Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 23, 2026 | 11 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 51 years ago — again…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 23, 1975 — the second time this month we’ve visited that year. Why? It’ll become obvious in a second.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 16, 1978. Click here to check it out.

(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between Sept. 20 and Sept. 26.)

So, let’s set the scene: Two and a half weeks after deranged Manson acolyte Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme tried to assassinate President Ford in Sacramento, another delusional woman, Sara Jane Moore, tried do the same in San Francisco — and almost succeeded.

On Sept. 22, around 3:30 p.m., Moore was about 40 feet away from the president as he left the St. Francis Hotel in Union Square and walked to his limo. The 45-year-old fired a shot from her .38 Special and missed Ford’s head by about five inches, hitting a doorway and sending a bullet fragment into the groin of a bystander, who was superficially wounded. (Fromme got to within three feet, but there was no bullet in the chamber when she pulled the trigger.)

Ford moments before the shooting

A 33-year-old man named Oliver Sipple, a disabled former Marine, dove at Moore and grabbed her arm before she could fire a second time. Cops had actually seized a handgun and bullets from Moore the day before, after she evidently suggested she wanted to assassinate Ford. She was, however, able to scramble to get a new one that morning.

Moore was arrested at the scene, while her 9-year-old son was waiting for her to pick him up at school. She wasn’t a Manson follower but she harbored a similarly apocalyptic vision: Her motive, she later said, was to launch a violent revolution that would overthrow the U.S. government because of how it handled the Vietnam War. (Manson plotted the Tate-LaBianca murders to foment a race war.)

Adding another bizarre wrinkle to an already twisted story, Moore was an FBI informant. Obsessed with Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress who’d been kidnapped by, then joined, the terrorist Symbionese Liberation Army, Moore volunteered at People in Need, a charitable organization set up by Hearst’s father, Randolph Hearst, in response to SLA criticisms of him. She was a federal informant up until the time she tried to kill Ford. (Ford had started wearing a bulletproof vest after the Fromme shooting, but switched to a bulletproof trench coat after the Moore attack.)

Moore in 2009 on the Today show, looking like nicest grandma in the world

Moore was eventually sentenced to life in prison, and briefly escaped in 1979. She was released after 32 years behind bars. She died in 2025 at the age of 95.

(Patty Hearst, by the way, had been captured four days earlier. More on that below.)

There’s also a very sad element to the assassination attempt. Oliver Sipple, the hero who stopped Moore from firing a second time, was outed as a gay man in the San Francisco Chronicle. Unfortunately, Sipple had not come out to his Midwestern family and his relationship with them would collapse. Suffering from mental health issues, he died alone in 1989, his body undiscovered for 10 days, a bottle of Jack Daniels by his side and the television on.

Oliver Sipple, hero

Hearst was captured Sept. 18, also in San Francisco. She’d been kidnapped from her apartment Feb. 4, 1974, by the SLA. Within months, she joined up with her assailants and began committing crimes with them, including an infamous bank robbery April 15, 1974, that produced surveillance video of her brandishing a carbine rifle. Using the name Tania, she managed to evade arrest until authorities grabbed her at an apartment in the city.

Hearst would be convicted of bank robbery in 1976 and be released from federal prison in 1979, when President Carter commuted her sentence. She would receive a full pardon by President Clinton on his final day in office, Jan. 20, 2001. In between, she became a media figure and curiosity — and favorite of film director John Waters, who cast her no less than six times in his films. Also among her acting credits was an appearance on the offbeat children’s show The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

“Tania” in the SLA’s propaganda photo, and Hearst’s mugshot

The nation’s attention was also focused on a controversial, life-and-death court case involving the fate of Karen Ann Quinlan, a 21-year-old New Jersey woman whose family wanted her removed from life support. Quinlan in April lapsed into a coma after she took Valium and drank alcohol while on a crash diet. She then fell into a persistent vegetative state and her parents wanted her taken off a ventilator, but Quinlan’s doctor and the hospital refused.

The family sued Sept. 12 and the ensuing legal battle engendered enormous attention, becoming a touchstone legal, religious, ethical and moral debate. A court eventually ruled for the family, and the ventilator was shut off in May 1976 — but Quinlan kept breathing for another nine years. The case inspired books, music and a television movie starring Piper Laurie and Brian Keith.

IN OTHER NEWS

— The World Football League, which featured teams like the Memphis Southmen, the Philadelphia Bell, and the Southern California Sun, was running on fumes in its second season. The league would collapse mid-season in October.

— Another colorful, far more successful but still overmatched upstart league was also in trouble. On Sept. 25, the New York Nets and Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association applied to join the rival National Basketball Association. The news came as the league was preparing to announce a network TV contract, but now the deal was scuttled. The ABA’s season was due to start in October — and would be the league’s last.

