Posted By Dan Greenfield on Feb 19, 2025 | 4 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 43 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Feb. 19, 1982.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Feb. 12, 1971. 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. 16 and Feb. 22.)

So, let’s set the scene: Setting up a rematch of the epic 1977 New York City mayoral race, Mayor Ed Koch announced he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor. His opponent? Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo, Koch’s bete noire from five years earlier.

Koch was considered the clear front-runner but stumbled badly when an interview he gave to Playboy in late 1981 was published. He criticized life in suburbia and upstate as “sterile” and complained that Albany, the state capital, was “a city without a good Chinese restaurant.” Cuomo also tried to link Koch with Republican President Ronald Reagan. (Cuomo would go on to win in the fall.)

Oscar-bait On Golden Pond — starring Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda — was tops at the box office. It gave brief fame to the term “suck face.” Also in theaters were dramas Absence of Malice, starring Paul Newman and Sally Field, and Missing, with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.

But there were a number of controversial (for the time) movies that had just been released: Personal Best, starring Mariel Hemingway, about two women track stars who fall in love; Making Love, starring Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson and Harry Hamlin, about a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality; and, the oddly sexual caveman flick Quest for Fire.

Then there were a pair of exploitation flicks: Butterfly, with the much-maligned Pia Zadora in a story involving father-daughter incest; and Charles Bronson’s Death Wish II.

Finally, on Feb. 19, Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing, starring Dick Durock, Louis Jourdan and Adrienne Barbeau, was released.

Dallas, 60 Minutes, Falcon Crest, Too Close for Comfort, and Three’s Company led the Nielsens but quietly making waves was an after-hours program on NBC that premiered earlier in February: Late Night With David Letterman. And if that wasn’t enough to illustrate changing tastes, the last episode of The Lawrence Welk Show aired by the end of the month.

MTV staples Centerfold by the J. Geils Band (No. 1) off the best-selling LP Freeze-Frame; I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do) by Daryl Hall and John Oates (No. 2); and Harden My Heart by Quarterflash (No. 3), were tops on the Billboard 100. Down at No. 13, however, was one of the great songs of the era, a single from the album Tattoo You (also at No. 13) — the Rolling Stones’ Waiting On a Friend.

Other major albums included the Go-Go’s’ debut Beauty and the Beat (No. 3), the Police’s Ghost in the Machine (No. 6); AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) at No. 7; and the Cars’ Shake It Up (No. 10).

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Silver Surfer #1, Marvel. The classic John Byrne-Stan Lee one-shot. The Surfer is able to ride the spaceways once again… but it does not go as well as he’d like.

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The Brave and the Bold #186, DC. Y’know, Batman and Hawkman didn’t team up nearly as much as you might think and they certainly should have more often. They make for a good pairing. Anyway, Bob Haney was long gone by this time, though Jim Aparo was still on the art. Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn wrote this one and it rings to me as a story I liked.

Scott adds: It always seemed to me it would be really hard to fly while carrying a net. I guess that’s why he’s Hawkman and I’m not.

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Legion of Super-Heroes #287, DC. The prologue to… wait for it… THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA.

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Starslayer #3, Pacific. Mike Grell doin’ it for himself.

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

Superman Family #218, DC. Ross Andru delivers here with some really creepy birdmen, apparently in the employ of the Goddess From Hell.

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Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #66, Marvel. Ed Hannigan was doing some really innovative covers around this time. (Inks by Al Milgrom.)

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Fantastic Four #242, Marvel. Byrne’s Fantastic Four covers really leapt off the racks, especially the way he utilized Reed Richards.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Feb. 12 — in 1971! Click here.

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

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