RETRO HOT PICKS! | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Apr01

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1950!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 1, 2026

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1950!

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 76 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of April 1, 1950. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of March 25, 1980. Click here to check it out. (Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between March 29 and April 4.) And, hey, check out that Walt Grogan banner! It’s the first time we’ve used the Golden Age version! — So, let’s set the scene: Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s disgraceful campaign of fear-mongering that ruined the lives of countless Americans and infected generations of U.S. foreign policy, had begun in earnest in February when he made accusations that communists had infiltrated the State Department. But McCarthy was just getting started. This month alone, the Senate established a subcommittee that began investigating McCarthy’s claim. On March 21, the Republican told reporters that he had informed Senate investigators of “the name of the man — connected with the State Department — whom I consider the top Russian espionage agent in this country” — soon identified as Owen Lattimore. McCarthy was full of it, but he began piling on with more names and Lattimore, who had been stationed in Afghanistan, rushed back to the U.S. to fight the charges. The senator’s unscrupulous assault was fully unleashed and by March 28 it had a name: McCarthyism, first used in the Christian Science Monitor. The next day, it got even wider exposure — thanks to Washington Post editorial cartoonist Herbert Block, aka Herblock: Meanwhile, a Gallup Poll was released April 4 that showed 37 percent of Republicans — a large plurality — wanted former Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to be the GOP pick for president in 1952. Ohio U.S. Sen. Robert Taft finished second in the survey — 20 points behind. Also telling: A third of independents said they would vote for Eisenhower. For his part, Eisenhower hadn’t even decided to run — and it wasn’t even clear yet whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. Francis — featuring Francis the Talking Mule and Donald O’Connor — was the most popular movie in the U.S. Other hits included Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah, starring the magnificent genius Hedy...

Mar25

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1980!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Mar 25, 2026

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1980!

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 46 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of March 25, 1980. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of March 18, 1957. Click here to check it out. (Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between March 22 and March 28.) So, let’s set the scene: Nothing, and I mean nothing, captured the nation’s attention this week like the question, “Who Shot J.R.?” On March 21, in the third-season finale of the hit show Dallas, Larry Hagman’s villain-you-love-to-hate, J.R. Ewing, was gunned down by an unknown assailant. J.R.’s fate — and the question of whodunnit — were left in the balance in the greatest cliffhanger in television history, one that not only became an obsessive guessing game for the next eight months, but popularized the whole notion of ending a season on a mystery that would drive fans wild. As far as real-life drama goes, however, little compared to the ongoing Iran Hostage Crisis, which had exploded in November. This week, on March 22, President Carter met privately with advisers and military leaders to discuss Operation Eagle Claw, which was designed to rescue the 53 U.S. Embassy staff still held captive in Tehran. (The operation would become a spectacular failure the following month.) The hostage crisis was so profoundly important that ABC News had the good sense to give nightly updates at 11:30 ET, under the name America Held Hostage. On March 24, the show, hosted by Ted Koppel, changed its name to Nightline. The assault on the embassy staff was prompted by Carter’s decision to grant asylum to the deposed Shah of Iran so he could undergo cancer treatment. Ultimately, though, the former Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was ordered to leave the U.S., and he went to Panama. On March 28, he had cancer surgery in Egypt, but would only live another four months. As all this played out, Carter this week held firm that the United States would boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, telling athletes summoned to the White House on March 21: “I can’t say at this moment what other nations will go to...

Home » RETRO HOT PICKS!