posted March 30, 2002 05:27 PM    

Most of my favourites sixties Superman stories are from the early sixties, yet I read them when reprinted in the late sixties or early seventies ("The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman" was reprinted in Superman 238, a 64 page Giant--although I did buy the original issue just a couple months ago and now have it in my collection! yahoo!).

Same with the Kandor stories bbz has mentioned (reprinted in a Jimmy Olsen Giant in the early seventies), and the Van-Zee/Sylvia story I mentioned (reprinted in the late sixties). And the Luthor/Brainiac story (reprinted in Superman 245, a Super-Spectacular, in the early seventies--although I also got a copy of the original, 167, around the same time).

posted March 30, 2002 05:32 PM    

"Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl (2-parts)" JS-CS-SK (r: SF 181, AC 251)

posted March 30, 2002 05:39 PM    

The "Return to Krypton" story I refer to is Superman #141, a three part story solely featuring and titled "Superman's Return to Krypton" (which introduces Supes love interest Lyla Lerrol.) It was reprinted in the giant-sized Superman #232 (if ya find a good grade copy, it may run ya $5-7,) and a few times elsewhere perhaps. I imagine it has been reprinted in some DC HC in the last decade, but I don't which. Any help anyone?

The Luthor story you cite is from Superman #164, and is probably my fave Luthor story, but there are several from this period. Most definately I agree: to me the '60s Luthor was the best interpretation ever done.

He was a tragic human character, sometimes even quasi-heroic as he was with the people of Lexor. He wasn't Evil Incarnate as is the current version. He was a flawed, damaged, but brilliant man in the '60s, and as #164 shows, not afraid in the slightest of Superman, really eager and willing to duke it out with him on equal terms, even if his was a poor loser at the end of the fight.

posted March 30, 2002 06:00 PM    

It took place when Supergirl's identity was still kept secret by Superman, with her being his "secret weapon." It's probably from a Jimmy Olsen story, not Supergirl, as my image memory seems to be Swan art, not Mooney.

Anyway, in the story, Jimmy has gone blind and Supergirl tries to help him. She tells him that she's Supergirl - Superman's cousin (and possibly that she's his secret weapon.) He doesn't believe her. So, I believe, much of the story is her trying to convince him (typical Weisinger plot.) The vague image that sticks in my mind is that (I believe) she intially told him while the were both standing on a bridge. That image stands out (and it seems the bridge was yellow, but that's iffy.)

That's all I can recall, but my impression has been that this might be an "incidental" DC purchase by me somewhat earlier than when I recall becoming interested in them in Summer 1961.

The main plot points are that Jimmy was blinded and that Supergirl was trying to get him to believe she really existed.

posted March 30, 2002 10:46 PM       

In the latter story, Jimmy loses his memory and his ID and is actually consigned to the Midvale orphanage where he naturally meets up with Linda Lee!

Supergirl turned up rather frequently throughout the Weisinger line during this period, and it's a shame they apparently made the decision to only archive the Action stories.

posted March 30, 2002 10:55 PM       

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen No. 40
October 1959
Story: "Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl's Pal" (9 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Otto Binder?
Penciller: Curt Swan
Inker: George Klein
Feature Character: Jimmy Olsen
GS: Superman, Supergirl (between ACTION COMICS #256 / 257; origin retold in flashback)
Cameo: Zor-El, Allura (flashback)
Villains: "Big Con" Colby, Thora (first and only appearance for both)
Synopsis: When Jimmy Olsen threatens to expose phony acts at Colonel Colby's sideshow, he accidentally blinds himself with tear gas from his trophy case. Colby dumps Olsen in the desert,
and Jimmy activates his signal watch. Since Superman is at the center of the Earth on a mission , Supergirl (whose existence is a secret) answers the summons. But, try as she may, Supergirl
cannot convince the skeptical Olsen that she has super-powers. Olsen believes her to be Colby's strong-girl Thora. Finally, Supergirl sees Superman returning to Earth's surface, reactivates Jimmy's signal-watch to summon him, and flies away. Superman exposes Colby and takes him to jail. Jimmy, telling Superman how Colby tried to make him believe there was a Supergirl, breaks
down laughing.

posted March 30, 2002 11:32 PM    

As for "Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl," some things struck me when I read it this past week--things I wouldn't have noticed back when I was a kid.

Back when I was a kid I had no idea how old Linda was supposed to be. But I would judge that when the story was first printed she was supposed to be sixteen. While Jimmy was supposed to be? an indeterminant age I guess, but somewhere in his early twenties I imagine. Now the age difference isn't huge, but given their positions in life, it does seem like Jimmy is robbing the cradle. (Of course Supergirl herself was sometimes portrayed as being half in love with her own much older cousin.)

As if tit for tat, Lucy Lane ends up with a pilot who looks old enough to be her father.

