Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 80 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Dec. 24, 1945.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Dec. 17, 1950. 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 Dec. 21 and Dec. 27.)
So, let’s set the scene for our annual RETRO HOT PICKS Christmas foray deep into the Golden Age:
World War II ended only four months earlier and on Dec. 21 one of its greatest American military leaders, Gen. George S. Patton, died from complications resulting from a Dec. 9 car accident in Germany that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Patton, 60, was a deeply complicated man. Known as “Old Blood and Guts,” he was a profoundly successful commander but he was also controversial, known for slapping two soldiers suffering from what was then called “shell shock,” a precursor to PTSD. Worse, when the war was over, Patton, who was rabidly anti-Semitic and showed no sympathy for Holocaust victims, dragged his feet on the de-Nazification of Germany, showing support for his former adversaries.
Called out by the press, Patton gave a pass to the Germans, saying that most people with the experience to manage the defeated country’s infrastructure had been compelled to join the Nazis, whom he compared to Democrats and Republicans. Amid the uproar, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, ordered Patton to hold a press conference to correct himself. Instead, Patton doubled down and Eisenhower relieved him of duty. Old Blood and Guts was assigned to command a unit that was compiling a history of the war in Europe.
Patton was buried in Luxembourg on Christmas Eve.
IN OTHER NEWS
— On Dec. 24, the Sodder children disappeared in Fayetteville, West Virginia, giving rise to a weird, decades-long mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Naturally, it was featured on the superb podcast Casefile (Case 192).
— It’s not like it was Esperanto or anything, but on Dec. 26, playwright George Bernard Shaw proposed a new phonetic alphabet, with just one sign for every sound. It didn’t take.
— The creation of the United Nations was well under way, with countries across the globe ratifying the UN Charter. The U.S. had already ratified it but on Dec. 20 President Truman furthered things by signing the congressionally sanctioned United Nations Participation Act, which gave the nation the authority to engage as a member of the international body.
The Bells of St. Mary’s, starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman, was big at the box office, as was the Christmas Day release Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney. Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Spellbound, with Bergman and Gregory Peck, had already opened in New York and Los Angeles and was being readied for a Dec. 28 wide release.
Also in theaters was The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, and the first Dick Tracy movie, starring Morgan Conway as the titular hero. One of the most notable war films, A Walk in the Sun, starring Dana Andrews and narrated by Burgess Meredith, also opened on Christmas.
Radio was booming, with ad sales through the roof. Top shows included Bob Hope; Fibber McGee & Molly; Red Skelton; Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy; Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall; and the anthology Lux Radio Theatre. (This week’s episode was I’ll Be Seeing You, with Joseph Cotten, who starred in the movie version the year before.)
Among the most popular radio hits were It’s Been a Long, Long Time by Harry James and His Orchestra with Kitty Kallen; Till the End of Time by Perry Como with Russ Case and His Orchestra; Chickery Chick by Sammy Kaye with Nancy Norman, Billy Williams and the Kaye Choir; and I Can’t Begin to Tell You by Bing Crosby with Carmen Cavallaro.
Der Bingle also had his annual hit with 1942’s White Christmas, with the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra. The song — which as we mentioned last week is the highest-selling single of all time — was featured on his new album, Merry Christmas. Crosby’s other big-selling album was Selections From ‘Going My Way’, featuring Swinging on a Star. (The Bells of St. Mary’s was the sequel to 1944’s Going My Way.)
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Detective Comics #108, DC. It’s the George Roussos cover that makes it. The story inside has a weighty topic too: A Gotham City cop catches a perp and the guy is executed. Then the cop finds out he may have been innocent! No Joker or Penguin here: The villains are named Torch Cleary, Bugs Brown and Flip Gurkin.
Scott adds: That’s a really tiny Batplane.
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The Fighting Yank #15, Standard. The war was over but the Fighting Yank kept going, all the way to 1949, though by the end he’d ditched the mask, presumably because superheroes were falling out of fashion. Still kept the rest of the outfit, though. Go figure.
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Terry-Toons Comics #41, Timely. Edited by Stan Lee. There are virtually no credits available otherwise, except for Jim Mooney, who pencilled at least one of the stories (starring the Ginch and E. Claude Pennygrabber).
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Sub-Mariner Comics #18, Timely. Another dose of manic cover insanity from Alex Schomburg. (NOTE: This is one of those weeks where relatively few comics came out, so a number of these are from earlier in the month. We’re allowing them because they were still on sale.)
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Atoman #1, Spark Publications. Jerry Robinson’s other great superhero-comics co-creation — y’know, after Robin and the Joker. Here’s what our pal Paul Kupperberg said in 2024: “Atoman was just another 1940s ‘atomic powered’ superhero. Written by Ken Crossen for a lower-rung publisher, he only lasted two issues before the publisher blew up, but the strip did have the enormous advantage of being drawn by Jerry.
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Exciting Comics #44, Standard. Another dose of manic cover insanity from Alex Schomburg. Also, I will never pass up an opportunity to pick the Black Terror. One of the greatest outfits of the Golden Age.
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Batman: Alfred Claus (Dec. 16-23, 1945). Our pal Jason Czernich mentioned this just Tuesday: “The 1940s Batman newspaper strip published a special two-week Christmas story in which Alfred tries to help a street kid regain faith in the season of giving. It’s peak Golden Age Batman and a fun little read.”
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Red Ryder Comics #30, Dell. I bet Ralphie collected these.
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Wow Comics #40, Fawcett. Mary Marvel and the Quarrel of the Gnomes!
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Action Comics #93, DC. Some Christmas cheer from the Man of Steel.
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The Human Torch #21, Timely. Another dose of manic cover insanity from Alex Schomburg.
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MORE
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of December 17 — in 1950! Click here.
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of December 10 — in 1980! Click here.
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Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.
