Neil Anderson wrote me and said…
I assume you're going to write something about Don Rickles at some point, and was wondering if you'd discuss the two issues of Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby where Don Rickles guest-starred. I was confused by those stories, because it seemed like a natural that there would be a scene where Don Rickles meets Superman, and spends a few pages cleverly insulting him, but no such scene appears. Instead, there's this weird plot involving an evil twin of Don Rickles. I didn't know what to make of it at the time, and still don't. I'd be interested to know your thoughts.
I received quite a few questions about this even though I think I've written about it at least a dozen times. Here's a quick overview of what happened. This is from the big, exhaustive (and exhausting) biography of Jack that I've been writing and which I'm now able to finish. Which I will do soon…
The most famous plotline in Jimmy Olsen was probably a two-parter that guest-starred insult comedian Don Rickles. The event had originated with a suggestion from Steve Sherman and myself that Rickles — who boasted he "never picked on a little guy, only on the biggies" — make a brief cameo and insult Superman. After all, who was a bigger biggie than Superman? Jack liked the idea and permission was procured from Rickles via his publicist for what was then planned as a sequence of but a page or two. At Jack's request, Steve and I wrote a batch of suggested Rickles lines. One went like this…
Rickles: "Hey, where you from, Big Boy?"
Superman: "I'm from the planet Krypton."
Rickles: "Just my luck. I got insults for every nationality on this planet. I gotta run into a yo-yo from Krypton!"
Then DC's own publicists decided that this presented an opportunity for promotion in other venues, and Kirby was asked to do two whole issues with Rickles, both to feature him prominently on their covers. One of those covers would display what cartoonist Scott Shaw has called the greatest line of ad copy ever done in comics: "Kirby says…Don't ask, just buy it!" The resultant issues were weird but wonderful, though Jack somehow never got around to actually having Rickles meet or insult Superman.
The comedian himself was less than thrilled by it all. He'd agreed to a cameo without remuneration, and felt exploited when it turned into two cover-featured guest appearances. He was further offended by a request from a DC publicist who presumed Rickles would gladly take the comics onto talk shows and promote them. Years later in an appearance on Conan O'Brien's NBC talk show, Rickles was less than delighted when the host hauled out a copy of the comic book and asked him about it. "Put that away," he said. "I had nothing to do with that."
Someone on the 'net recently wrote that it all came about because Rickles was a friend and neighbor of the Kirbys. I don't know where they got that because Don Rickles and Jack Kirby lived fifty miles apart and never met unless, of course, they have since Rickles passed away.
For what it's worth, I really like those issues. Liked them at the time when Jack did them, like them more now…and I think I like them for the exact same reasons that some people don't: Because they don't read like "normal" DC Comics or like what we longtime DC readers had come to expect when we picked up an issue of Jimmy Olsen. I sometimes wish Jack — and this goes for a lot of other folks in comics, past and present — could have been freed from some notion of what a DC or Marvel comic "should" be like. This applies to self-imposed restrictions as much as those dictated by editorial folks. The closer Jack got to doing that, the more successful his work was both financially and creatively. But he could have gotten even closer, especially when he was in full command of his creative powers.