2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the character who started it all for superhero comics. I’m talking about none other than the Last Son of Krypton, Superman. It’s awe-inspiring to think that a character launched in 1938 could hold global interest so consistently for 80 years. Today, Superman shows no sign of slowing down. We know there will be more movies, more comics and more games and other merchandise produced and waiting to appear about Superman and his mythos. Not only should Superman remain popular in the coming years, but it’s hard to see Supes, or his comics, vanishing anytime in the foreseeable future. For comic collectors, this makes early key Superman comics, and the key issues from related titles, valuable investments.
Last time, I took a look at some undervalued keys related to Superman.
There I was looking at the Lois Lane spin-off comic, Superman’s Girlfriend; today I want to focus on other overlooked keys connected to the Superman brand.
By the late 1950s “World’s Best Selling Comics Magazine” was a tag regularly affixed to the covers of Superman’s comics – and it was no idle boast. According to some estimates Superman comics have sold a total of over 600, 000, 000 copies since 1938. A quick glance at year by year sales statistics of Silver Age comics at ‘Comichron.com’, for example, shows almost all the Superman titles were consistent best sellers throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s. Any series that popular was sure to generate spin-off titles, and Superman was no exception. In September of 1954 the first spin off of the then popular regular Superman titles appeared. The comic was called Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen and, as its title suggests, this was to be a regular monthly series that focused on Clark Kent’s younger colleague in the newsroom, Jimmy Olsen. As Superman’s Pal, Jimmy frequently involved Superman in his adventures and it was the appearance of the Man of Steel that drew in the readers.
As a second-string title, it might be thought that the Jimmy Olsen cannot possibly be of value to collectors. Surprisingly, however, this series contains at least one mega-key. Before I get to it, I want to mention the only other good investment in the series: the premiere issue.
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 (Cover date October 1954)
Armed with his Superman Signaling wrist watch, his pluck, and his camera, DC launched one of the weirdest and kookiest comics in its history when it signed off on this one. Through the course of its twenty year run, Jimmy would be given temporary Super-powers (look out world here comes ‘Elastic Lad’ issues #31 & 111), regularly transported back in time where, on one occasion he forms a British Invasion style proto-rock band in ancient Egypt with the biblical Samson (issue #16), meets the Devil himself (issue #65) and becomes a Nazi (issue #86) [yes dear reader, you read that correctly].
This was the book that started it all. Jimmy Olsen #1 is in general hard to find – especially in high grade copies, but this makes it out to be a great investment if you can find it. In 2008 a 7.5 sold on Heritage for just over six thousand dollars.
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 – First Appearance of Darkseid
Starting in 1970, Jack Kirby took over the Jimmy Olsen title. From the start it was obvious that Kirby had little interest in the goofy protagonist of the series. Instead, taking off on one of legendary creative journeys, Kirby used the title to introduce his Fourth Word concept and characters. Of those characters, none would be more influential on the DC Universe than the New Gods and of these most fans still hold Darkseid (yes, let’s just say it - he’s the original Thanos) in high esteem. Prices are currently down on this Jimmy Olsen mega-key with a 30% drop in 9.2 and 6% drop in 8.0 graded copies, so now is the time to buy. When Darkseid appears in a movie (and his henchman Steppenwolf has already appeared) sales will probably take off again.
Next time, in part three, I’ll look at the keys from the original Superboy and Adventure Comics runs.