And while Jimmy is the older one, he's an idiot, whereas Linda is mature and intelligent for all her youth. Why Jimmy is willing to risk his marriage just because Supergirl happens to think he's cute is beyond me. Oh sure, it turns out Supergirl IS Linda, but hormonally challenged Olsen didn't know that!

posted March 31, 2002 01:57 AM    

Now I have to figure out if I bought it new or picked it up used somewhere months later, either which supports this notion I have that I started reading DC comics perhaps one or two years earlier than I generally assumed (1961,) but was too young to have formed lasting memories about them, and relatedly didn't save them for any appreciable time that would reinforce any such memories.

My logical mind says that this never happened, but too many "charged" snippets of comic memories and images have surfaced over the years to be accounted for by later readings when reason, or adolescent facsimilies, filtered most consciousness. They're vague, but clearly deeper than early adolescence.

Having collected comics for at least 41 years, it's become mildly important to determine when I really began reading them. And actually starting in the calendar 1950s rather than the 1960s, is a "coolness" quota that perhaps only Silver Agers can appreciate!

posted March 31, 2002 06:30 PM    

Thanks also for the reprint info. I'll check around for #343 at local shops. I'm pretty sure that reprint didn't generate the memory because by 1966 I had been a full blown "serious" collector for five years. No, I really think I got it new in 1959 or recently afterward from a neighborhood friend or some store that may have had "a pile o' comics" they were selling.

posted April 01, 2002 05:59 PM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by India Ink:
Hm, I thought I had this story...I was flipping through some Actions this morning and there was one with Jimmy and Supergirl, but I just noted it, I didn't give it a read. However, the artwork wasn't Swan, so far as I could tell, so it may be another one.

---

Actually it was the story originally from Jimmy Olsen, reprinted as a Supergirl "Hall of Fame Classic" in Action Comics no. 343 from 1966. And I guess the art is Curt Swan, but not any Swan art I'm familiar with--being as, I gather, this was inked by John Forte who gives a different look to Curt's work.

posted April 01, 2002 07:37 PM    

Brainiac's first app, of course, is Action 242 - 7/58 (as well as first app of Kandor.)

Two other apps come to mind. Because Brainiac makes no cover app, Lois Lane 17, 5/60, ("Lana Lang, Superwoman,") is not widely known as a Brianiac app. Is it Brainiac's second appearance? The other is well-known because he makes a cover appearance - Action 280, 9/61 (also with the minaturized Supes and friends on cover, and guest-starring Congorilla.)

posted April 01, 2002 09:17 PM       

3rd appearance: "The Menace of Red-Green Kryptonite" from Action #275 (April 1961) by Jerry Coleman and Wayne Boring. Exposure to a hybrid red/green K Brainiac concoction causes Superman to grow a 3rd eye on the back of his head (I kid you not!).

4th appearance: "Brainiac’s Super-Revenge" from Action #280 (Sept. 1961) by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan, and Stan Kaye. Superman and his friends are shrunk by Brainiac, but Superman is able to turn the tables with a little help from Congo Bill and Congorilla!

That's it - his next appearance would be in 1963, in a flashback "Superbaby" story in Superboy #80 entitled "The Lair of Brainiac" which relates how Brainiac kidnapped the infant Kal-El from Krypton!

posted April 01, 2002 10:40 PM    

Also as a Legion fan, I know well that many Superman characters' early appearances are littered with such "do-we-or-don't-we-count-'em" cameos. One thing you say for Marvel, they really didn't do that many cameo panels in the early days.

It is interesting to note that Brainiac (#1) had only appeared three times before Brainiac 5 was introduced as a love interest for Supergirl. It just adds further credence to the view I expressed last year at the end of our Grand Appearances Index over on the old Legion board. [It was a group effort index of all Legionnaires' appearances in Legion series' issues. (More specifically just a grand totaling/scoring of all the appearances with some weight given to starring and featured roles.]

Brainiac 5 was the overwhelming "winner," with nearly 20% more points than second place finisher (who I believe was Chameleon Boy.) Really, Brainiac 5 blew every else out of the water.

My statement upon the final tabulation was that Brainiac 5 probably was the most well-known and often used of all the different Brainiac versions over the years (the main other two "versions" being the robot Brainiac and Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N.)

In fact, I stated then and still believe that Brainiac 5 has had more appearances than all other Brainiac versions combined, and probably has had greater influence on the DC mythos than any other Brainiac.

Like I said, I'm a Legion fan.

posted April 02, 2002 12:29 AM    

I seem to recall he was introduced as a descendant of the original Brainiac before it was decided that Brainiac was an android.

How was this resolved? I don't think I have the answer in my comic collection. Or, if it's there, I've forgotten about it.

posted April 02, 2002 04:59 AM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by bizarro brainiac zero:
Aldous, even though I'm a Legion fan, the history of the Brainiacs will take a little time to explain. So I'm going to defer to more diligent DC historians than I out there to clue ya in. If nobody steps up, I'll come back and try to recall all of it and lay it out for ya.

