Posted by Dan Greenfield on Dec 31, 2025
RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1968!
Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 57 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Dec. 31, 1968. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Dec. 24, 1945. Click here to check it out. (Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the comics that went on sale between Dec. 28, 1968, and Jan. 3, 1969.) — So, let’s set the scene: For a weekly column ostensibly about old comics, RETRO HOT PICKS frequently goes into some pretty dark places. The news of a particular week is often grim, painting a stark picture of what was happening outside the panels of a four-color comic book. Among the most tumultuous of years was 1968, scarred by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, race riots, a divided America, and the election of Richard Nixon as president. As 1968 turned to 1969, though, we were given something wonderful — a picture of ourselves taken in unprecedented circumstances: On December 29, a photo of the Earth from the moon’s orbit was released by NASA, along with a series of other pictures taken on the Apollo 8 mission, completed just two days before. The photo, called Earthrise, is one of the most famous in history and was taken by astronaut William Anders. It was the first color image of Earth taken from the moon by a person. Understandably, Apollo 8 has been eclipsed in the public imagination by the following year’s moon landing. But this was an enormous point of demarcation in the annals of human exploration — not to mention the space race: the first orbital flight around the moon with Anders and fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell circling 10 times before heading home. (They were also the first humans to see the moon’s far side. Lovell even became the first to vomit in space, forcing the three to dodge the chunks in zero gravity!) All kidding aside, however, Apollo 8, emblemized bv Earthrise, was soul-stirring and breathtaking, and a reminder that the steps getting us to the moon were nearly as awesome as the landing itself. IN OTHER NEWS — On Dec. 29, Joe Namath’s New York Jets beat the Oakland Raiders...
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