Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 48 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 16, 1978.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 9, 1966. 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. 13 and Sept. 19.)
So, let’s set the scene: On Sept. 17, after decades of violent animosity, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords, brokered by President Jimmy Carter. It was the highlight of Carter’s tenure in the White House and a seminal moment in 1970s geopolitics, bringing hope that a lasting peace could be achieved in the Middle East. (Sadly, it’s a hope that was ultimately unfounded.)
Sadat and Begin would share the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize because of the agreement, but it was met with widespread frustration and anger throughout the Arab world, in part because it was perceived as a unilateral deal and failed to establish a Palestinian state. The treaty led to Sadat’s assassination three years later.
But for a brief moment, those watching thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be OK after all.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Iranian Revolution was boiling over. The week before, the army fired on followers of Ayatollah Khomeini who were protesting in Tehran, and killed up to about 100 people. (Estimates vary.) What was called Black Friday was the point of no return, galvanizing opposition to the Shah. His days leading the nation were numbered.
Meanwhile, on Sept. 16, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit central Iran, leaving a death toll of between 15,000 and 25,000 people.
Thousands of miles away in South America, the Sandinista rebellion in Nicaragua was in full swing. On Sept. 9, simultaneous attacks across the country were launched by opponents of the Somoza regime. Days later, the rebels controlled northern Nicaragua. But this week, the pendulum swung back and the National Guard put down the rebellion by Sept. 20, with more than 1,000 killed. The conflict, however, was far from over.
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IN OTHER NEWS
Moon on Sept. 6, 1978, the night before he died
— The world of rock was reeling in the aftermath of Who drummer Keith Moon’s death. Moon, 32, died of a drug overdose the week before, on Sept. 7, while battling alcohol withdrawal. One of the greatest drummers who ever lived and the quintessential hellion rock star, he died in the same London apartment owned by Harry Nilsson where Cass Elliott was found four years earlier, also at the age of 32.
— A new pope! John Paul I was in his first month heading the Roman Catholic Church. He was the 263rd pontiff.
— On Sept. 13, Ford became the first American corporation to be indicted on criminal charges. A grand jury in Indiana charged the company with reckless homicide and criminal negligence because of the design of a Ford Pinto that burst into flames in an August accident that killed three girls.
Big week in the wide world of sports!
On Sept. 15, Muhammad Ali regained the world heavyweight boxing title at the ripe old age of 36. He beat Leon Spinks in a unanimous decision after 15 rounds, seven months after the younger fighter bested in him in a shocking split-decision upset. It was a record-setting third time the Greatest took the title, and it would be his last.
The next day, for the first time in horse racing history, two Triple Crown winners were pitted against each other in the same race. Seattle Slew, 1977’s champ, defeated Affirmed, 1978’s champ, by three lengths in the Marlboro Cup Invitational at Belmont.
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Now, let me tell you a story: On Saturday, Sept. 16, I was one of 55,091 fans packed into Yankee Stadium, where my beloved Bronx Bombers were taking on the hated Boston Red Sox in the second of three games in the Bronx. The 1978 season had already been one for the ages and on the morning of the game, the Yankees stood 2 1/2 games up on Boston — having come all the way back from 14 1/2 games behind in mid-July. This was scheduled to be their last series of the year and could determine the momentum the rest of the way toward clinching the American League East title.
In the bottom of the second, with two outs and the Yanks trailing, 2-1, and tough righthander Mike Torrez on the mound for the Sox, New York had the the tying run at first and shortstop Bucky Dent at the plate. Dent was a solid fielder but a light hitter; nevertheless he was a star thanks to his leading man good lucks — the cheers in the crowd rose about three octaves every time he came to the plate because he was the team’s resident matinee idol, loved by women and girls.
But Dent struck out, inning over. My friends and I were aggravated for sure. Still, the Yankees won it 3-2, in the bottom of the ninth, increasing their lead over the Red Sox by 3 1/2 games, their peak for the year.
That day’s scorecard and starting lineups. Catfish Hunter started on the mound for the Yanks.
Coincidentally, that very night was the Highland Park, N.J., youth league baseball banquet and the speaker was, of all people, Bucky Dent. Budding 11-year-old journalist that I was, I thought I’d show my moxie by asking him the tough question during his Q&A.
“Mr. Dent, I was at the game today and with two outs in the second, with the tying run on, you struck out. What happened?”
He kind of smiled and shrugged and said, “I struck out.”
“Oh, OK, thanks,” I replied, and sat back down.
What I didn’t immediately remember was that since our team was that year’s champion (undefeated!), we’d have to line up to get our trophies and shake hands with… Bucky Dent. I was mortified.
So when it was my turn, I walked up to him, looked him in the eye, shook his hand, and said, “Well, even though you struck out, you had a good game.”
And he laughed.
The Yankees’ answer to the Farrah poster
Now, fast forward about two weeks to Oct. 2. The Yankees had let their division lead slip away and had to travel to Boston’s Fenway Park for a one-game playoff to see who would go on to face the Kansas City Royals in the American League playoffs.
In the top of the seventh, the Yankees down two runs, with two outs against the selfsame Mike Torrez, Dent stepped into the batter’s box with the tying runs aboard. Choking up on the bat and the count 1-1, Dent lifted a high fly ball deep to left that landed over Fenway’s Green Monster and gave the Yanks a 3-2 lead.