Or maybe somebody knows a great website with the relevant history of the Brainiacs?

---

Thanks, bbzero!

Now, where's Mr Bridwell when we need him...?

posted April 02, 2002 02:27 PM       

quote:

---

Originally posted by bizarro brainiac zero:

Or maybe somebody knows a great website with the relevant history of the Brainiacs?

---

Ask, and ye shall receive!
http://plaza.powersurfr.com/legion_headquarters/rollcall/b5.htm

posted April 02, 2002 04:48 PM    

"Known Relatives: Querl was orphaned at a young age (AD 356). Kajz Dox (father, deceased). Pran Dox (grandfather, deceased), Vril Dox (great grandfather, deceased)."

Brainiac was given a Coluan young man to accompany him, to pose as "Brainiac II," to back up the masquerade of Brainiac as a real live humanoid, and not an android--but the young man escaped from Brainiac and led the Coluan revolt against their computer masters. I think this young man (Vril Dox) even had a "II" tatooed on his palm. So Querl named himself after his heroic great grandfather, calling himself "Brainiac 5." (Over a thousand year period there were only four generations--they were a long-lived family.)

But I want to know about Koko! I'm serious. My only exposure to Action 242 is the few panels reprinted in the Great Superman Book (encyclopedia), which show the entertaining interaction between Brainiac and his pet space monkey.

I like all the Koko appearances that I've seen, but somewhere along the way the cute white creature disappears from the Superman stories. Does anyone have a Koko index?

posted April 02, 2002 08:19 PM    

I'd be amazed if there's a Koko site anywhere. India, you do know they brought back Koko as a "pet" of sorts for Brainiac 5 for a few recent years? I think Koko may have become attached to Brainiac 5 after the Legion fought the original Brainiac in Showcase when some of them where trapped in the 20th century a few years ago, and then Brainiac 5 brought Koko back home to the 31st century. I guessing a little on that rebooted Koko history!.

posted April 02, 2002 09:23 PM       

Of all the Weisinger innovations introduced in the '58-'59 "renaissance", I've always been most intrigued by the evolution of the bottled city of Kandor. The writers seem to grab on to this concept immediately - there were no less than 5 Kandor appearances in the '50s alone:

"The Super-Duel in Space" from Action #242 (Jul. 1958) by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. The original story of Kandor's rescue from Brainiac.

"The Lady and the Lion" from Action #243 (Aug. 1958) by Otto Binder and Wayne Boring. In this story, Superman is transformed by Circe into a lion, and finds the cure in a Kandorian text book!

"The Shrinking Superman" from Action #245 (Oct. 1958) by ? and Wayne Boring (my guess is Binder again). An evil double from Kandor takes Superman's place and even succeeds in marrying Lois!

"The Dictator of Krypton City" from World's Finest 100 (Mar. 1959) by Bill Finger, Dick Sprang, and Stan Kaye. Reprinted in the recent WF Archives volume 2, Kandor is referred to as "Krypton City" in this tale (remember WF was edited by Schiff at the time, so there may have been a lack of coordination here), and its residents as "Kryptonites" !!! This is a great story, with Luthor infiltrating the Fortress, and then Kandor, and taking it by force from its peaceful inhabitants.

"The War Between Superman and Jimmy Olsen" from Action #253 by Alvin Schwartz, Curt Swan, and George Klein. This time, an evil Jimmy Olsen look-alike escapes from Kandor to wreak havoc. They were just chock-full of doppelgangers, weren't they - and we haven't even gotten to Van-Zee yet!

posted April 04, 2002 04:18 AM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Osgood Peabody:
Ask, and ye shall receive!
http://plaza.powersurfr.com/legion_headquarters/rollcall/b5.htm

---

Thanks, O.P.

That's just what I needed!

posted April 04, 2002 04:21 AM    

Osgood, I do recall that Kandor was in a couple issues right after 242, but didn't show up again for a year later, in of all places World's Finest (DC did that a lot, didn't they.)

You know that reminds me of a former favorite pastime that's shared by a lot of comics fans, if not all - imaging team-ups or meetings between characters that never happened.

I've wondered about Mon-el's Phantom Zone period in '61 & '62 (before the Legion liberated him,) where he showed up in all the Superman family titles. Except World's Finest. I've imagined him in WF meeting Batman and Robin, as drawn by Swan, in probably what would have been Batman's first encounter with the Phantom Zone. If the new Legion feature in Adventure had been delayed six months, Mon-el probably would have met Batman in WF. He probably would have also met Bizarro and other Superman mainstays. Who else? Kandorians? Or did he?

Too bad villains never really crossed over in DC Silver Age books as they did at Marvel. It would have been fun to see Luthor and Batman go at it back then, or say Superman race Professor Zoom.