Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 3, 2025 | 5 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 58 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 3, 1967.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Aug. 27, 1952. 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 Aug. 31 and Sept. 6.)

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So, let’s set the scene: On Sept. 1, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The ceremony, which was not announced in advance, was held in the office of Justice Hugo Black, who administered the oath. Black was a former Klansman who’d disassociated himself from the racist terror group. A second, public ceremony was held a month later, when the Court began its new term.

Marshall had been confirmed by the Senate by a wide, 69-11, margin, but 10 of the 11 votes were from Southern members and one was from West Virginia. (That said, six Southern senators voted to confirm). The confirmation process took nearly 80 days, about three times as long as any other President Lyndon Johnson appointee, and was lowlighted by a disgraceful, performative attempt by hate-mongering South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond to undermine Marshall’s credibility. The maneuver failed spectacularly.

Epstein with John and Paul in June 1967, with placards created for the live, satellite performance of All You Need Is Love.

The Beatles were at the height of popular culture — their landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was in the midst of a 15-week run atop the Billboard LP chart — but were grieving the loss of their longtime manager Brian Epstein, who’d been found dead the week before, on Aug. 27.  The band — along with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and Donovan — was in Wales, studying transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, when they found out.

Epstein’s death is widely considered a flashpoint in the Beatles’ destiny. Though his role had been diminished by the Fab Four’s decision to leave the road and concentrate on studio work, Epstein was nonetheless an essential ingredient to the glue that held the four maturing lads together. By Aug. 31, the Beatles announced they would take over the management of their own business interests and, privately, agreed to focus on their next project, Magical Mystery Tour. By the end of the week, they were in the studio, recording the first 16 takes of I Am the Walrus.

The project turned out to be something of a mess, with Paul McCartney irritating his bandmates with what they saw as overbearing behavior. In many significant ways, Epstein’s death was the beginning of the end.

The Vietnam War was not going well for the United States. On Sept. 4, the bloody Operation Swift began as the Marines battled the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in the Que Son Valley. Over five days, 114 Americans and 376 North Vietnamese were killed.

In the midst of the carnage, two Americans would die while displaying exceptional heroism. On Sept. 4, the Rev. Vincent R. Capodanno, 38, a Navy chaplain and Roman Catholic priest, was killed while giving aid to ambushed Marines. Capodanno, a lieutenant, rushed into the battle zone despite being wounded by an exploding mortar round. Two days later, Sgt. Rodney Maxwell Davis, 25, was killed when he jumped on a live grenade to save his fellow Marines. His act protected the lives of five men and spared at least seven others from serious injury. Both would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

By this point, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was publicly acknowledging that the U.S. air-strike strategy was not working. The previous week, he’d testified before a Senate subcommittee that the bombing of North Vietnam would not force the other side to the negotiating table and that “enemy operations in the South cannot, on the basis of reports I have seen, be stopped by air bombardment.”

Johnson, meanwhile, was considering not running for re-election in 1968.

The recently released In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, was the box office king. Other major films included the groundbreaking Bonnie and Clyde, with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway; You Only Live Twice, in many ways the Bondiest of the 007 flicks; The Dirty Dozen; Barefoot in the Park; To Sir, With Love, also starring Poitier; and, Point Blank, with Lee Marvin.

It was a fruitful period for American television. The fall season was almost here and new shows added to the schedule included The Carol Burnett Show; Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In; Mannix; The Flying Nun; and The Mothers-in-Law.

Batman — now with Yvonne Craig as Batgirl — was about to start its third and final season; Star Trek was about to begin its second of three; and The Monkees — who were enormously popular on radio and in record stores — were about to put the needle down on their second of two.

This week also featured Jerry Lewis’ second Labor Day muscular dystrophy telethon (it was held other times of the year until 1966); the final episode of the game show What’s My Line?; and the UK premiere of the cult classic The Prisoner.

But the show everyone was talking about was Aug. 29’s finale to The Fugitive on ABC, which was seen by an estimated 78 million viewers, setting a record for series television that stood until the world found out who shot J.R. in 1980.

It was also the start of the American Football League season, with the National Football League — featuring the debut of the expansion New Orleans Saints — still two weeks away.

Now, if you were a comics fan, and you almost certainly are just by being here, Saturday morning was shaping up to be an utter smorgasbord. The three networks were all set to debut their new lineups on Sept. 9, and new superhero shows were the order of the day:

On CBS, The New Adventures of Superman was expanded to The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, with shorts starring the Justice League of America, the Teen Titans, the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. Over on ABC, it was the killer two-fer Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. Hanna-Barbera favorites The Herculoids (CBS) and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio (NBC) were also set to premiere.

Bobbie Gentry’s Ode to Billie Joe was the No. 1 single, followed by the No. 2 Reflections by the recently renamed Diana Ross & the Supremes. Other memorable hits included Baby I Love You by Aretha Franklin (No. 4); The Letter by the Box Tops (No. 5); and All You Need Is Love by the Beatles (No. 6).

Behind Sgt. Pepper’s on the albums chart were Headquarters by the Monkees (No. 2); the Rolling Stones’ compilation Flowers (No. 3); The Doors’ eponymous debut LP (No.4); and, Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane (No. 5).

The Stones on Sept. 2 released in the U.S. the single We Love You — a thank-you to fans for standing by them after their drug troubles earlier in the year. The song was the B-side to Dandelion, though the sides were reversed for the UK release in August. Either way, it was the last belch of misbegotten psychedelia by a band founded on the style of the blues. Thank goodness, because the best was yet to come.

We love you, we love you, and we hope that you will love we too…

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Tales of Suspense #96, Marvel. This was going to happen: Last issue, Captain America revealed that he was Steve Rogers. Now, this issue, everyone wants to kill him! By Stan, Jack and Joe. In the co-feature, meanwhile, Iron Man teams up with SHIELD Agent Sitwell, by Lee, Colan and Giacoia.

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Strange Tales #163, Marvel. Right in the thick of Steranko’s Nick Fury run.

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Castle of Frankenstein #11, Gothic Castle Publishing. Spock, Marvel and Christopher Lee. Works for me!

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Doom Patrol #115, DC. What is it about giant-eyeball covers that are so groovy?

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Archie’s Joke Book Magazine #118, Archie. Archie Andrews mistaken for Mick Jagger. The 1967 equivalent of a Dad Joke.

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Teen Beat #1, DC. DC put this out without realizing that a magazine called Teen Beat, from the same publishers as 16 and Tiger Beat, had just hit newsstands. So they changed the name to Teen Beam for the second issue. Then it went away. The other Teen Beat, meanwhile, lasted about 40 years. Brian Cronin did a groovy bit about the whole thing. Check it out.

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

Thor #146, Marvel. No disrespect to the Ringmaster, but it seems like the Circus of Crime isn’t exactly in the same league as the God of Thunder.

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Our Army at War #186, DC. I must have missed the day in history class where they talked about how American soldiers in World War II wore their names on their backs like football players.

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Batman #196, DC. That’s a crazy eye-catching cover from Carmine Infantino.

Dan adds: One of Sheldon Moldoff’s final issues…

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The Flash #174, DC. Infantino strikes again with this wonderfully Eisnerian cover.

Dan adds: One of the greatest Flash covers of all time.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of August 27 — in 1952! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of August 20 — in 1982! Click here.