Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #36

History

The issue was written by Otto Binder — DC's most prolific Superman-family scripter of the era — and penciled by Curt Swan, who served as the definitive visual interpreter of the Superman universe through the Silver Age; the inking credit on the Lucy Lane story has been a subject of debate among researchers, with some sources crediting John Giunta and others leaving it uncertain. The whole title operated under the firm editorial hand of Mort Weisinger, whose tight conceptual grip on the Superman line shaped every character introduction and story premise. The series itself had been launched in 1954 partly on the coattails of Jack Larson's popular portrayal of Jimmy on the Adventures of Superman television series, meaning issue #36 arrived during the title's commercial peak, when it was outselling even Action Comics on the newsstand. The K.G. Murray edition (published in Australia under the Colour Comics Pty. Ltd. imprint and produced by K.G. Murray Publishing Company Pty. Ltd. of Sydney, printed by Sungravure Ltd.) was part of a long-running program of black-and-white newsprint reprints of DC material distributed across Australia and New Zealand by Gordon & Gotch, running on a separate numbering schedule from the American originals.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Lucy Lane (Lois Lane's younger sister), introduced in the story titled 'Lois Lane's Sister!', written by Otto Binder and penciled by Curt Swan — she would become Jimmy Olsen's primary romantic interest for the remainder of the series' original run.
• Lucy Lane was portrayed in her debut as an airline stewardess; the issue ends with Jimmy proposing, and Lucy declining because of a vow to her mother that she would not marry until Lois married first — a running plot device that kept the relationship unresolved for years.
• A second story, 'How Jimmy Olsen First Met Superman!', provides a Silver Age origin for the Jimmy-Superman friendship, depicting Jimmy's time-machine trip to Krypton where he babysat the infant Kal-El, and establishing how Jimmy came to work at the Daily Planet and receive his signal watch.
• A third story, 'Super-Señor's Pal!', sends Jimmy to the fictional South American nation of Peccador to investigate a Superman impostor being used by locals to resist a dictator — a story noted by later commentators for its period-typical cultural caricature alongside its nominally heroic premise.
• The DC original carries a cover date of April 1959 and an on-sale date of February 19, 1959, edited by Mort Weisinger; the inking credit on the Lucy Lane story is disputed between sources, with John Giunta cited in some indices.
• Stories from this issue were reprinted multiple times: the Krypton origin story appears in Superman Annual (DC) #5 (Summer 1962) and Showcase Presents: Superman Family #3 (2009); the Lucy Lane story was reprinted in the 80-Page Giant Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #95 (1966).
• The K.G. Murray Australian edition was produced under the Colour Comics Pty. Ltd. imprint, printed by Sungravure Ltd. of Rosebery, Sydney, and distributed across Australia and New Zealand by Gordon & Gotch — a standard black-and-white newsprint format common to all K.G. Murray DC reprints of the period.
• Lucy Lane went on to appear across the broader Superman family of titles for decades, eventually marrying Ron Troupe in later continuity and being adapted into live-action television in the CBS Supergirl series (2015), where she was played by Jenna Dewan.

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