Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 2, 2024 | 3 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 56 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Oct 2, 1968.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 25, 1957. 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 Sept. 29 and Oct. 5.)

So, let’s set the scene: Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic presidential nominee, was reeling in the polls, and decided to distance himself from unpopular President Lyndon Johnson by coming out against LBJ’s policy on the Vietnam War. Humphrey pledged on Sept. 30 that, if elected, he would stop the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam. The decision proved popular enough to garner an increase in donations.

Humphrey’s support was being siphoned by George Wallace, a segregationist third-party candidate who was popular with southern Democrats. But Wallace made a tactical mistake: On Oct. 3, he introduced retired Army Gen. Curtis LeMay as his running mate. LeMay told the press that although he didn’t think nuclear weapons would be necessary in Vietnam, he would not be opposed to using them. “It doesn’t make any difference to the soldier whether he is killed by a rusty knife or a nuclear explosion,” LeMay said. “In fact, I’d lean toward the nuclear weapon.”

The result was a further surge in popularity for Humphrey, who down the stretch would gain substantial ground on Republican Richard Nixon, who’d appeared headed toward a landslide victory.

Anna Chennault

But Nixon was Nixon. Peace talks were going on in Paris and Tricky Dick was worried about an “October surprise” — an end to the war, which could make the difference for Humphrey. Through back-channel wheeling and dealing, primarily through Washington socialite and power broker Anna Chennault, Nixon tried to sabotage the negotiations before the election.

Johnson, who learned of the cloak-and-dagger ploy through wiretaps and surveillance, complained that the Republican had committed treason and “had blood on his hands.” But without hard evidence that Nixon was directly involved, Johnson sat on the information.

Nixon would squeak by to victory in November.

Historians still debate whether the tactic bore fruit. Nevertheless, Timothy Naftali, a former director of the Nixon library, told The New York Times in 2017 that the maneuvering set the tone for the Republican’s underhandedness in the White House. “This covert action by the Nixon campaign,” he said, “laid the ground for the skulduggery of his presidency.”

Nixon, by the way, recalling how badly he was wounded by John F. Kennedy on television in 1960, had declined to debate Humphrey. But earlier, on Sept. 16, he did make himself available to the highly popular Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and recorded a brief bit for its second-season opener, where he uttered the show’s catchphrase as an incredulous question: “Sock it to me?” While such stunts are commonplace today, Nixon’s appearance was an eyebrow-raiser and perhaps the first case of a presidential candidate using entertainment TV to burnish his image.

Laugh-In was getting more and more popular in the ratings but it was challenged by Gomer Pyle and three new programs on the schedule: Here’s Lucy, a sort of revamped version of Lucille Ball’s The Lucy Show but now co-starring her teenage children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.; Julia, the first weekly series to star a Black woman — Diahann Carroll — in a non-stereotypical role; and Mayberry R.F.D., a continuation of The Andy Griffith Show without Andy Griffith or Ron Howard.

Diahann Carroll, Lloyd Nolan and Marc Copage

The three shows weren’t the only new hits — the TV landscape was rich with fresh programming that would resolutely stand the test of time. Shows that had premiered by this week included Adam-12, The Mod Squad, Land of the Giants, Hawaii Five-0, The Doris Day Show, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, The Name of the Game, Lancer (famous only because of its prominent inclusion in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood) — and 60 Minutes, which has been a television mainstay ever since.

Star Trek was already limping early in its third and final season. This week’s episode, airing Oct. 4, was one of the series’ least watchable: The Paradise Syndrome, in which an amnesiac Kirk finds himself stranded on a planet with a culture strikingly similar to that of stereotypical Native Americans.

Saturday morning programming was getting a facelift. Networks, under pressure to scale back so-called violent programming — extremely tame by today’s standards — started veering more toward comedic, musical fare like The Archie Show and The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.

There was still plenty of fisticuffs to go around, though: Filmation’s Batman/Superman Hour, which gave us more Superman and Superboy, launched the first Batman cartoon — The Adventures of Batman —  starring the voices of Olan Soule as the Caped Crusader, Casey Kasem as Robin the Boy Wonder, Jane Webb as Batgirl and Catwoman, and Ted Knight as pretty much everyone else, from the Joker to Commissioner Gordon. (No, the Joker was not played by Larry Storch. That’s a myth that will not die.)

