New Gods, Forever People, Mr. Miracle). Along the way, he also agreed to take on DC's long-time oddball series, Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen. Which quickly became Superman's Ex-Pal: The New Jimmy Olsen -- folded into Kirby's Fourth World universe with wild plotlines involving subterranean space-age/primitive biker gangs, genetic research carried out by genetically enhanced researchers and chaos wrought by rampaging D.N.Aliens. And then there's Don Rickles look-alike, Goody Rickels vs. Don Rickles himself. This is all conveyed in Kirby's expressionistic, perspective pushing, chrome-plated, spaced-out style, complete with the occasional trippy photo-montage for variety. I had a few of these issues back when they were new, but it's great to have a full eight issue series of this material gathered in one handy volume, and unlike some previous Kirby collections, presented in full color. The second half of Kirby's run is supposed to be forthcoming in a volume 2, someday.
Posted by M.Ace at 02:27 PM, June 25, 2004.While I grew up with Kirby's FF, Thor &etc. I never warmed to his Fourth World comics. The Rickles cover is one of the three comics that drove me away from them for years (about the same time Lois Lane became a "negro for a day" and Spiderman grew eight arms). Eventually I came back to comics and opened my own shop. I'm grateful though for the reprints of the Golden Age work that I've never seen before.
Posted by Richard Evans Lee at 02:57 PM, July 20, 2004.Oh, yeah, I remember those! They were great! While I thought the Rickles one was bizarre, it was still funny. I was always disappointed that the Fourth World stuff didn't keep going - it had the potential to totally change the DC universe into something much more interesting than the standard DC fare at the time. Kirby was the only force at DC who could have made DC as interesting as Marvel.
Posted by Richard Steven Hack at 04:06 PM, July 20, 2004.I'd just like to point out that the first link in my post leads to an article which is much better than my post.