YIPES! And Perry White thought this would be a tame story for me to cover! 
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #43 is an issue of the series Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1960.
Synopsis for "Jimmy Olsen's Four Fads!"
Jimmy Olsen becomes jealous of TV star Edd Byrnes of the television show "77 Sunset Strip", as he has created a fad with people combing their hair. When Lucy Lane calls him on this, Jimmy decides that he's going to try and come up with his own fad in the hopes of it becomes popular among young people.
Later while watching Superman recreate three moon craters, Jimmy is chewing gum and gets the attention of a newsreel camera. When the cameraman pays particular interest in Jimmy's interest in chewing gum. When the newsreel hits theaters, Jimmy believes that he's created a new fad when everyone walking out appears to be chewing gum. However, this hope is dashed when shortly after he sees that the theater is giving out free gum as part of a product promotion.
Later when he has to wear sunglasses to witness Superman put on show wherein he makes himself into a human light bulb, Jimmy decides to that he will try and start a new fad of wearing sunglasses all the time. After he snaps a photo of himself to accompany the article he is writing he soon believes that it's caught on at as a fad when he goes to the local observatory. There he finds everyone is wearing sunglasses, however it's not due to Jimmy's fad, but to be able to view a solar eclipse.
After accidentally getting pain on his bow tie, Jimmy goes to a tie shop to buy a new one. When the store owner points out that the bow ties are Jimmy's trademark, Jimmy realizes that he's had a gimmick for a fad all along and buys a whole bunch of them. When he arrives at the Daily Planet he is surprised to find that everyone there is wearing a bow tie. However, Jimmy's hopes of starting a new fad are once more ruined when he is told by Lois that the he was the tie shops 100,000th customer and they gifted his workplace with free ties for all it's employees.
While out on the street Jimmy decides to flip a coin to figure out how to get home. This coincidentally enough is a signal for a group of thugs who confuse Jimmy with "Joe the Flip" and attempt to assassinate him. As Jimmy calls Superman for help, one of the crooks gets a shot off before Superman can fly in and capture them all. When Jimmy realizes he was hit by the bullet and not wounded, Superman pulls out his damaged comb, and points out that Edd Byrnes fad saved his life. The next night while out with Lucy Lane, Jimmy has a totally different opinion on Byrnes fad.
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Synopsis for "Phantom Fingers Olsen"
When Superman is unable to put a stop to a series of shopliftings because he has been unable to learn the identity of their secret leader, Jimmy decides to go under cover to try and flush the crook out even though Perry, Lois and Clark all insist on the danger. Jimmy has the press room print off a fake wanted poster implicating Jimmy as a shoplifter named "Phantom Fingers" a notorious shoplifter.
Jimmy goes to a barbershop where he knows crooks are known to operate. Sure enough he witnesses as the "barber" chloroforms a customer and has his assistant rob him of his valuables. When Jimmy goes onto the barbers chair next, they drug him, however before they can rob him they find the wanted poster and realize that Jimmy could be a good asset to them. Reviving "Phantom Fingers", they explain their operation. Jimmy asks to join their group, however they won't let him in on reputation only and demand that he prove his worth.
Jimmy tells them that he intends to rob Spiffany's Jewelry store, and having called ahead and had the owner agree to let him pull off the ruse makes it appear as though he succeeds in robbing the place of a diamond, securing him a position with the group. Continuing his ruse as Phantom Fingers, Jimmy succeeds in swiping a priceless Superman painting as well as (with secret help from Clark Kent) steal the Daily Planets payroll.
Eventually, a man purporting to be the REAL Phantom Fingers arrives, blowing Jimmy's cover. However, after the gang ties Jimmy up and are about to silence him, "Phantom Fingers" reveals himself to be Superman in disguise and easily rounds up the crooks. Superman explains to Jimmy that the real Phantom Fingers was caught moments ago and wanted to teach the Cub Reporter a lesson in not taking on hazardous risks that might endanger himself.
Appearing in "Phantom Fingers Olsen"
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Synopsis for "Jimmy Olsen's Private Monster!"
While riding in an armored car, Jimmy Olsen attempts to call Superman when it is attacked by the TNT Gang. However, instead of summoning the Man of Steel a strange alien monster appears and frightens off the crooks before disappearing again. Later, when Jimmy is out on a date with Lucy Lane, the TNT gang attempts to kill Jimmy by blowing up the cliff he and Lucy have parked at. Using his signal watch again, the same alien creature appears. Communicating to Jimmy, the alien monster tells the Cub Reporter that he is now Jimmy's friend before disappearing again. Horrified by the creature, Lucy cuts their date short and tells Jimmy that she doesn't want to see him again.
The next day at the Daily Planet, Jimmy tells Superman what's been happening, Superman examines his signal watch and learns that it has been altered by the explosions created by the TNT Gang so that instead of calling Superman it instead opens a gate to another dimension which the alien creature can appear on Earth momentarily. When Superman is called out to Pentagon to get a missile that has gone wild, Superman cautions Jimmy not to use the signal watch until he has a chance to fix it.
Jimmy takes the watch off and leaves it on his desk where Lois Lane decides to fool around with it in the hopes of calling Superman. She summons the alien creature instead during and the unique combination of the signal watch and radiations of a solar eclipse has allowed for the creature to be transported to Earth permanently. The creature scares everyone away and refuses to leave Jimmy Olsen alone. Things get to the point where Jimmy cannot go anywhere without people fleeing in abject terror of the creature that follows him everywhere. Superman cannot get rid of the creature for Jimmy because it can become immaterial at will.
Jimmy finally gets fed up and tells the monster to just go away, the monster agrees but only on one condition: That Jimmy returns with the creature back to its home dimension for simply two hours. Jimmy agrees and he soon finds himself transported to the creatures world. Jimmy finds that on the aliens world, the creatures that live there find Jimmy as frightening and ghastly as humans do of this species. Jimmy then learns of the creatures intentions for him: They want to cast him in a horror movie as his "frightening" image would insure a box office success. After two hours of filming the aliens, true to their word, send Jimmy back to his home dimension.
There he tells Superman what has happened on the promise that the Man of Steel keeps it a secret, and Superman returns to Jimmy his signal watch, completely repaired of its defects.
Appearing in "Jimmy Olsen's Private Monster!"
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- TNT Gang (Single appearance)
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- Jimmy's private monster (First appearance)
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- Metropolis
- Monsters homeworld (First appearance)
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See Also