Rachel, Rachel, Paul Newman’s directorial debut, starring his wife Joanne Woodward, was the top-grossing movie at the box office. Other hits included 2001: A Space Odyssey — perhaps the greatest movie of all time — Rosemary’s Baby and Barbra Streisand’s Funny Girl. Plenty of theaters, however, were gearing up for Barbarella, which would open the following week.

Horror fare, meanwhile, would never be the same: George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead premiered Oct. 1, in time for Halloween.

It’s nearly impossible to say which Beatles song was the greatest but a very, very strong argument could be made for Hey Jude, which was the No. 1 single in the U.S. this week. The brilliant cut — written by Paul McCartney but credited to the Lennon-McCartney team — was the first release on the band’s Apple label and its nine-week streak atop the Billboard 100 tied the then-record for the longest run at No. 1 (with Bobby Darin’s 1959 Mack the Knife, weirdly), a record that stood for nine years. The single was a worldwide smash.

The runner-up on the week’s chart, by the way, was Jeannie C. Riley’s Harper Valley PTA, a feminist fuck-you disguised as a humorous, borderline novelty song. In third was the bananas Fire by the the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.

Leading the album chart was the Doors’ third album, Waiting for the Sun, which featured Hello, I Love You and received mixed reviews. Speaking strictly for myself, as the years pass, I find the Doors increasingly unlistenable except for a couple of songs. (Hello, I Love You is not one of them.) Jose Feliciano’s Feliciano! was at No. 3; the classic Cheap Thrills, by Big Brother and the Holding Company (read: Janis Joplin) was at No. 4; and the epochal Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was at No. 5.

I am the god of hellfire! And I bring you…

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

The Atom and Hawkman #40, DC. Big credit to DC for trying to save Atom and Hawkman’s individual titles by combining them into one book. This is the second issue of the merger and it boasts a dynamite cover by Joe Kubert that resonated with me from house ads. Sometimes they teamed the heroes but they get solo stories in this ish — the Atom by Gardner Fox, Dick Dillin and Sid Greene, and Hawkman by Fox, Kubert and Murphy Anderson. (That’s the two greatest Hawk artists ever, together!) There’s also a Captain Action ad! Anyway, the title lasted to Issue #46 and, sadly, Atom and Hawkman would never again reach the heights they did in the Silver Age, except for some notable exceptions.

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Mad #123, EC. Mad invents the variant cover! (There were four of them.)

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Thor #159, Marvel. Stan, Jack and Vince Colletta bring you… the origin of Donald Blake. Really. The alter ego’s become something of footnote in Thor’s history but he was still very much in the middle of things at the time. Odin reveals that he created Blake’s identity when he exiled Thor to Midgard years before. THE ANSWER AT LAST!

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Iron Man #9, Marvel. Archie Goodwin, George Tuska and Johnny Craig bring you — 56-YEAR-OLD SPOILER ALERT! — the Hulk Robot, which is introduced and promptly destroyed in this issue.

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Superboy #152, DC. Neal Adams Cover Alert! The master was on the precipice of superstardom, with an increasing load of covers, as well as his breakout Deadman series in Strange Adventures.

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Bewitched #13, Dell. It’s groovy!

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Secret Six #5, DC. The series, written by E. Nelson Bridwell and Joe Gill, lasted only seven issues but is remembered fondly to this very day. Just ask Paul Kupperberg. Nice Jack Sparling cover.

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Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #8, Marvel. Frank Springer doing his best Steranko there.

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Challengers of the Unknown #65, DC. Another neat Jack Sparling cover. By the way, did you know the Challs are getting a new miniseries? They are!

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The Mod Squad #1, Dell. Dell knew a good thing when they saw it — getting this comic to market in time for the second episode. And look — danger is their bag!!

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Archie and Me #25, Archie. Better than who got elected, I’ll tell you that.

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

Captain America #109, Marvel. There you go. Cap by the King. Covers don’t get more epic than this.

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Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes #4, Gold Key. A Herculoids cover is like money in the bank.

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Doctor Strange #176, Marvel. Beautiful work here from Gene Colan.

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Our Army at War #200, DC. Ah, yes, one of those World War II hippies.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of  Sept. 25 — in 1957! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Sept. 18 — in 1977! Click here.

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