Browse around your local comic shop or surf your favorite blog (Narrator's Voice: GoCollect!) and you'll hear tons of debate. It is in the DNA of the Comic Collective to speculate, debate, and agitate! Two titans of the Comic Collective, that are surely beyond debate, are Jack Kirby and Neal Adams. So, why do the very few examples of their collaboration together generate such little interest?
Exhibit A: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #137
A debate may ensue after reading this, but if you had two extremely talented and influential artists working together, two artists who in total created enough key comics, characters, and covers that can equal the Gross National Product of a third of the world's countries, then it just boggles the mind that their first collaboration together is barely a blip on the Comic Collective radar. Do you need proof that hardly anyone has noticed or recognized the value of the first collaborative work of these two titans? While Neal Adams and Jack Kirby worked on the same comic for issue's 134-136 of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen (Adams did the cover and Kirby did the interior), it wasn't until Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #137 that Neal Adams and Jack Kirby actually collaborated together as artist and inker on a comic. GoCollect lists a mere thirty-two sales of the graded comic and a CGC 9.6 sold in November for a paltry $115. For a tick over $100, you could own a CGC 9.6 version of this comic! I think that is a "drop the mic" moment of this debate!
Speculating Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #137
In this issue, Superman fights the four-armed terror, the latest clone by Simyan and Mokkari. The cover sums the storyline nicely with the four-armed terror in shadow towering over Superman and the return of the Newsboy Legion, a group that first debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7 back in 1942 by Simon and Kirby and reintroduced by Kirby in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133. Between the cover, storyline, first collaboration between Kirby and Adams, and its place in comic history, this comic has all the makings of a sound investment or as a nice addition to your slabbed comic collection.
Some Great Story and Art!
This issue is part of a nice arc that should merit significant attention for any investor. Kirby's entire run of this series, from issues #133 thru #146, combine to develop one loose storyline. There is, of course, Darkseid's first two appearances. Darkseid's minions, Simyan and Mokkari, appear throughout the run. The storyline is well-done. The Kirby run of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen is clever with storylines and art that are aging well and merit another look. It includes what is without a doubt one of the most unique and iconic collaborations in comic history. Also, Don Rickles is on not one but two issues in the run! Maybe it is what I call the Superman Drag Theory that is keeping the comics from rising in interest. The fact that there were soooo many Superman titles. Their print runs were so much larger than other comic runs. Also, he's an invincible alien that has everything come to him so easily...including women (See Lana and Lois and...)! He's not Batman who makes really cool things, has to solve problems, invents new weapons to fight crime, etc. Whatever the case may be, throw out all the theories and just invest in these comics. They can't get any lower than they are right now.
