Hippie Olsen's Hate-In

I recently downloaded all 163 issues of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, a notoriously bizarre comic book that ran for 20 years starting in 1954. Looking for some light reading material just now, but unsure where to start, I used the Random Olsen Generator located at the bottom-left of your Furdell.com main page.

I came up with issue #121, "Jimmy Olsen's Death Trick," in which Jimmy exaggerates a fever in order to convince Superman to reveal his secret idenity privately. Unsure at first what to do, Jimmy overhears Superman telling the president of the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club (yeah, right) that he can be Superman's new pal, and that the Superman-That Guy team will be way better than the Superman-Olsen team. Jimmy at first resolves to reveal Superman's secret identity on television, but convinces himself at the last second that Superman was merely under the effects of red kryptonite and therefore totally delirious when he said someone else would make a better pal. (This was not the case.)

Anyway, as pulse-pounding as that story was, I've discovered that the best part of a Jimmy Olsen comic is the letters page. Sample opening sentence: "'Hippie Olsen's Hate-In' was one of your better stories." Ouch.

Here's my favorite letter, in its entirety. Notice how it starts out as a thoughtful critique of the comic book, and then quickly devolves, not unlike Jimmy Olsen himself in the story in question.

Dear Editor:
In your recent story "The Gorilla Reporter," when Jimmy was in a gorilla's body, Perry White put a sign on him saying he was tame, so no one would panic. Frankly, no such thing would reassure me, because I'm certain there's really no such thing as a tame gorilla. All real gorillas are vicious killers.
-- Brad Ellis, Louisville, Ky.