Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 66 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Jan. 28, 1960.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Jan. 21, 1985. 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 Jan. 25 and Jan. 31.)
And dig that banner by Walt Grogan — new for 2026! We’ve got four of them — one each for the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern Ages.
So, let’s set the scene: The 1960 presidential campaign had begun to take shape. This month, both John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, and Republican Vice President Richard Nixon each declared their candidacies for the nation’s highest office.
Around the same time, an American defector to the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald, was welcomed by the mayor of Minsk and given a free apartment and a job as a metal worker in a radio and TV factory. But the general public neither knew — nor cared — at the time.
Oswald: Made in the shades.
The Cold War was filled with no shortage of covert activity and saber rattling during January: The White House was privately discussing overthrowing Cuba’s new socialist leader, Fidel Castro; the Soviets moved to reduce its armed forces in order to divert funding to nuclear weapons; and, the USSR declared the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile operational.
It had also been announced that President Eisenhower would visit the Soviet Union in June, as the guest of First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. (The visit was called off after the infamous U-2 incident in May.)
The civil rights movement was simmering: Joseph McNeill, a Black 17-year-old college student, was turned away Jan. 31 by a waitress at a bus terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina. When he told three friends about it, they decided to take a stand. The next day, they went to a Woolworth’s lunch counter and refused to get up until they were served. It was far from the first “sit-in” but it launched a wave of similar protests across the South and focused national attention on the injustice of segregation.
IN OTHER NEWS
— There was a lot of monkey business in the Space Race. On Jan. 31, six chimpanzees were certified as ready to be launched on the Project Mercury space missions. Ten days earlier, Miss Sam, a rhesus monkey, returned safely to Earth on board the rocket Little Joe 1B, after reaching an altitude of 48,900 feet and a maximum speed of 2,021.6 miles per hour.
— It was a big week in sports: The Philadelphia Warriors’ Wilt Chamberlain on Jan. 25 set an NBA rookie record by scoring 58 points in a game. Chamberlain tied his own mark less than a month later — a record that still stands.
— On Jan, 26, Pete Rozelle, the Los Angeles Rams’ little-known general manager, was elected NFL commissioner as a compromise candidate. He would go on to lead the league into an era of unexpected and unprecedented popularity and prosperity in the U.S.
— Two days later, the 12-team league expanded: The Dallas Cowboys would start play in 1960, and the Minnesota Vikings would begin a season later. Two days after that decision, the upstart American Football League filled out its original line-up by agreeing to put a team in Oakland, California.
— On Jan. 29, the Continental League, devised to rival the majors’ American and National Leagues, added its last of eight franchises, located in Buffalo, New York. The league would never take the field; instead, the majors would decide to expand in 1961 and 1962.
Operation Petticoat, starring Gary Cooper and Tony Curtis, was the top film at the box office, but Ben-Hur was about to become the movie of 1960. On the Beach, the apocalyptic Cold War tragedy based on Nevil Shute’s searing novel, was also popular. (All three were released at the end of 1959.) Coincidentally, Shute died earlier in January, at the age of 60.
Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Ed Sullivan and Bob Hope were among the Nielsen leaders.
Hit tunes included Marty Robbins’ El Paso; Johnny Preston’s Running Bear; Frankie Avalon’s Why; and Mark Dinning’s Teen Angel.
Here We Go Again! by the Kingston Trio, and the original Broadway cast recording of The Sound of Music, featuring Mary Martin, were top LP sellers.
Meanwhile, the King was still in the Army: Elvis Presley this month was promoted to sergeant and would be released from active service in March.
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Detective Comics #277, DC. Right in the middle of a long-maligned Batman era that Grant Morrison made OK to like again.
Scott adds: That is one seriously long-winded farmer.
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Action Comics #262, DC. Here’s what I’d like to know: Just how much Kryptonite was on Earth back then, anyway? I mean, it was so plentiful, it must have been the cheapest mineral on the planet. Also, Supergirl wasn’t even around for a year yet. Just pointing that out.
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Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica Annual #8, Archie. Betty and Veronica always sport wonderful fashions, but usually it’s Ronnie who has more flair. Not this time — Betty is on fire!
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Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #117, Dell. Fairly tame for a George Wilson cover, I gotta say.
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A Date With Millie #4, Atlas. Brought to you by two Stans — Lee and Goldberg.
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Secrets of Young Brides #19, Charlton. The secret is that when he’s not looking, she already looks completely bored.
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Adventure Comics #270, DC. Not sleeping in your costume is kind of Lesson One in the secret-identity department, Clark. Oh, and your parents are ghoulish aliens.
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Two-Gun Kid #53, Atlas. I’m willing to buy that Two-Gun Kid shot the guns out of the hands of two banditos, but that guy on the left is clearly just clumsy.
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Strange Adventures #114, DC. Gotta say, they don’t look all that secretive.
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MORE
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of January 14 — in 1985! Click here.
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of January 7 — in 1992! Click here.
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Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.