I am convinced that as he rounded the bases, Dent said to himself, “That’ll show that fucking kid in New Jersey.”
New York won, 5-4, in one of the greatest games ever played, so all you Yankees fans can thank me. Or blame me, if you love the Sox.
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Animal House, one of the funniest movies ever made, was No. 1 at the box office, further elevating John Belushi’s stardom. Other hits included Burt Reynolds’ Hooper, which I later watched over and over on cable; and the newly released Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke. Given how long hit movies used to stay in theaters, Grease was almost certainly still on screens, as well. Hitting theaters this week was Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven.
The Emmy Awards were this week and the big winners included All in the Family (Outstanding Comedy Series); The Rockford Files (Outstanding Drama Series); The Muppet Show (Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series); and Holocaust (Outstanding Limited Series). Among the acting winners were Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton and Rob Reiner, for All in the Family; Ed Asner for Lou Grant; Sada Thompson for Family; Meryl Streep for Holocaust; Julie Kavner for Rhoda; Tim Conway for The Carol Burnett Show, which had wrapped in March; and Gilda Radner for Saturday Night Live.
There were a number of new shows this season that would leave lasting marks. Debuting this week were Mork & Mindy (Sept. 14), which became a phenomenon and launched a relatively unknown Robin Williams to superstardom; Battlestar Galactica (Sept. 17), which was surpassed by its revamp decades later; and, the charming, raucous WKRP in Cincinnati. Robert Urich’s Vega$ would kick off Sept. 20.
But the show that would surpass them all and go on to be one of the most influential and accclaimed comedies of all time premiered Sept. 12: Taxi, on ABC, would make character actor Judd Hirsch a household name and stars of Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza, and Andy Kaufman. It’s as laugh-out-loud hilarious now as it was then.
It was the height of the Disco Era, with Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste of Honey atop the singles chart, followed by the disco-adjacent Kiss You All Over by Exile (No. 5); Andy Gibb’s An Everlasting Love (No. 6); Earth, Wind and Fire’s funkified Beatles cover Got to Get You Into My Life (No. 9); and Shame by Evelyn “Champagne” King (No. 10).
The Grease movie soundtrack — featuring major hits Hopelessly Devoted to You (No. 4) and Summer Nights (No. 7) — was duking it out for the best-selling album in America with Boston’s Don’t Look Back, which had the title track at No. 6. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack may not have been No. 1 at the moment, but it was the definition of ubiquitous. The Bee Gees could not — and would not — be any bigger.
But if you wanted tried-and-true rock, you could not go wrong with Some Girls, the Rolling Stones’ latest, a tight LP infused with disco, punk, country, R&B and straight-up rock. While it doesn’t achieve the heights of the golden era of Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street, it’s doubtlessly one of the band’s enduring achievements.
New wave was taking an enormous leap forward with this month’s release of Blondie’s Parallel Lines, one of the seminal records in modern music, giving us monster cuts Heart of Glass, One Way or Another, and Hanging on the Telephone.
And, as far as gimmicks go, Kiss, the gimmickiest band of them all, released four albums on Sept. 18 — each a solo record by the four members. Ace Frehley’s cover of glam outfit Hello’s New York Groove was the standout.
And baby, you better believe, I’m back, back in the New York groove…
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Batman #306, DC. This is right around the time I started getting serious about collecting comics on the regular, as opposed to getting them when I could. With this issue, though, I couldn’t quite get my pre-adolescent head around the Black Spider antihero bit. The only good guy I knew who killed was James Bond.
Scott adds: Some moody Aparo cover goodness here, featuring the often overlooked Black Spider.
Dan adds: Hey, I might have liked the issue more if Aparo did the interiors!
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The Flash #268, DC. Leave it to writer Cary Bates to go meta. Here’s the Grand Comics Database synopsis: “A comic book is coated with a teleportation chemical and criminals try to steal it at a comic book convention, but The Flash thwarts the plan and gets copies of the book for both himself and his neighbor, Barney Sands.” Those are actually crooks dressed up as Wildcat and Green Lantern, by the way. (I always forget about the whole “Earth-Two is chronicled in comic books on Earth-One” shtick.
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Star Trek #57, Gold Key. The series only had four more issues after this but it really is remarkable how much longer it lasted than the original series and its animated version.
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World’s Finest Comics #254, DC. A reminder that Bronze Age concepts could be as silly as those in the Silver Age. It just didn’t seem that way, when you had Aparo doing a killer wraparound cover. Plus: solo stories with Green Arrow, Black Canary, Captain Marvel, and the Creeper. Such a deal!
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The Avengers #178, Marvel. Oh, my stars and garters! It’s the Beast’s butt!
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Marvel Tales #98, Marvel. So what if this is a reprint. How could you possibly pass this up??
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Pizzazz #13, Marvel. Just in time for the next week’s Season Two premiere of The Incredible Hulk!
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Crazy Magazine #44, Marvel. Grease was the word.
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Micronauts #1, Marvel. Bill Mantlo’s masterpiece and perhaps the best space opera in comics history. This first year is brilliant.
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Justice League of America #161, DC. Zatanna joins the League! It’s a shame that it happens in her worst costume.
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The Invaders #35, Marvel. Still waiting for the MCU debut of the Whizzer…
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