Posted By Dan Greenfield on Feb 5, 2025 | 7 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 66 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Feb. 5, 1959.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Jan. 29, 1984. 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 Feb. 2 and Feb. 8.)

So, let’s set the scene: A long, long time ago… rock and roll was still on the rise when it suffered one of its greatest tragedies.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 3, Buddy Holly, a mere 22; Ritchie Valens, an outrageously young 17; and 28-year-old J.P. Richardson — better known as the Big Bopper — were killed in a plane crash, along with pilot Roger Peterson, en route from Mason City, Iowa, to Fargo, North Dakota.

The three had unwittingly given their final performances earlier that evening at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, where they had arrived from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Waylon Jennings, who was playing bass for Holly’s band, had given his seat to Richardson and Valens flipped a coin with Holly’s guitarist Tommy Allsup to see who would get the other seat on the small plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza. The plane took off at 12:50 a.m. and crashed minutes later on a farm.

The last known picture of Buddy Holly, at the Feb. 2 show. That’s Waylon Jennings on bass.

Holly’s 11-song set list had included favorites like Peggy Sue, That’ll Be the Day, It’s So Easy, Everyday, All My Love (Oh Boy) and wrapped with a cover of Chuck Berry’s Brown Eyed Handsome Man.

Valens played five songs, opening with La Bamba, and, the Big Bopper played three, leading with his signature Chantilly Lace. (Dion & the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo were also on the bill for the Winter Dance Party Tour 1959.)

It became known more than a decade later as “The Day the Music Died,” thanks to Don McLean’s 1971 elegy of lost innocence, American Pie.

IN OTHER NEWS

— Who would have The Right Stuff? In the first two weeks of February, more than 500 records were reviewed for prospective Project Mercury pilot candidates. About 110 appeared to qualify, 69 were briefed and interviewed in Washington, 53 volunteered for the program and 32 were selected for further testing. On Feb. 7, physical exams for the 32 began at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque.

— On the same day as the Holly wreck, an American Airlines flight from Chicago crashed into New York City’s East River while trying to land at La Guardia Airport, killing 65 of 73 on board.

— One had absolutely nothing to do with the other, of course, but on Feb. 2, the day after Holly and company played in Green Bay, Vince Lombardi signed a five-year contract to coach the city’s beloved Packers — forever altering the course of the National Football League.

— A man named Jack Kilby, who worked for Texas Instruments, on Feb. 6 filed a patent for the first integrated circuit — also known as the microchip. (Robert Noyce would improve upon the design.) The patent was granted more than five years later. The future Nobel Prize winner also co-invented the handheld calculator and the thermal printer.

— Unlike other parts of the country, schools in Norfolk and Arlington County, Virginia, on Feb. 2 integrated peacefully, as 21 Black students began classes at formerly all-white schools. At Stratford Middle School, white students even volunteered to escort the new students to class.

— Fidel Castro and his rebels had seized power over New Year’s and on Feb. 6, the revolutionary was interviewed by Edward R. Murrow for his Person to Person show on CBS. They had this exchange:

Murrow: “Tell me, Fidel Castro, are you concerned at all about the communist influence in Cuba?”

Castro: “I am not worried, because, really, there is not the threat of communism here in Cuba.”

Mm-hmm.

Auntie Mame, starring Rosalind Russell, was the leader at the box office. (Not to be confused with the later, musical version, Mame.) Another hit was the postwar drama Some Came Running, starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (in their first film roles together) and Shirley MacLaine, who would earn her first Oscar nomination. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli. Disney’s animated Sleeping Beauty was also in theaters.

Wagon Train, Gunsmoke and Maverick were the top Nielsen grabbers. Other hits included The Danny Thomas Show, The Perry Como Show and Perry Mason, not to mention The Rifleman, Have Gun — Will Travel and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price was the top single, followed by 16 Candles by the Crests and Valens’ Donna, which he played that fateful night. Also on the charts was the first single version of Peter Gunn — one of the greatest TV themes of all time — arranged by composer Henry Mancini for trumpeter Ray Anthony. The Music From Peter Gunn by Mancini was a hit album and other top LPs included Mitch Miller’s Sing Along With Mitch and the Broadway cast recording of Flower Drum Song.

But if we’re going to highlight any music this week, it’s these guys:

That’ll be the day…

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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension

House of Mystery #85, DC. “Who’s that guy with the big head? Big head, we’re talking big head…”

Dan adds: Everything’s better with Easter Island heads. I have a miniature one. We call him Gary.

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Superman #128, DC. I remember the year 2000 and I did not get my flying car.

Dan adds: Me neither!

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Our Army at War #81, DC. The first appearance of Sgt. Rock!

Dan adds: One of the great things about DC’s Facsimile Edition program was getting this last year. Bob Haney and Ross Andru (plus inker) Mike Esposito created Rock, but other talents in this issue included Joe Kubert, Russ Heath and Henry Boltinoff, with a Jerry Grandenetti cover.

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Marge’s Little Lulu #129, Dell. My Mom loved Little Lulu. I think it’s because they had the same personality. Kinda looked like her too.

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Four Color #976, Dell. I wonder if the kids who bought Zorro knew just what they were getting with all that Alex Toth art inside. Thirty-three pages’ worth!

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Strange Worlds #3, Atlas. Line up for this lineup: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, Joe Maneely, Joe Sinnott, Stan Lee.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Jan. 29 — in 1984! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Jan. 22 — in 1978! Click here.

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