Monday, August 29, 2011

Making a Splash: King Kirby's Jimmy Olsen

What it is, Groove-ophiles! Yesterday was Jack "King" Kirby's birthday, and there's no way we're gonna let that special day pass by without paying tribute to the man who put so much of the groove in the Groovy Age! For this special occasion, Ol' Groove thought it might be cool to combine a hot topic--DC's upcoming reboot (DCnU)--with Kirby's Groovy Age reboot of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen! When the DC ads proclaimed "Kirby Is Coming!" few of us ever dreamed he'd make his DC debut on Jimmy Olsen--but he did. And like everything else he ever did, Jolly Jack hit the ground running with truck-loads of ideas and concepts that leaped from the four-color pages and smacked us upside our collective heads. The following superior splashes will give you naught but a taste of the magnificent madness we were digging when we read Jimmy Olsen's mag from issues 133-139 (June 1970-April 1971) and 141-148 (July 1971-January 1972). NOTE: These are only the single-page splashes--Ol' Groove's savin' the double page splashes for another day. Gotta keep ya hangin' on, baby! WARNING! This post gives a new definition to the term "graphics intensive"! Grab a sandwich while it loads!











































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11 comments:

  1. Mike MikulovskyAugust 29, 2011 at 12:49 AM

    LONG LIVE THE KING!

    ReplyDelete
  2. RichAugust 29, 2011 at 4:53 AM

    Genius.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 29, 2011 at 5:25 AM

    Thanks for showing these, I forgot just how brilliant Mr Kirby his Jimmy Olsen book was one of my all time favourites of his (with Kamandi)his style is so fresh it could be printed as new even today - great stuff. McScotty

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charles R. RutledgeAugust 29, 2011 at 6:29 AM

    The last couple were actually my introduction to Jack Kirby. I bought Kirby's final issue of Jimmy Olsen in a drugstore/diner when I was a kid and was absolutely amazed. Then Kamandi came out and I was forever hooked on the King.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JL CancioAugust 29, 2011 at 8:22 AM

    Thnks for this men. Love this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. HEHAugust 29, 2011 at 10:15 PM

    You guys who grew up with these comics as they were released....walking among a giant. There will never be another like Kirby, huh!

    Some favorites for me:
    Homo-disastrous!
    The Man from Transilvane!
    Big Boom!
    The Four-Armed Terror

    ReplyDelete
  7. HEHAugust 29, 2011 at 10:17 PM

    Kamandi was also a huge spotlight on my Kirby Appreciation. The sense of wonder and adventure to me were incredible. I only know these Jimmy Olson comics through reprinted collections.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tom MasonAugust 30, 2011 at 12:56 AM

    My 2nd favorite Kirby book. Great stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousAugust 31, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    Total.
    Sensory.
    Overload.

    Sorry, forgot I was wrting about Kirby:

    Total!!!
    Sensory!!!!!
    Overload!!!!!!!

    David Simpson

    ReplyDelete
  10. DanAugust 31, 2011 at 11:23 AM

    I know this is a point that has been hammered for nearly 40 years, but it still annoys me that the DC powers-that-be of the time felt that Kirby's renditions of Superman and Jimmy had to have their heads redrawn by Plastino and Anderson. It irked me at the time and still does to this day. This is still beautiful stuff despite that.

    ReplyDelete
  11. kamagraApril 16, 2012 at 7:28 AM

    Comics was once famous before for children and teens. This is now consider as collectors item, great pictures.

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


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As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!