Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 11, 2024 | 3 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 36 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 11, 1988.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 4, 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 Sept. 8 and Sept. 14.)

So, let’s set the scene: The 1988 presidential election was in its post-Labor Day stretch and it wasn’t looking good for Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee. “The Duke” had an enormous polling lead earlier in the year but Republican Vice President George Bush’s campaign had gotten off the mat and began a series of attacks that painted the Democrat as a week-kneed liberal who was soft on crime.

The tactic was proving successful and, as the fall went on, Dukakis foundered in the debates and Bush went in for the kill with infamous, racially charged negative ads. (Dukakis was smoked in November and his campaign is remembered as one of the most ineffectual in modern political history.)

The top movie at the box office was the generally forgettable Moon Over Parador, starring Richard Dreyfuss, which knocked off A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, after a four-week run at the top. But really, it was a very strong time for cinema: In theaters were the classic comedies A Fish Called Wanda and Midnight Run, which remains one of the funniest, laugh-out-loud, highly quotable movies I’ve ever seen.

There was also Martin Scorsese’s controversial The Last Temptation of Christ, Jonathan Demme’s marvelously subversive Married to the Mob and Errol Morris’ riveting documentary The Thin Blue Line. Summer crowd-pleasers that still had legs included Cocktail and the Brat Pack-infused Young Guns, while Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Coming to America were also floating around.

Newly released was one of the greatest baseball movies of all time — John Sayles’ Eight Men Out, based on Eliot Asinof’s superb book that chronicled the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox betting scandal.

There was also a fair-to-middling drama that had come out in August: Clean and Sober, starring Michael Keaton in a dramatic departure from his well-known comedic roles. It was this performance that led producer Jon Peters to suggest that the actor be cast as… Batman.

The fall TV season wasn’t really off the ground yet because the Seoul Summer Olympics were starting Sept. 17, but the most popular shows at the time were The Cosby Show; A Different World; Murder, She Wrote; and ALF.

Hard rock and harder rap were blasted from turntables, Walkmen and boom boxes: The top-selling single was Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine, off the band’s debut album Appetite for Destruction (No. 2 on the LP charts), and Metallica’s …And Justice for All was a critical darling, while the hair-band contingent was led by Def Leppard’s top-selling album Hysteria.

Meanwhile, both NWA’s Straight Outta Compton and Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back forever changed rap music and its role in American culture. (One the flip side was a much safer rap album that made significant inroads with white audiences: He’s the D.J., I’m the Rapper by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, a No. 5 disc featuring Parents Just Don’t Understand.)

Other, lighter hits included Robert Palmer’s zippy Simply Irresistible (No. 2 on the Billboard 100) and Bobby McFerrin’s infectious and ubiquitous Don’t Worry, Be Happy (No. 4), from the Cocktail soundtrack. Other popular albums included Tracy Chapman’s self-titled LP at No. 3 and George Michael’s Faith, at No. 6.

But the song that caught my ear researching this week’s column was the No. 14 I Hate Myself for Loving You by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. I didn’t realize the song — which is now more popular than ever in its rejiggered guise as the theme for NBC’s Sunday night NFL broadcasts — had come out this late in the decade. I also never knew that the guitar solo was played by the greatest rock guitarist not named Keith Richards or Jimi Hendrix: former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor. And I especially didn’t know that the driving rocker landed atop the charts in Zimbabwe — the only nation in the world where it did. (True!)

Speaking of Richards, all I cared about that fall was his upcoming album Talk Is Cheap, due in October. See, we Stones fans actually thought the band was thisclose to splitting up and Keith’s project was something we saw as salvation from the execrable legacies of Dirty Work and Mick Jagger’s ludicrous attempts at a solo career.

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Batman #427, DC. The Jason Todd Lives or Dies telephone poll! The most infamous stunt in comics history played out this week with the publication of this issue, which featured Robin being horribly beaten and blown up by the Joker. On the inside cover was the ad featuring 900-numbers where you could vote to have Robin live or die. Readers didn’t have much time — phone lines were to be open for a 35-hour window Sept. 15-16.

I’ve mentioned before that I voted for Robin to live. While I was intrigued by the dramatic possibilities of his death, I just couldn’t bring myself to kill him. It seemed… wrong. (And as we’re finding out with the current miniseries Death in the Family: Robin Lives! by J.M. DeMatteis and Rick Leonardi — Issue #3 is out this week — there was plenty of story-telling potential in the second Boy Wonder’s survival, too.)

Scott adds: I always thought the phone-in poll for Robin’s death was one of the more cynical things to ever happen in comics. I think editor Denny O’Neil once said that if they really thought people would have voted to kill him, they never would have done it. The problem was, they underestimated how good a job they’d done at making the new, post-Crisis Jason Todd such an unlikable little punk.

The Silver Surfer #2, Marvel. The monumental mini by Stan Lee and Moebius. Parable is still what many consider to be the gold standard of Silver Surfer stories.

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Best of the Brave and the Bold #4, DC. This was when DC was reprinting some of its best material not as trade paperbacks but as miniseries on Baxter paper. This one covered Neal Adams’ time on B&B in the late ’60s, with new covers by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

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Checkmate #10, DC. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our pal Paul Kupperberg’s series — possibly his most beloved by fans.

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Grimjack #54, First. Just to remind you that there was a lot out there beyond the Big Two. John Ostrander wrote the entire series, with art this issue by Tom Mandrake.

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Hawk & Dove #4, DC. Liefeld rising.

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Spider-Man Comics Magazine #13, Marvel. If I had known about this digest-sized mag, I would have probably bought it. Maybe my extra sale would have saved it from cancellation with this issue! The particularly eerie cover story, by the way, is from 1968’s Marvel Super-Heroes, but I first read it in 1974’s classic Marvel Treasury Edition #1.

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The Young All-Stars #20, DC. Confession: I do not remember Young All-Stars from when it originally came out. Like, at all. Weird.

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

V for Vendetta #5, DC. If I’m not mistaken, this issue has one of my all-time favorite bits of writing in comics, when V takes over the TV station and fires the human race. I’ll never understand why it wasn’t used in the film.

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Solo Avengers #14, Marvel. There’s a real gem in this issue, a She-Hulk story from Chris Claremont and Alan Davis.

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Captain America #349, Marvel. That’s not the USAgent, that’s The Captain. Who was Captain America, but isn’t anymore. But would be again. It’s a long story.

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Justice League International #21, DC. The JLI take a trip to Apokolips here, with wonderful art from Ty Templeton.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of Sept. 4 — in 1971! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of  August 14 — in 1969! Click here.

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