Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jun 4, 2025 | 4 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 46 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of June 4, 1979.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of May 28, 1977. 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 June 1 and June 7.)

So, let’s set the scene: New York City was captivated by the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who went missing May 25 while walking to school in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. Patz’s case soon drew national headlines and he eventually became a symbol of missing children everywhere, driving home fears of “stranger danger” that would alter parenting styles in the decades ahead.

Patz would become one of the first children whose photo was posted on milk cartons and in 1983, President Reagan would declare May 25 National Missing Children’s Day, a commemoration that later went international. Etan’s disappearance ultimately became one of the nation’s most notorious cold cases and his murder would not be solved for decades.

Change was brewing in the Eastern bloc. Pope John Paul II traveled to his homeland Poland for a nine-day stay, becoming the first pontiff to visit a Communist country. John Paul II drew enormous crowds and held a televised Mass in Warsaw before a gathering of 200,000. His trip was credited for giving inspiration and vitality to a resistance that would evolve into the Solidarity movement.

Sandinista! The Nicaraguan Revolution was reaching its climax: One June 5, leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front guerrillas captured León, the nation’s largest city. More provinces fell and dictator President Anastasio Somoza Debayle declared a national siege, with rebels ruling across regions in the country’s north and south, plus near the capital of Managua. The end was near for Somoza.

IN OTHER NEWS

— On June 3, a blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico led to a massive environmental disaster. 130 million gallons of oil were spilled into the waters until it was brought under control about nine months later. It was the largest such spill in history until 2010’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

— One June 4, the roof of Kemper Arena, home of the NBA’s Kansas City Kings, collapsed in a storm. Fortunately, there was no event going on at the time (the most recent being a Village People concert a week before).

— One June 6, 12 days after the May 25 crash of American Airlines Flight 191 just outside Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport — still the deadliest airplane accident in American history — the Federal Aviation Administration suspended the flight certification of all 138 of the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 jumbo jets operating in the United States. Virtually all others operating internationally were grounded voluntarily. The jets began returning to the air the following month.

— The country was fascinated by the separation of 19-month-old conjoined twins Lisa Hansen and Elisa Hansen, who were connected by the tops of their heads. A team of neurosurgeons at the University of Utah Medical Center separated them May 30 in a delicate operation that took 16 1/2 hours. The two children were able to leave the hospital less than two months later. The two died about two months apart in 2020, at the ages of 42.

Berry in ’79

— Johnny B. Bad. Rock legend Chuck Berry was charged June 7 with tax evasion.

— On June 7, the first direct elections to the European Parliament began, allowing citizens from the European Union member states to elect members. It was the first international election in history.

Alien was the No. 1 film at the box office, even though it hadn’t even hit wide release yet. It’s still far and away the best film of the entire franchise and can be mentioned in the same conversation with 2001: A Space Odyssey (the greatest of them all) and Star Wars (the second greatest) when discussing the best sci-fi films of all time.

Other hits included Woody Allen’s extremely-creepy-in-hindsight Manhattan; very tan George Hamilton’s Dracula send-up Love at First Bite; the great-film-you-only-need-to-see-once The Deer Hunter, starring an ensemble led by Robert DeNiro and John Cazale (in his final role); and, the prescient paranoid thriller The China Syndrome.

Still flying around somewhere was a little movie called Superman, and other flicks included The Champ and the Who’s The Kids Are Alright. Meanwhile, fans were eagerly awaiting the sequel to the film that made Sylvester Stallone a superstar — Rocky II, which was set to debut June 15:

The Muppet Movie, meanwhile, had just opened in the U.K. and was headed to America on June 22.

It was rerun season but the most popular shows of the time included Three’s Company; Charlie’s Angels, Angie, Alice, MASH, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, and Taxi.

Disco was still king, with dance-floor tunes dominating the Billboard 100. At No. 1 was the Bee Gees’ Love You Inside Out, followed by Hot Stuff by Donna Summer, at No. 2, and Ring My Bell by Anita Ward, at No. 6. In the Navy, by the Village People was still a hit, at No. 17. The big love song was Reunited by Peaches & Herb, at No. 4.

But the most fascinating phenomenon began to develop around Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, which was at No. 3. On June 1, during a rain delay, the song was playing at Three Rivers Stadium, home of the struggling, if colorful, fourth-place Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs’ heart and soul, Willie Stargell, called upstairs and asked that the scoreboard show that the tune was the official theme song for the team. It caught on and the team started rolling. Nobody knew it during that fateful delay, but by the middle of October, the We Are Family Pirates would become World Champions.

Things were a little more diverse on the albums chart, as they often were: Supertramp’s Breakfast in America topped the Billboard 200; Rickie Lee Jones’ self-titled debut album (with the No. 8 single Chuck E.’s in Love), was at No. 5; Van Halen II, with the band still on the rise, was at No. 7; and Cheap Trick at Budokan, owned by every high school kid I knew, was at No. 8.

Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I see you cryin’ (cryin, cryin’)…

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Batman #315, DC. A Golden Age of Batman comics reading for me. In the spring and summer of 1979, for the first time, I made a concerted effort to pick up Batman every month. This groovy ish, by Len Wein, Irv Novick and Frank McLaughlin (with a Dick Giordano “big orange moon” cover) featured the return of Kite-Man, whose only appearance, from 1960, had been reprinted a few years earlier in a Batman Family ish.

Wein did a great job on Batman, picking up the baton from Steve Englehart in Detective and giving us a run that similarly featured heavyweight villains, refurbished villains, new villains, and a healthy dose of soap opera — especially the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. I’ve written a ton about this period. BONUS: I love the white Batlogo. A welcome rarity.

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World of Krypton #3, DC. The final part of comics’ first miniseries — written by our pal Paul Kupperberg (who has lots to say about it here)!

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Daredevil #160, Marvel. Only Frank Miller’s third issue as penciller, with Roger McKenzie still writing. (Klaus Janson inks, natch.)

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Spidey Super Stories #42, Marvel. I would still love it if Marvel found a way to get this series back into print.

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Best of DC #1 and Jonah Hex and Other Western Tales #1, DC. The dawn of DC’s Digest Era, as the treasuries began to fade away.

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Archie’s Super Hero Comics Digest Magazine #2, Archie. Filled with tales of the MLJ/Red Circle/Whatever You Want to Call Them heroes.

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Power Records #PR-45, Peter Pan. Star Trek: Dinosaur Planet! The Motion Picture was still months away, but here are Kirk and Spock in their gray pajamas.

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

Marvel Two-in-One #55, Marvel. The Project Pegasus Saga is an underrated gem.

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All-Out War #1, DC. My favorite DC war hero? Viking Commando, of course.

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DC Comics Presents #13, DC. I would always get confused when adult Superman hung out with the Legion of Super-Heroes, who were friends with him as a teenager.

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Justice League of America #170, DC. I never get tired of “Justice League flying at the camera” covers.

Dan: I was just happy to see Batman front and center, which wasn’t typical of JLA.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of May 28 — in 1977! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of May 21 — in 1974! Click here.

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