Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 19, 2025 | 5 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 52 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of March 19, 1973.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of March 12, 1983. 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 March 16 and March 22.)

So, let’s set the scene: The Watergate burglars were already convicted but the scandal would not go away. What the public didn’t know, however, was the extent to which All the President’s Men were unraveling.

On March 21, it came out later, White House counsel John Dean told Richard Nixon there was “a cancer on the presidency”: Burglar E. Howard Hunt was blackmailing the White House, demanding more hush money. (“Cancer on the presidency” is sort of like “Play it again, Sam.” Here’s the actual Dean quote, from Nixon’s secret tapes: “I think that there’s no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we’ve got. We have a cancer within—close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily. It’s compounding. It grows geometrically now.”

Nixon urged Dean: “Don’t you have to handle Hunt’s financial situation damn soon? You’ve got to keep the cap on the bottle.” What essentially followed was a cover-up of the cover-up.

Two days later, Judge John Sirica read in open court a bombshell letter from burglar James McCord that said, “There was political pressure applied to the defendants to plead guilty and remain silent.”

Within weeks, Dean would flip. By the end of April, Nixon’s top aides, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, would resign. Dean would be fired.

In Vietnam, prisoners of war were being released — including war hero John McCain earlier in the month — and many of the few soldiers left in the country were leaving, as well. The bittersweet turn of events was immortalized March 17 in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo “Burst of Joy,” by Associated Press photographer Slava “Sal” Veder. (The photo belied the truth of the ugliness behind the scenes between Lt. Colonel Robert L. Stirm and his wife Loretta.)

John Lennon with producer Richard Perry (left) and Ringo Starr (in the background) March 13. Lennon was in LA recording I’m the Greatest with Ringo and George Harrison. It was the only time they recorded together between the Beatles’ breakup and Lennon’s death in 1980.

John Lennon, who’d been living in the U.S. since 1971, was battling federal immigration officials who wanted him deported over an old hashish bust in the U.K. Lennon was targeted by the Nixon administration for his leftist views; he’d been considered a potential threat to the president’s re-election in 1972. (Yoko Ono’s permanent residence application was approved, meanwhile.)

More ex-Beatle trouble — of a far lesser sort: Across the Atlantic, Paul and Linda McCartney this month were fined 100 pounds in Scotland for growing weed.

IN OTHER NEWS

— Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on March 20, months after his death in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission.

— On March 21, rock samples from the Apollo 17 mission — the last manned trip to the moon — were sent by Nixon to all 50 states, as well as nations around the world.

— On March 17, Queen Elizabeth II opened a new London Bridge.

The Poseidon Adventure — the best of the Irwin Allen disaster films and a personal favorite of mine — returned to the top of the box office, which it had dominated since its December 1972 release. It was the first time I saw Gene Hackman. He was great. But then he always was.

Other movies included Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway, starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw; the Shaw Brothers’ Five Fingers of Death; Last Tango in Paris; Walking Tall, starring Joe Don Baker; Charlotte’s Web; and Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, starring Elliott Gould. The film version of Godspell opened March 21.

All in the Family, Columbo, Sanford & Son, Ironside and Maude were the biggest TV hits. Another successful show was Bridget Loves Bernie, which finished its first and only season earlier in March. Because of its controversial premise — Jewish man marries Catholic woman — it was cancelled soon thereafter, becoming the highest-rated show to be axed after only one season.

The final episode of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, once a TV powerhouse, also ran this month.

Love Train by the O’Jays led the singles chart, followed by the soulful Killing Me Softly With His Song, by Roberta Flack. At No. 3 was Brazilian musician Deodato’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001), a jazzed up version of the Richard Strauss composition made famous by 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Deodato’s album, Prelude, was at No. 5. Because music is strange sometimes.)

The No. 2 album was Elton John’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, followed by Diana Ross’ Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack (No. 3) and John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High (No. 4). At No. 13 was the King’s Aloha From Hawaii via Satellite. It would hit No. 1 in May following the 90-minute TV special aired in April by NBC. (The concert and album also featured Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra.)

But you know what the No. 1 album was? Dueling Banjos, the soundtrack to 1972’s horrific Deliverance. The LP featured the title track — performed by by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell — which was at No. 7 on the singles chart. (The song was written in the ’50s by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith.) The rest of the album was a repackaged version of an earlier record by Weissberg and Marshall Brickman.

Oh, and Pink Floyd’s just-released The Dark Side of the Moon this week entered the Billboard chart — where it would remain for 736 nonconsecutive weeks, from March 17, 1973, to July 16, 1988.

And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes, I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon…

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Amazing Spider-Man #121, Marvel. Yeah, I mean look. It’s the death of Gwen Stacy. Only one of the most famous and important issues in comics history. What else can be said beyond this?

Scott adds: According to many, the end of the Silver Age happens right here with Gwen Stacy’s fall from the Brooklyn Bridge. (Or the George Washington Bridge, if you prefer.)

Dan adds: To my way of thinking, the Silver Age ended in 1969 but I can see where certain fans would feel this way. Also worth noting that this came out three days before the week started but it was on the racks so how can you ignore it? You can’t.

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Conan the Barbarian #27, Marvel. The cover’s by Gil Kane and Ernie Chan, but it’s more notable for being an early John Buscema issue. Written by Roy Thomas and inked by Chan, this ish introduces Turgohl and the empire of Khitai.

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Superboy #195, DC. Nearing the end of an era. Two issues from now, the back-up Legion of Super-Heroes, by Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum, would take over the lead spot in the series. Phantom Girl got her very 2970s bell-bottom outfit in this ish.

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Love Stories #150, DC. Jay Scott Pike doing Jay Scott Pike.

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

Hero for Hire #10, Marvel. OK, but how do we know he’s a bad guy?

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Strange Adventures #242, DC. Strong cover here by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, a reprint of 1963’s Mystery in Space #82.

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Marvel Tales #43, Marvel. Green is just not a good color on the Kingpin.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of March 12 — in 1983! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of March 5 — in 1966! Click here.

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