Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jan 20, 2021
RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1982!
Scott and Dan — along with guest Glenn Greenberg — hit up the comics racks from 39 years ago! This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are joined by historian, journalist and genre writer Glenn Greenberg in selecting comics that came out the week of Jan. 20, 1982. Glenn’s latest project is a “bookazine” bio of John Lennon, published by Bauer Media. (Click here to get your hands on a copy.) Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Jan. 13, 1976. Click here to check it out. (Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days back then — as has become the case now. So these are technically the comics that went on sale between Jan. 17 and Jan. 23.) So let’s set the scene: Ronald Reagan was starting the second year of his first term. The Paul Newman-Sally Field journalism drama Absence of Malice, released the month before, was tops at the box office. The top show on TV wasn’t a TV show — it was Super Bowl XVI, in which the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, launching Niners QB Joe Montana to superstardom. The easily and often ridiculed Physical by Olivia Newton-John was the best-selling single, while Foreigner’s 4 unfortunately was the No. 1 album. (But at least AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) and the Stones’ Tattoo You were high on the charts. We’re all just waiting on a friend… — Glenn Greenberg, historian/writer Looking back, 1982 was a great year for comics. My two all-time favorite characters, Batman and the Hulk, were in great shape during that time, enthralling me each and every month. Gerry Conway was writing both Batman and Detective Comics, working primarily with artists Gene Colan and Don Newton, and they were simply on fire, producing a run that, in my opinion, rivals the classic and definitive series of stories by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers from several years earlier. And over on The Incredible Hulk, writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema were at the peak of their long collaboration. But those two books weren’t the only highlights. Looking at what came out the week of Jan. 20, 1982, I’m reminded of the other titles I was following that were consistently delivering top-quality stories that left...
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