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

Feb18

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1962!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 18, 2026

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1962!

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 64 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Feb. 18, 1962. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Feb. 11, 1975. 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 Feb. 15 and Feb. 21.) So, let’s set the scene: Astronaut John Glenn on Feb. 20 became the first American launched into orbit, one of the most important milestones in the Space Race. Glenn’s Mercury-Atlas 6 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, with an estimated 60 million watching live on television. Glenn circled the planet three times in his Friendship 7 capsule, besting Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s single orbit in April 1961. The total flight time was 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds. Glenn landed in the Atlantic and was picked up by a Naval destroyer. Three days later, he arrived at Cape Canaveral to a hero’s welcome and was personally greeted by President Kennedy. Glenn revealed in an interview that the heat shield on his capsule began to break up upon re-entry, the loss of which would have been fatal. Said Glenn, with the stoicism only of a man who had The Right Stuff: “It could have been a bad day for everybody.” (Side note: On Feb. 21, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev sent a telegram to Kennedy, proposing that the Cold War rivals cooperate on their space programs. Ultimately, they would, but the first joint mission wouldn’t come until 1975’s Apollo–Soyuz.) IN OTHER NEWS — Glenn’s flight came amid a time of heightened international and domestic tensions, mixed with a certain amount of offsetting glamor. His flight made him an American hero — complete with a New York City ticker-tape parade in March — and the Kennedys were very much the country’s dazzling First Family. Less than a week before the historic mission, CBS and NBC on Feb. 14 aired the famed A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy. The special was seen by 46,000,000 TV viewers, or three out of every four households in America — the highest rated program up to that time. (ABC ran the special four days later.) — Earlier in...

Feb11

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1975!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 11, 2026

RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1975!

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 51 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Feb. 11, 1975. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Feb. 4, 1965. 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 Feb. 8 and Feb. 14.) So, let’s set the scene: Gerald Ford had been president for about six months but the pall of Watergate still hung over the nation. On Feb. 7, Charles Colson, one of Richard Nixon’s most ruthless operatives, told the Today Show that Nixon had talked to him in December 1973 about resigning but feared that Ford would not be able to control manipulative egomaniac Henry Kissinger, who was both secretary of state and national security advisor. Nixon ultimately resigned in August 1974. Colson would be indicted a few weeks after his Today appearance, for conspiring to cover up the Watergate burglaries. It was dawn for Thatcher’s England: On Feb. 11, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, becoming the first woman to head a major British political party and to be the leader of the Opposition. In 1979, she would become prime minister. IN OTHER NEWS — On Feb. 14, the San Diego Conquistadors beat the New York Nets, 176-166, in an American Basketball Association showdown — the highest-scoring pro hoops game up to that time. The game took four overtimes to complete. — On Feb. 12, I turned 8. The Towering Inferno, one of the biggest of the Irwin Allen disaster flicks of the ’70s, was the box-office leader, with competition from Mel Brooks’ riotous Young Frankenstein, and the Agatha Christie whodunnit Murder on the Orient Express. Oh, and there was The Godfather Part II. The latest Bond movie was The Man With the Golden Gun, which is actually damn good if you ignore all the stuff with the distractingly offensive J.W. Pepper, played by Clifton James, who even detracted from the otherwise badass car-flip scene. New in theaters this week were the subversive Shampoo and perhaps even more subversive The Stepford Wives. The top-rated show of the week was Sanford and Son, with other hits including All in the Family,...

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