Posted By Dan Greenfield on Apr 24, 2024 | 6 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 70 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of April 24, 1954.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of April 17, 1990. Click here to check it out.

(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are technically the comics that went on sale between April 21 and April 27.)

Joe McCarthy and his henchman Roy Cohn

So, let’s set the scene: The cracks in Communist witch-hunter Joe McCarthy’s facade were widening. McCarthy, a red-baiting Republican senator from Wisconsin, had risen to prominence in 1950 and his impact and influence grew through 1953 with notorious congressional investigations into unfounded allegations of widespread communist infiltration of the U.S. government and the Army.

Finally, it was payback time: Earlier in the month, following reports by highly respected journalist Edward R. Murrow on the CBS news program See It Now, McCarthy went on the show and made outlandish assertions against the host but they blew up in his face, further eroding his own popularity.

March 9, 1954

Then, the Army returned fire on McCarthy in hearings that were covered gavel to gavel on the DuMont and ABC television networks from April 22 well into June. The hearings hit their climax June 9 when Army counsel Joseph Welch lowered the boom with the famous line excoriating McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” He didn’t and by year’s end, McCarthy would be condemned by the full Senate and his career would slide into pathetic obscurity and further decline, fueled by alcohol and drug abuse until his death in 1957. He would go down in history as one of America’s greatest villains.

McCarthyism of a different sort was also playing out — which is why we picked this week for RETRO HOT PICKS: As Fred Van Lente wrote on Sunday, it’s the 70th anniversary of Seduction of the Innocent and the bombastic and highly questionable congressional hearings into the “evils” of comic books that led to the self-censoring Comics Code Authority and the end of the careers for countless writers and artists.

French troops during the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Look familiar?

Overseas, the French-Indochina War was in its final stages as the communist Viet Minh thrashed France’s forces. The U.S. gave aid to the French but also wanted to remain out of the conflict on a larger scale. Nevertheless, ill winds were blowing: On April 7, President Eisenhower gave his “domino theory” speech that warned of communist dominance in Asia, and on April 16, Vice President Richard Nixon told the press that the U.S. may be “putting our own boys in Indochina regardless of Allied support.” On April 26, the Geneva Conference began and would lead in July to the formation of Cambodia, Laos — and North and South Vietnam.

Comic books were being condemned in the U.S. Senate, but a comic-strip movie — Prince Valiant, starring James Mason, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Debra Paget and Sterling Hayden — led the box office. Other films in theaters included Rose Marie and The Glenn Miller Story.

More than 5,000 miles from Hollywood, however, one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time was released in Japan on April 26: Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai.

On TV, everyone loved Lucy — and who could blame them? I Love Lucy is still hilarious and is in heavy rotation at 13th Dimension‘s subterranean headquarters. This week’s episode was The Diner, in which the Ricardos and the Mertzes buy, well, a diner. Naturally, it does not go well. Other top shows included Dragnet, The Bob Hope Show, The Milton Berle Show and the Colgate Comedy Hour, a star-studded show that provided a regular platform for Martin & Lewis and Abbott & Costello.

Big hits on the radio included Wanted, by Perry Como; Secret Love, by Doris Day; and Tony Bennett’s Rags to Riches.

But there was a rumbling in the distance: Bill Haley and His Comets had recorded Rock Around the Clock in New York City on April 12 — it would be released in May — and the Fender Stratocaster was first produced this month in California.

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Batman #84, DC. As the comic-book hearings played out, Catwoman was on the cover of Batman. She would appear one more time later in the year, then disappear (except in reprints) until her revival on the 1966 Batman TV show, when Julie Newmar put on the claws. Her 12-year absence has long been attributed to the introduction of the Comics Code Authority in the aftermath of the Senate assault. (It’s worth noting that this week we’re including some issues that came out earlier in the month. They were still on sale, after all.)

Scott adds: Loving this Win Mortimer Catwoman cover.

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The Lone Ranger’s Companion Tonto #15, Dell. The Lone Ranger was so popular that Tonto had his own solo title. It ran for 31 issues, from 1951 to 1958.

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Four Color: I Love Lucy #559, Dell. Of course, Lucy had her own comic, even if it was part of Dell’s catch-all Four Color series. Lucille Ball looks like she’s caught in the headlights in the photo but I really dig the illustrations of Mrs. Ricardo’s sporty antics in the background.  The stories inside are classic I Love Lucy set-ups: Lucy takes Ricky shopping to buy her gloves; Lucy volunteers Ricky and his orchestra to play at a charity event; Lucy needs money for a party dress, so she gets hired to look after a bunch of kids in a museum. Don’t know who the writer was (or cover artist) but the interiors were illustrated by Hy Rosen.

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Mad #13, EC. Mad was still in its comic-book format but Bill Gaines and the Usual Gang of Idiots later avoided the Comics Code by switching to magazine — and the publication became far and away EC’s most successful title. Suck on that, senators.

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Tales From the Crypt #43, EC. Bombs away! Thanks, Jack Davis!

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The Farmer’s Daughter #3, Trojan. Not that Trojan. But still…

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Laugh Comics #63, Archie. Archie Andrews — forever surrounded by beautiful girls and forever moaning about the cost of dating them. Thank your lucky stars, pal, because you’re kind of a dork.

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The Vault of Horror #37, EC. I got nothin’.

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Four Color: Walt Disney’s Duck Album #560, Dell. You know, when I was a kid, I bought the idea that Gladstone Gander was just lucky, but he’s really more of a lazy, entitled mooch who also happens to be lucky.

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Two-Gun Kid #15, Atlas. The newsstands were absolutely flooded with Westerns in ’54. This issue of Two-Gun Kid feels the most like what Marvel would later become.

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Blackhawk #78, Quality. That is quite an outfit that the Phantom Raider is sporting.

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Walter Lantz Andy Panda #25, Dell. Andy Panda and Charlie Chicken: the most overlooked comedy duo in comics.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of  April 17 — in 1990! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of April 10 — in 1973! Click here.

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Primary comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, the Grand Comics Database.