A week away from October, and Jaws was still the dominant movie at the box office, but three films opened this week that would have a lasting impact:

— One of the very best movies of the decade, Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino and John Cazale, tells a fictionalized version of a 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery that very much went awry. Its most memorable scene is Pacino’s iconic, defiant “Attica! Attica!” chant — which he actually improvised thanks to a suggestion from assistant director Burtt Harris that he use “Attica” in his dialogue.

— Three Days of the Condor, starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, is one of the quintessential 1970s paranoia political thrillers and, for our purposes here, would decades later help inspire Captain America: The Winter Soldier. (Why do you think Redford was cast?)

— Aaaaand, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring the late Tim Curry… which was a flop. At first.

All in the Family was the reigning Nielsens champ, with other hits including Sanford and Son; the new Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoff Phyllis, starring Cloris Leachman; Maude; The Waltons; and The Streets of San Francisco.

For me, Welcome Back, Kotter, which premiered earlier in September, was appointment television right off the bat. And I wasn’t alone. Every kid in my class, particularly the boys, knew all the catchphrases and used them over, and over, and over, and over again. I even made my Dad take us to see Gabe Kaplan do stand-up at Rutgers University.

On Sept. 20, Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell premiered on ABC at 8 p.m. The show featured celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, John Denver, Yogi Berra, Siegfried and Roy, Paul Anka, the Bay City Rollers, and the Broadway cast of The Wiz. Tennis star Jimmy Connors, weirdly, sang Anka’s Girl, You Turn Me On, dedicated to girlfriend Chris Evert. (Anka played the piano.) Up-and-coming comedian Billy Crystal also appeared.

The show had a comedy sketch troupe that included unknowns Bill Murray, his brother Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest. They were called “The Prime Time Players.”

Murray, Guest, Doyle-Murray

All of this predated by three weeks the premiere of NBC’s new late-night comedy show, which was called Saturday Night, because they couldn’t use “Live.” Their troupe’s name? “The Not Ready for Prime-Time Players,” which was, of course, intentional. Cosell’s show was cancelled the following January. Saturday Night (which eventually added “Live” to its name) changed entertainment history.

Paul McCartney’s Wings Over the World tour launched this month and this week the band was in Scotland. Venus and Mars — featuring Magneto and Titanium Man — was their latest album.

John Denver’s I’m Sorry hit No. 1 this week on the singles chart, followed by David Bowie’s far more enduring Fame, and Glen Campbell’s ubiquitous Rhinestone Cowboy. Other hits included the Isley Brothers’ Fight the Power (Part 1); Wasted Days and Wasted Nights by Freddy Fender; and Dickie Goodman’s novelty number Mr. Jaws.

Red Octopus by Jefferson Starship topped the albums chart, but also making waves was Kiss’ first live LP, Alive!, released earlier in the month. Plus, as mentioned three weeks ago, Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run was a force to be reckoned with. Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here came out Sept. 12. The title cut is my favorite Floyd song. It always breaks a little piece of my heart.

Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #3, Marvel. The only issue of these I got as a kid was #10, but I would have bought them all had I known about them (and had I had the means). I was so into Planet of the Apes at this age (8), that only Batman and baseball loomed larger. James Bond had just entered the picture, too. The 11 total issues reprinted Marvel’s adaptations of the first two Apes movies from its black-and-white magazine series, but added color. I didn’t know that until much later, but I wouldn’t have cared anyway. I’ve since collected this whole series.

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The X-Men #96, Marvel. The earliest of days for the All-New, All-Different X-Men and we get character development that would help define two of the team’s greatest members: Wolverine is shown flying into a berserker rage for the first time and we learn that Storm suffers from claustrophobia. By Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Dave Cockrum, Sam Grainger and co.

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Archie’s Girls, Betty and Veronica #240, Archie. I don’t care if it’s a stupid gag, I just love Betty.

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The Sandman #6, DC. A Jawsmania cover! That’s Bill Draut, not Jack Kirby, but Kirby did the interiors, so I’m crediting the King with making the “shark” a giant robot-ish thing. Then again, maybe it was writer Michael Fleisher’s idea. Or editor Joe Orlando. I wonder if assistant editor Paul Levitz remembers. In any event, it was the last issue of the cult-favorite series.

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Spidey Super Stories #14, Marvel. Hey, kids! It’s Spider-Man and leggy jungle girl Shanna! They did put her in a one-piece, though. By the way, the Grand Comics Database lists this as J. Arthur Crank’s first comic book appearance. He’s labeled “villain.” I agree. That guy was a dick.

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

The Amazing Spider-Man #151, Marvel. This may have been the last time the Shocker was perceived as a genuine threat.

Dan adds: Second-best waterlogged Spidey cover ever.

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Ghost Rider #15, Marvel. Ghost Rider’s bike never looked right in blue. Flaming red or nothing!

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The Inhumans #2, Marvel. I wanna see more of the Kaptroids.

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Action Comics #454, DC. I don’t know what bothers me more here, Superman’s appetite or his posture.

Dan adds: Hey, this was just a Facsimile Edition in April!

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