Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #126, DC Comics, January 1970 – Artist: Curt Swan.
I never thought I’d pick a Jimmy Olsen cover. Don’t laugh but I cannot remember ever holding this comic, I mean I must have but if I did I do not remember and this is a great cover so I would have remembered.
Our Army At War #126 has a great cover and so does Thor #126 with it’s classic battle. And how great is Donald Duck #126, reminds me of that scene in one of the Pink Panther movies with Clouseau and the blind look out.
X-Men #126 has the team in full Avengers breakout mode and my ode to sometimes there’s no wrong answer has to be Secret Hearts #126.
A great comic book cover matching each day of the year, 1 through 365. Please chime in with your favourite corresponding cover, from any era.
This is one of the more surprising and most gratifying of your picks to date. I hadn’t really looked at this book either until the latest ComicLink auction, but I was transfixed and then looked at the stats. As might be expected, given that it’s a pre-Kirby Olsen with a dark background, only two in 9.6 and none in 9.8. The Fantucchio 9.6 became my second-to-top target (behind Ghost Manor #13 9.4). At the last minute I put in the absolute top price that I could justify for a nothing book that I just thought was cool, and – crickets. I way overbid and got it for a song. Nice in one sense ($), but certainly confirming lack of demand. So very nice to see it appear here. Similar to Avengers #125, I thought the lack of demand indicated my subjective appreciation, so I didn’t put it forward as a recommendation.
Also maybe there was some club soda involved, but did you mean “_another_ Jimmy Olsen cover”?
Donald Duck bothers me not because of his incompetence but because of his seeming righteousness in penalizing his nephew (Louie according to the Internets). OAAW has cool lighting effects, but to me the brightly lit parts are too washed out and the darks are too dark. As much as I love X-Men I find that cover to be pretty run-of-the-mill along the lines of your comment.
The situation for #127 much improved. I have to go with Dark Horse Presents – another cover that I had never seen before but now transfixes me. Daredevil is my runner up – I remember buying this one on the newsstand and it is another fantastic and distinctive Kane cover. Honorable mentions to Strange Adventures, Thor, Unexpected.
Superman shows his gratitude to Jimmy for rescuing him on the moon by telling him he’s a “wise guy” and he’ll “just have to live in this rat-trap from now on!” Hats off, Ma and Pa Kent, great work.
JOWA to Superboy – actually to Bee-Boy.
Thanks again Walt for bringing out a fantastic cover that I had not seen before today. Jimmy Olsen has been such a pleasant surprise throughout this column, for reasons both good and bad, but this really is a capitvating cover.
I had assumed Thor #126 would take the prize with such a big and bold Kirby cover, but there also appeared to be some other nice #126 covers, including:
• A Gil Kane cover on Rawhide Kid #126;
• Detective Comics #126 (maybe not great but a personal favorite);
• X-Men #126 (a modified homage to GS X-Men #1, which seemed to be a Marvel Theme for issue #126 with Iron Man #126 updating TOS #39, and FF #126 giving a Buscema take of FF#1)
Good choice. With the realistic space suits, it immediately recalls the not-long-ago-at-that-point actual moon landing. Even the module seems realistic, so hats off to DC for mixing fantasy and reality here.
Our Army at War is beautifully designed and colored…we miss your Russ Heath…but I accidently pulled up #125 and liked that better.
I agree with criticism on X-Men. Seen it before and since.
Donald is a real surprise, since I would be prejudiced, however unreasonable that is, against anyone but Barks…anfpd maybe Rosa. But there are some wonderful pre-Barks Comics & Stories covers that are true classics. I immediately thought “maybe he means Four Color #126”…which is a great Christmas cover, but not Donald. So went back and looked again. Cute, okay, but…
Thor #126 is indeed a classic, but I was buying them off the stands then, so hard to be impartial since those Kirby/Hercules battles are so memorable. Even Colletta’s inking was very well matched, which I still believe. Poor Colletta has been dissed pretty thoroughly at this point for ignoring a lot of Kirby details. But his mid-fifties Atlas Romance work is now highly collectible…and very good, both covers and stories. But I digress, as usual…
Still, I think Jimmy was a fine choice and best of the bunch.
Well, this IS a great cover, and again one I was unfamiliar with. Also, just for the record, you got me to buy my first romance comic Walt, True Life Secrets #23. How did that not get picked on day 23? Plus its from…. Hamilton, Ontario…..what?
“Please view all pics to see all defects, and don’t forget she’s been eyeing a pearl necklace!” Classy firm you’re ordering from there, Gerald.
It was an impulse buy Chris! Should have researched the seller more aggressively I guess…..
Doh, yes I did mean another – thought our wedding issue would have been plenty. I liked Donald because the sight gag made me laugh and it works, there are so many sight gags in this era and most don’t work.
I did note the homage to the Apollo moon missions Bud it certainly tied the book to a time.
Hey Gerald, you did buy that off me !! You hipster, that’s a great book, one of the most sought after provocative covers and don’t listen to Meli, satisfaction is guaranteed.