Pop Focus: The Comic Book Adventures of Jerry Lewis

In the U.S., Jerry Lewis is synonymous with Labor Day Weekend. For decades, his annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association aired at this time. Jerry ended his long tenure as host in 2010 and it was announced last year, that MDA would end the telethon in favor or other fundraising ventures.

Even so, Labor Day seems like an appropriate day to spotlight Jerry's other career - as a decades-long comic book character. Starting with The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 1952 and continuing with his own book, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, in 1957, Jerry was a DC Comics star through 1971! Toward the end of things, he even met Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash.

At some point, I guess, the powers at DC figured out Jerry just wasn't a known quantity against Bronze Age kids. Maybe the series is still running in France. I don't know.

Here's a collection of covers from both series. Many of the covers are by the great Bob Oksner, though other artists contributed, too. That may be Wayne Boring's Superman. And that's Neal Adams' work on Jerry Lewis #104. All cover art is from the Grand Comics Database.



















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