Posted By Dan Greenfield on Feb 12, 2025 | 10 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 54 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Feb. 12, 1971.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Feb. 5, 1959. 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 Feb. 9 and Feb. 15.)

So, let’s set the scene: Richard Nixon was in the middle of his first term, a year away from his re-election bid. But behind the scenes, he made a fateful decision that would lead straight to the unraveling of his presidency three and a half years later.

On Feb. 10, Nixon ordered the installation of a voice-activated audio recording system inside the Oval Office that was also established in the Cabinet Room. It was later expanded and its existence wasn’t revealed until the Watergate hearings in 1973. The battle over the recordings — and the revelation that Nixon not only knew about the Watergate break-in but was directly involved in its coverup — would become central to the impeachment movement and, ultimately, his August 1974 resignation in disgrace.

A fitting metaphor: On Feb. 13, Vice President Spiro Agnew, playing in the Bob Hope Desert Golf Classic in Palm Springs, hit three spectators with two shots off the tee. (The year before, he beaned his partner in the back of the head.)

A major, historic geopolitical shift was taking place in the Middle East. On Feb. 14, the Tehran Agreement — obligating oil producers to pay a 55 percent tax rate on their exports from six OPEC member states — was signed by 23 companies, who were staring down an embargo. Basically, it shifted the power of oil pricing from the multinationals to the countries. The price of petroleum would continue to rise through the decade. Further, OPEC’s burgeoning muscle led to the 1973 Energy Crisis when it imposed an embargo on the United States and other nations that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

The Wilmington Ten

Wilmington, N.C., was being torn apart by racial strife, with violence across the city and Klansmen and other White Supremacists patrolling in vigilante mobs. The tensions had hit a high point Feb. 6, when a grocery store was firebombed — one of many such attacks throughout the month. But that incident led to the wrongful conviction of the “Wilmington Ten,” who were led by Benjamin Chavis. All 10 served nearly a decade in prison before an appeal won their release. They were pardoned by the governor decades later.

IN OTHER NEWS

— On Feb. 9, at 6:00:41 local time, the Sylmar earthquake struck the Greater Los Angeles Area, lasting 12 seconds but killing 65.

— On Feb. 10, four photojournalists covering Operation Lam Son 719 — a South Vietnamese attack in Laos by armored columns and American-piloted helicopter troopships against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong — were killed when their chopper was shot down.

— The third manned flight to the moon — Apollo 14 — returned to Earth on Feb. 9. Splashdown was south of Tonga in the South Pacific. One of the mission’s defining moments: Astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the moon.

— The Troubles were raging in Northen Ireland. Fighting was intense and on Feb. 9, five BBC workers on their way to fix a transmitter in County Tyrone were killed by an Irish Republican Army landmine. On Feb. 15, a British soldier died seven days after being mortally wounded in an IRA attack.

— General Idi Amin, who appointed himself president and dictator of Uganda, was solidifying his power having taken over earlier in February.

— On Feb. 9, the six members of the European Common Market — Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany — approved a plan to create a common unit of currency over the next decade. The European Currency Unit would be implemented by 1979 for use in international transactions involving members. The Euro would finally be put into circulation in 2002.

— On Feb. 9, the great Satchel Paige became the first primarily “Negro league” player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

— The NASDAQ began operations this week, starting on Feb. 8.

— I turned 4 on Feb. 12.

The Owl and the Pussycat — a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold comedy starring Barbra Streisand and George Segal — was the top movie at American box offices. That was a one-week stay at the top because the Ali MacGraw-Ryan O’Neal schmaltzfest Love Story was by far the most popular movie in the country for months.

CBS’ four-hour broadcast of the 1959 sword-and-sandals Charlton Heston epic Ben-Hur led the Nielsens, but regular hits included The Flip Wilson Show, Here’s Lucy, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Medical Center and Ironside.

But a politically loaded sitcom that only debuted in January was already kicking up a fuss: All in the Family’s fifth episode dealt head on with the subject of homosexuality. Archie believes Gloria and Mike’s friend (played by Tony Geary, who later went on to fame on General Hospital) is gay because he’s effeminate. He’s wrong — and then is shocked to find his retired pro-football-player friend, is gay.

As it happens, Nixon’s White House tapes later revealed that this episode sent him into a diatribe against the show in particular and homosexuality in general.

In the U.K., there was plenty of pearl-clutching about “decency” too, of course: The Royal Albert Hall on Feb. 8 cancelled a Frank Zappa concert because of fears about his lyrics.

The Osmonds’ One Bad Apple led the Billboard 100, much to the glee of 12-year-old girls across the land. Knock Three Times — by Dawn, which featured Tony Orlando’s vocals but wasn’t actually a real group (yet) — followed at No. 2. The rocking cover I Hear You Knocking by Dave Edmunds was at No. 4.

At No. 6, however, was George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, inarguably his signature solo tune, which was a double A-side with Isn’t It a Pity. Both songs came from Harrison’s three-album masterpiece All Things Must Pass, which not only stands as his greatest work but the greatest work of any former Beatle.

The album is an explosion of creativity that had been building up inside Harrison for years, a marvelous achievement that put the Quiet Beatle on the same footing as John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who’d long held back their junior partner. It’s not only a personal favorite, it’s undoubtedly one of the best albums ever.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar was at No. 2, and Tumbleweed Connection, my all-time fave Elton John album, was at No. 5.

There were also two major new releases. On Feb. 9, Elektra Records issued Carly Simon’s self-titled debut album and, the next day, A&M Records put out Tapestry by Carole King, which would go on to become a symbol of the era and one of the best-selling record albums of all time.

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

The Amazing Spider-Man #96, Marvel. Stan Lee beat DC to the punch by four months by dealing head-on with the topic of drugs, famously eschewing the Comics Code seal for this issue and the next two. The story itself involves ever-troubled Harry Osborn becoming addicted to pills, courtesy of Lee, penciller Gil Kane and inker John Romita.

Not nearly as gripping or as nuanced as Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 four months later, Lee nevertheless deserves the credit for having the stones to go there first. Adams would later say that he and O’Neil could have been first to the gate but that DC editorial demurred because of the Code. Once Marvel made its move, though, comics publishers including DC got together with the Code to revamp it, and GL #85 would enter the pantheon as one of the most important mainstream comics ever published.

Scott adds: The most iconic thing about this cover is the positively chilling headshot of the Green Goblin in the lower left corner.

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The Flash #205, DC. Love Dick Giordano’s cover of this reprint giant (possibly from a Carmine Infantino layout). The ish includes a never-before-published Golden Age Jay Garrick Flash story by Bob Kanigher, Infantino and Bernard Sachs.

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Captain America #137, Marvel. The cover’s better than the story. Not the first (or last) time that’s happened in comics.

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

Superman #236, DC Comics. This cover was shown in a montage in Superman: From the Thirties to the Seventies, and it scared the hell out of me when I was little. One of these days I’ll find a copy.

Dan adds: I agree. One of the most terrifying non-horror covers of the Bronze Age. And it’s Superman!

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The Avengers #87, Marvel. Big John Buscema brings it with this legendary cover. He even managed to make Hawkeye-as-Goliath’s dopey costume look cool.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Feb. 5 — in 1959! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Jan. 29 — in 1984! Click here.

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