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Nov11

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1988!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Nov 11, 2026

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1988!

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 38 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Nov. 11, 1988. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Nov. 4, 1948. 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 Nov. 8 and Nov. 14.) So, let’s set the scene: The Reagan ’80s were granted an extension Nov. 8, when Republican Vice President George Bush swamped Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in the presidential election. Dukakis claimed an early lead in the race but the relentless Bush machine pounded him into submission. Dukakis, however, was really his own worst enemy, imploding during debate season and running an unintentionally hilarious ad of him driving a tank that was designed to make him appear tough. Instead, he looked like Mickey Mouse. Bush won 426 electoral votes to the Duke’s 111. It was the last time a candidate crossed the 400 threshold. Bush won the popular vote 53.4 percent to 45.6 percent. On Nov. 9, disgraced former U.S. Attorney John Mitchell, one of Republican Richard Nixon’s prime Watergate criminals, died of a heart attack at the age of 75. Schlock ruled the box office, with Child’s Play premiering this week and landing at No. 1. It supplanted They Live, which surpassed Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Also in theaters were the documentary Imagine: John Lennon; the harrowing drama The Accused, starring Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis; Mystic Pizza, with up-and-comer Julia Roberts; and the highbrow Ernest Saves Christmas. Much to fans’ outrage, Michael Keaton had been announced as Batman back in June. Filming was under way in the fall, at Pinewood Studios in England. War and Remembrance, the ABC miniseries sequel to The Winds of War — both based on the novels by Herman Wouk — debuted this week and was a ratings hit. Not as big a hit as The Cosby Show, mind you. But then, nothing was. Cheers, Golden Girls, and Growing Pains were all Nielsen heavyweights. Gearing up for its second season was Star Trek: The Next Generation. A show that would become one of the most dissected of the era — Murphy Brown, starring Candice...

Nov04

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1948!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Nov 4, 2026

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1948!

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 78 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Nov. 4, 1948. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Oct. 28, 1967. 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 Nov. 1 and Nov. 7.) So, let’s set the scene: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. Only not. The 1948 presidential election was expected to be a big win for Republican New York Gov. Tom Dewey, who had taken on President Truman, a Democrat who wasn’t terribly popular, even within his own party. As the early returns came in the evening of Nov. 2, Dewey was performing strongly, and the right-leaning Chicago Daily Tribune had a particularly early deadline for its first edition. Relying on those returns, the expectations going into Election Day, and the expertise of Washington correspondent and political analyst Arthur Sears Henning, the first edition went off with the banner headline, DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. But the votes were still being counted and Truman’s numbers kept increasing: He not only won — it was a blowout: 303–189–39 in electoral votes (the 39 going to racist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond). Truman fell shy of a majority of the popular vote, but still beat Dewey by a solid four points, 49.5 percent to 45.1. Two days after the election, Truman was at a stop in St. Louis, where — with a big grin — he held up the Tribune, and crowed, “That ain’t the way I heard it!” IN OTHER NEWS — The Arab-Israeli War was raging and, despite relatively brief periods of calm, it feels like it’s still going, nearly 80 years later. In late October, the flag of Israel was adopted. — The pivotal Liaoshen Campaign in the Chinese Civil War ended Nov. 2 with a decisive Communist victory. All of Manchuria fell to the Communists. — On Nov. 5, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, a Hitler favorite, was cleared by a German denazification court, much to the chagrin of the German press. The decision would be appealed and Riefenstahl would be tried three more times before getting cleared for good in 1952. She was deemed a Nazi follower, but not a party...

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