Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 30, 2020
RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1975!
Scott and Dan — along with special guest Paul Kupperberg — hit up the comics racks from 45 years ago! This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are joined by Bronze Age mainstay Paul Kupperberg, whose part-memoir/part how-to I Never Write for the Money… But I Always Turn in the Manuscript for a Check, is in the final hours of its already successful Kickstarter campaign (click here). We’re selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 30, 1975. Why Sept. 1975? Because that’s when Paul — best known for his DC and Charlton work — was first published as a comics writer. By the way, last time in RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 23, 1985. 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 Sept. 27 and Oct. 3.) So, let’s set the stage: Gerald Ford was president — and in some circles he would become best known for being savagely lampooned on Saturday Night Live, which would debut Oct. 11. All In the Family, deep into its run, was still dominating the top of the Nielsens. You had two great choices at the movies: Three Days of the Condor and, even better, Dog Day Afternoon, were both in theaters. David Bowie’s Fame topped the Billboard 100 and the best-selling album was Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, whose title song is the band’s best. Right on. — Paul Kupperberg, Charlton and DC mainstay and writer of the forthcoming I Never Write for the Money… But I Always Turn in the Manuscript for a Check Scary Tales #3, Charlton. I’m going to fudge my first pick by a couple of days for Scary Tales #3 (on sale date Sept. 25) because it featured my first published story, the five-pager Distress. I read a lot of the Charlton horror titles anyway, largely due to the level of artists I was surrounded by in this issue, including Tom Sutton’s painted cover of the hostess, the sanguine Countess R.H. Bon Bludd, as well as two tales by Steve Ditko, and the artist on my story, fellow newbie Mike Zeck. As with many Charlton titles, readers bought them...
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