Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 4, 2024 | 3 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 55 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Dec. 4, 1969.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Nov. 27, 1958. 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 Dec. 1 and Dec. 7.)

So, let’s set the scene: If Woodstock is considered the zenith of hippie counterculture, then its nadir is Altamont, a poorly planned and incompetently executed free concert in northern California that played out Dec. 6 like a smashed mirror version of its East Coast inspiration.

The slapdash operation drew 300,000 people and one version of the story goes that the headliners and organizers, the Rolling Stones — on the recommendation of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane — hired the Hells Angels for security. But like virtually everything with the planning of Altamont, that’s a matter of dispute. A somewhat different version has it that the Angels were merely hired to protect the generators, make sure nobody rushed the stage and keep an eye on things nearby.

What’s not in dispute is that the concert — which included acts like Santana, the Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers and more — was, as the day went on, increasingly beset by violence and chaos. (The Grateful Dead, who were central to pulling the whole thing together, turned tail and decided not to take the stage because of the bad vibes.) Things came to a head during the Rolling Stones’ set, when an 18-year-old man named Meredith Wilson, high on meth, got into a scuffle with the Angels as he joined other fans trying to get on stage during Under My Thumb.

Wilson was beaten, retreated and returned moments later brandishing a .22. A member of the Angels knocked Meredith’s gun hand and stabbed him multiple times, killing him. (Three others were also killed during the festival: two in a hit-and-run when a car ran off a highway and plowed into them as they sat around a campfire, and one who drowned in a canal.)

Meredith Hunter, in bright green suit

But it was Hunter’s slaying that symbolized the show’s wild, lawless frenzy, particularly considering his death was captured on footage shot for the 1970 Maysles brothers film Gimme Shelter, perhaps the greatest rock documentary ever. In addition to Gimme Shelter, there are two great books about the concert — Stanley Booth’s Dance With the Devil (stupidly renamed The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones), which chronicles the band’s rise against the backdrop of its autumn ’69 tour; and Altamont, by Joel Selvin, a well-researched, detailed account of the concert that lays blame squarely at the feet of the Stones.

Manson on Dec. 3

August’s savage Tate-LaBianca killings in Los Angeles had become a national obsession, and on Dec. 1, the LAPD finally announced arrest warrants in the case — for Charles Manson, his henchman Charles Denton “Tex” Watson, and acolytes Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten. A week later, all but Van Houten would be indicted on seven counts of murder for the bloodthirsty slayings of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, Rosemary LaBianca and Leno LaBianca. Van Houten was only charged in the LaBianca case because she was not there the night of the Tate massacre on Cielo Drive.

Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, Rosemary LaBianca, Leno LaBianca

(Watson had been arrested in McKinney, Texas, on Nov. 30, but was fighting extradition. His bid was, amazingly, successful until he was finally returned to California in September 1970.)

IN OTHER NEWS

— On Dec. 4, Fred Hampton, 21, and Mark Clark, 22, were killed in a predawn raid on the Black Panthers by Chicago law enforcement. The authorities, ostensibly seeking weapons, fired more than 100 shots inside Hampton’s apartment. Clark, on security duty, was the only Panther whose gun went off — once, into the ceiling. Hampton, who was deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter, had been drugged by an inside man, and was shot and killed unarmed in his bed. The raid was three weeks after a gun battle between the Panthers and Chicago police; two cops and one Panther were killed in that shootout. Hampton was in California at the time.

Four days later Los Angeles cops deployed the first-ever SWAT team to lay siege to Panther headquarters there. About 350 cops took on 13 Panthers. Six Panthers and four SWAT officers were wounded but nobody was killed.

— On Dec. 5, ARPANET, forerunner to the internet, was connected in two states for the first time. The four locations were at UCLA, the Stanford Research Institute, UC-Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, future Vice President Al Gore was stationed at an Army base in Alabama, ahead of his eventual deployment to Vietnam.

— On Dec. 1, the Vietnam draft lottery was held, the first time a lottery system was used since 1942. The change in format came about two weeks after the largest antiwar protest in U.S. history, held in Washington. The system was based on the birthdates and initials of those registered for service. The system was flawed, however, and didn’t generate evenly distributed dates. The lottery only served to increase already intense opposition to the war.

— On Dec. 2, the Boeing 747 made its first passenger flight, bringing 191 people — most of them press — from Seattle to New York City on a Pan Am charter.

— On Dec. 2, the National Hockey League announced two more teams would be joining the 12-team circuit the following season: the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks.

The top movie at the box office was Paint Your Wagon, featuring a singing Lee Marvin. Also in theaters were the newly released A Boy Named Charlie Brown; Elvis Presley’s final acting role in Change of Habit, co-starring Mary Tyler Moore; the scandalous I Am Curious (Yellow); Krakatoa, East of Java — in Cinerama!; and one of the greatest buddy flicks of all time, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

James Bond fans were anxious about the next movie in the series. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, starring unknown George Lazenby, who was replacing very-well-known Sean Connery as 007, was opening at the end of the month and trailers were all over theaters.

The top-rated show on television was the Dec. 7 debut on CBS of the animated Christmas special Frosty the Snowman. I used to watch it every year as a kid, but — not to sound like a Grinch — it pales next to A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus. The most popular shows at the time included Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Mayberry RFD and Family Affair.

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam led the Billboard singles chart, followed by Leaving on a Jet Plane by Peter, Paul and Mary. The Beatles, however, had the No. 3 disc — the double A-side Come Together and Something — the latter one of the most beautiful songs ever. (Both coming from the top-selling album Abbey Road.) Good on ya, George!

Someday We’ll Be Together, credited to Diana Ross & the Supremes, was at No. 9. It’s my favorite “Supremes” song, although it’s actually a Ross solo track. Elvis was at No. 17 with Suspicious Minds and B.J. Thomas’ Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, from the Butch Cassidy soundtrack, was at No. 13.

As noted, Abbey Road, perhaps the Beatles’ greatest album, led the LP charts, followed by the seminal Led Zepellin II at No. 2, perhaps that band’s best. Meanwhile, another of rock’s all-time pinnacles, the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed — which is the album the band was touring off of — entered the chart at No. 199, but only because it was released late the previous week.

Ooh, a storm is threatening, my very life today…

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Batman #219, DC. This issue is all about the back-up: Mike Friedrich, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’s short story The Silent Night of the Batman is the best Christmas comic I’ve ever read and I love running an annual tribute to it every Christmas Eve. Look for that in a few weeks! (Kind of amazing that the story isn’t even teased on the cover.)

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Sgt. Fury #75, Marvel. Unlike Sgt. Rock, Sgt. Fury tended to veer more toward balls-out, testosterone-driven action. But The Deserter, by Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers and John Severin (who did the cover), is more in line with what EC was doing in the ’50s: Duane Wilson, newly assigned to the unit, is a capable, enthusiastic soldier who after a particularly rough battle, succumbs to PTSD — then called shell shock. He deserts, is court-martialed — and is executed in front of the other Howlers. Grim business in the Vietnam era.

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Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals #56, Archie. I guess Betty and Veronica were boycotting. Can’t blame them.

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

Star Trek #7, Gold Key. Wonderful funky cover here. Voodoo!

Dan adds: The show was over but the comic book lived on…

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Iron Man #23, Marvel. Man, that’s a lot of copy on the cover.

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Thor #173, Marvel. I have to admit, I did not think Ulik ever hung out with the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime.

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The Flash #194, DC. The amusing thing is that it’s easy to miss the fact that Satan is presiding over the ceremony.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Nov. 27 — in 1958! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of  Nov. 20 — in 1979! Click here.

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