Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Up next...Action Comics!

It's that time of the week again, as it's Comic Book Day Wednesday!

I was going to go to the store a little later on, but my work computer just crashed so I think that must be fate telling me that I need to get me some new books. Before I leave, however, lets get the next random pick taken care of.

But before I even do that, let's take a look at days of Comic Book Wednesday past. We'll fire up the Randomizer to pick a year from 1938 to 2009, to see what came out with a cover date of December of that year.

The winner is...1966! And now we'll randomly pick a letter, and that letter is "J".

Thumbing through the list, it looks like Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen was up to issue #98 that month.

And you know what? I'm going to stop right there. I don't think we're going to find another comic as entertaining as that cover right there. Superman as witch doctor, performing the marriage rites for Jimmy Olsen and his betrothed, Miss King Kong!

I think if we've learned one thing, it's that 1966 had much better comics than we have now.

So back to business, and the picking of the next random book to review...

...and that book is Action Comics #510 from August 1980, published by DC Comics!

Good old Action Comics, you're always there for me when I need you. Every month for the last 71 years you've been performing your civic duty, and giving us the entertainment we so richly deserve. Even in a world where I read multiple comic books a day, I can usually find a back issue from your longbox that I haven't read yet.

That's definitely the case with this issue, as it falls into a time period I haven't exhaustively read yet. It's got Lex Luthor on the cover, so that's good. Superman's being a dick on the cover, so that should be fun too. Let's crack it open and see if it lives up to the hype.

See you in a day or two for the review.

UPDATE: Superman's witch doctor powers must be more potent than I originally thought, as that Jimmy Olsen cover has been creeping around the back corners of my consciousness, begging for more attention. Luckily, Pat over at Silver Age Comics had put his two cents in about that same issue on his site. Hopefully, by commiserating with fellow bloggers, I'll be able to exorcise it from my brain. So consider this a P.S.A. if you were similarly afflicted.

2 comments:

  1. LOL, that Jimmy Olsen #98 definitely takes the cake for one of the weirdest stories of the Silver Age. As I mentioned when reviewing it a few years ago, it's amazing that the CCA let it through, but it was the kind of thing that was a staple of country humor at the time.

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  2. That's one thing I love about the silver age, as soon as you think you've seen it all you rediscover a story like that one that's even crazier than the last one.

    I'm definitely curious to see the next title out there that makes this one look tame.

    I'll have to check out your review as I was toying with the idea of tracking this issue down based soley on that great cover.

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