Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 12, 2025 | 4 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 60 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Nov. 12, 1965.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Nov. 5, 1970. 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 Nov. 9. and Nov. 15.)

Power generators were at work in some places.

So, let’s set the scene: Where were you when the lights went out? (I wasn’t born yet, personally.) On Nov. 9, a massive power outage threw 80,000 square miles of the Northeastern U.S. and Canada into darkness, most famously in New York City. The Blackout of 1965 began in Ontario at 5:16 p.m. and within 12 minutes had spread to neighboring Quebec and eight states, lasting for as long as 13 1/2 hours.

There were pockets in the New York metropolitan area that retained power but it affected most of the city itself. Unlike the apocalyptic response to a similar outage 12 years later, the 1965 blackout is remembered for New Yorkers’ calm response, with people generally making the most of it, or even having impromptu get-togethers. (Rolling Stone Brian Jones, whose band was in the city on tour, jammed with Bob Dylan in a hotel room. Robbie Robertson was also there.) There was looting, but only five incidents reported. Instead, it’s been said that the city’s crime rate plummeted that night.

Still, it wasn’t all fun and games, with hundreds of thousands stranded across the city, in elevators and transit hubs like Grand Central Terminal. More than 800,000 straphangers were trapped in the subway.

Reports of a baby boom nine months later are considered apocryphal.

On the other side of the world, the Vietnam War was heating up: The Battle of Ia Drang — the first major fight between the U.S. Army and the People’s Army of North Vietnam — began Nov. 14. The Americans deployed the first large-scale helicopter air assault, as well as the first use of B-52 bombers in a tactical role. Over the next week, 305 American soldiers were killed, against 3,561 North Vietnamese.

Despite the lopsided losses, the battle did nothing to puncture the resolve of the Communists, and essentially set the template for the war: The U.S. felt the air-assault tactic was effective; Gen. William Westmoreland believed his strategy of attrition worked, that a few more similar victories would push the North Vietnamese to the brink. The North Vietnamese, however, actually looked at the bloody skirmish as something of a win, because they found they could actually fight the Americans, while at the same time learning that engaging in prolonged firefights wasn’t sound. Guerilla warfare would be a much better way to go.

At the same time, the Viet Cong in the South were proving effective. On Nov. 8, 49 members of the 173rd Airborne Division were killed when their 400-member unit was ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong, during Operation Hump.

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IN OTHER NEWS

— On Nov, 9, Ferdinand Marcos was elected president of the Philippines, with about 52 percent of the vote. Marcos would ultimately become a dictator and would rule with an authoritarian fist until he was deposed in 1986. His wife had a thing for shoes.

— Air crashes were alarmingly routine. On Nov. 11, United Airlines Flight 227, from New York to San Francisco, was stopping in Salt Lake City, when it smacked down 300 feet short of the runway, igniting a fire at killed 43 of the 91 people on board. On the same day, Aeroflot Flight 99 in the Soviet Union crashed on landing in Murmansk (from Leningrad), killing 32 of 64 on board. Three days earlier, American Airlines Flight 383, from New York to Cincinnati, crashed on approach, killing 58 of 62.

— On Nov. 15, Walt Disney and Florida Gov. Haydon Burns in Orlando unveiled the former’s plans for a $100,000,000 family attraction called Disney World. The complex would include two communities — the City of Yesterday and the City of Tomorrow. The City of Yesterday would open in 1971 as the Magic Kingdom; the City of Tomorrow wouldn’t open until 1982 — as the “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow,” or Epcot.

— On Nov. 15, American racer Craig Breedlove became the first person to drive an automobile faster than 600 miles per hour, setting a new land-speed record of 600.601 mph, in his Spirit of America vehicle at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats.

The utter smash The Sound of Music was No. 1 at the box office, with other choices including The Great Race, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Cincinnati Kid… and the spy satire/beach flick Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. (Julie Andrews could do no wrong. It’s worth noting that the highest grossing film of the year was Mary Poppins. It hit No. 1 in 1964, but never in 1965, though its overall take was the highest of the year.)

Bonanza, as was typical, led the Nielsens, followed by Gomer Pyle USMC (No. 2), The Lucy Show (No. 3), Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (No. 4), The Andy Griffith Show (No. 5), The Beverly Hillbillies and their cee-ment pond (No. 6), and two newbies — Hogan’s Heroes (No. 7) and Get Smart (No. 8).

New shows that fall also included F Troop, The FBI, Gidget, Honey West, Green Acres, Lost in Space, The Wild, Wild West, The Dean Martin Show, I Dream of Jeannie, I Spy, My Mother the Car, and Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. (Daytime soap Days of Our Lives premiered on TV on Nov. 8, by the way.)

The top song in the country was the Rolling Stones’ rousingly biting Get Off of My Cloud, followed by A Lover’s Concerto by the Toys, at No. 2. Other hits included 1-2-3, by Len Barry (No. 3); I Hear a Symphony by the Supremes (No. 5), Rescue Me by Fontella Bass (No. 6), A Taste of Honey by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (No. 9); Yesterday by the Beatles (No. 11); Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds (No. 12); and Positively 4th Street by Bob Dylan (No. 13).

Big-time albums included The Sound of Music soundtrack (No. 1), as well as The Beatles’ Help!, Whipped Cream & Other Delights by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, and Highway 61 Revisited by Dylan.

Oh, and a New York band called the Falling Spikes this month gave themselves a new name: The Velvet Underground.

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

The Amazing Spider-Man #33, Marvel. I mean, look: I’m a Romita-first kind of guy, but this issue is Steve Ditko’s greatest — featuring Spider-Man’s defining moment of inner strength and heroism. The ish came out Nov. 11, and we featured an INSIDE LOOK this week that you should most definitely check out. (You can also see the original art!) Also, not for nothing, but I somehow scored a really nice copy of this issue for a mere $45 sometime in the last 10 years or so. Still can’t believe it. How this hasn’t been released as a Facsimile Edition, I’ll couldn’t tell you.

Scott adds: A landmark issue, perhaps Steve Ditko’s greatest work on Spidey. What sounds like a simple scene of Spider-Man struggling to escape is expressed in epic fashion through Ditko’s storytelling.

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The Avengers #24, Marvel. Cap’s Kooky Quartet against the world, looks like.

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Fly Man #35, Archie. Having been bereft of Archie superhero comics, I picked this up with some others over the summer. Now, all I have to do is read it!

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The Mighty Crusaders #2, Archie. This looks good, too!

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I Love You #60, Charlton. Who says Elvis was irrelevant in the ’60s? (Harum Scarum was due out later in the month, by the way.)

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Tales of Suspense #74, Marvel. OK, so split comics were frustrating for Marvel and for a lot of fans. Flip side, though: 12 cents for Captain America and Iron Man every month!

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Blackhawk #216, DC. Y’know, McFarlane Toys has a Blackhawk figure coming out soon. Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a chase with the red outfit?

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

The Great Comic Book Super-Heroes, Dial Press. Thanks to my local library, this incredible cross-publisher compilation, assembled and annotated by Jules Feiffer, is where I first learned about Sub-Mariner, Plastic Man and the Spirit.

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Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #62, DC. Don’t blame me – I voted for Lois Lane!

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of November 5 — in 1970! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of October 29 — in 1961! Click here.