Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 57 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Dec. 31, 1968.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Dec. 24, 1945. 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 Dec. 28, 1968, and Jan. 3, 1969.)
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So, let’s set the scene: For a weekly column ostensibly about old comics, RETRO HOT PICKS frequently goes into some pretty dark places. The news of a particular week is often grim, painting a stark picture of what was happening outside the panels of a four-color comic book.
Among the most tumultuous of years was 1968, scarred by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, race riots, a divided America, and the election of Richard Nixon as president.
As 1968 turned to 1969, though, we were given something wonderful — a picture of ourselves taken in unprecedented circumstances: On December 29, a photo of the Earth from the moon’s orbit was released by NASA, along with a series of other pictures taken on the Apollo 8 mission, completed just two days before.
The photo, called Earthrise, is one of the most famous in history and was taken by astronaut William Anders. It was the first color image of Earth taken from the moon by a person.
Understandably, Apollo 8 has been eclipsed in the public imagination by the following year’s moon landing. But this was an enormous point of demarcation in the annals of human exploration — not to mention the space race: the first orbital flight around the moon with Anders and fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell circling 10 times before heading home. (They were also the first humans to see the moon’s far side. Lovell even became the first to vomit in space, forcing the three to dodge the chunks in zero gravity!)
All kidding aside, however, Apollo 8, emblemized bv Earthrise, was soul-stirring and breathtaking, and a reminder that the steps getting us to the moon were nearly as awesome as the landing itself.
IN OTHER NEWS
— On Dec. 29, Joe Namath’s New York Jets beat the Oakland Raiders 27-23 to earn a trip to the third AFL-NFL Championship Game — the first to be formally called the Super Bowl. They would face the juggernaut Baltimore Colts who on the same day flattened the Cleveland Browns, 34-0. The two would square off in Miami on Jan. 12.
— For fans of the college game, that year’s New Year’s Day Rose Bowl provided us with a national champion, when No. 1 Ohio State beat No. 2 USC, 27-16, in front of a crowd of 102,063 fans.
— On Dec. 29, Sophia Loren gave birth to Carlo Ponti Jr., her first son with film producer husband Carlo Ponti.
Perfect for the holiday season! The No. 1 movie at the box office was the sex farce Candy, written by Buck Henry, based on the novel by by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. With Swedish beauty Ewa Aulin in the lead role, the flick featured an amazing line-up of co-stars, including Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau and Ringo Starr, as well as appearances by a litany of famous names, including Sugar Ray Robinson and Anita Pallenberg.
Other hits included the Barbra Streisand classic Funny Girl, the Steve McQueen actioner Bullitt, and the Disney comedy The Love Bug. Other recent releases comprised such long-lasting favorites as Where Eagles Dare, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Once Upon a Time in the West, not to mention rock classics Yellow Submarine and Monterey Pop. Even the Monkees’ iconoclastic Head was still probably on some screens.
The shows that ruled TV were Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In; Gomer Pyle; The FBI; Mission: Impossible; My Three Sons; Family Affair; The Carol Burnett Show; and The Dean Martin Show. Land of the Giants, a favorite among Irwin Allen fans, was also among the leading programs.
Star Trek was limping along in its third and final season. This week’s episode was Whom Gods Destroy, memorable mainly for Yvonne Craig’s portrayal of an insane Orion seductress.
Amid all the chaos of 1968, it was a period of remarkable cultural creativity on many fronts, but in this case music:
The Beatles ended the year where they began — with the best-selling album in the land. At the start of 1968 it was Magical Mystery Tour. This week it was The Beatles — better known as “The White Album” — which hit the top spot and stayed there into March (with a one-week gap).
On Jan. 2, the band convened at Twickenham Film Studios in London to begin filming rehearsals for what would become Let It Be. (The next day, a shipment of John and Yoko’s album Two Virgins, whose cover boasted a photo of them showing full frontal nudity, was seized by authorities in New Jersey who deemed it pornography.)
The Rolling Stones’ seminal Beggars Banquet — kicked off by Sympathy for the Devil on Side 1 and Street Fighting Man on Side 2, went on sale earlier in the month. On Dec. 26, Led Zeppelin made its American debut in Denver, opening for Vanilla Fudge. Two days later, about 100,000 attended the Miami Pop Festival, with Jimi Hendrix, the Mothers of Invention, Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker among the headliners.
On Dec. 30, Frank Sinatra recorded My Way in one take. The No. 1 single was Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine, and fandom was still buzzing over Elvis Presley’s Christmas show on NBC — aka the Comeback Special — early in the month.
There must be lights burning brighter somewhere…
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Captain America #112, Marvel. The Album Issue! Basically, Cap’s greatest hits as narrated by Tony Stark, replete with oversize panels. Jack Kirby is said to have done the pencils in a single, 24-hour stretch — and it would be his last Cap ish until he returned to Marvel years later in the 1970s.
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Thor #162, Marvel. Beginning the origin of Galactus, by Stan, Jack and Vince Colletta.
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Wonder Woman #181, DC. One of the best-known Mike Sekowsky covers of the powerless Wonder Woman era. (Inked by Dick Giordano.) The issue co-stars Tim Trench. Did I ever tell you I once adapted a Tim Trench short story for a one-man play in middle school? It’s true.
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Castle of Frankenstein #13, Gothic Castle. Planet of the Apes, 2001 and Star Trek. Yup.
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Our Army at War #204, DC. Joe Kubert’s late ’60s Sgt. Rock covers were terrific, with this psychedelic tableau a great example. Props to the unknown colorist.
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Sgt. Fury #64, Marvel. How to catch the eye of those peaceniks.
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Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #11, Marvel. Steranko was gone but Frank Springer picked up the vibe, though apparently Barry Windsor-Smith redrew Nick’s face.
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Mad About Millie #1 and Millie the Model #169, Marvel. Ah, the days when Millie could sustain not just one title, but multiple series.
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Doctor Strange #179, Marvel. A reprinted Spidey/Doc Strange team-up by Ditko, and under a new cover pencilled by Windsor-Smith!
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Aquaman #44, DC. A nightmarish Nick Cardy cover kept people coming back to Aquaman.
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Sub-Mariner #12, Marvel. Fresh lobster, dancing nightly.
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Tomahawk #121, DC. Neal Adams bringing the drama here.
Dan adds: And let’s hear it for Jack Adler’s colors!
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MORE
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of December 24 — in 1945! Click here.
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of December 17 — in 1950! Click here.
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Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.
