Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jul 16, 2025 | 5 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 34 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of July 16, 1991.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of July 9, 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 July 13 and July 19.)

U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev

So, let’s set the scene: It was an uncommonly hopeful time: The Cold War was over and we were living in a post-Apartheid world.

The Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved on July 1. This week, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev went to London to seek aid from the leaders of the G7. Boris Yeltsin, the first elected president of the Russian Federation, was on the rise.

Meanwhile, the South African Parliament in June had repealed the law that provided the foundation of apartheid, more than 40 years after it was enacted.

But the world was not without its horrors. This week, two men were murdered in Milwaukee. On July 15, Oliver Joseph Lacy, 24, a bodybuilder, went missing. Four days later, Joseph Arthur Bradehoft, 25, also disappeared. Three days later, on July 22, the killer’s luck ran out: 32-year-old Tracy Edwards escaped the fiend’s clutches and flagged down cops. Officers responded and arrested the suspect after a brief struggle.

Jeffrey Dahmer subsequently confessed to killing 17 men since 1978, most of them since 1987. Dahmer is known as one of the world’s worst serial killers, as if you could adequately label such a thing. The fact is, he’s become such an easy pop-cultural reference point that it’s easy to forget the depths of his depravity, even beyond the cannibalism and necrophilia.

In researching this week’s column, I was reminded of the extreme intensity and insanity of his crimes. Good lord. (I highly recommend Derf Backderf’s graphic novel My Friend Dahmer, which recounts the killer’s days as a teenager, when the two were classmates.)

Mike Tyson vs. Razor Ruddock

Mike Tyson — who was the hardest-hitting boxer I’ve ever seen — was in Indianapolis this week, meeting contestants for the Miss Black America contest. On July 19, he raped contestant Desiree Washington. He was arrested three days later, coincidentally the same day as Dahmer.

The blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, and directed by James Cameron, sat atop the American box office. Other flicks included Boyz n the Hood, directed by John Singleton; Leslie Nielsen’s The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear; the landmark Thelma & Louise, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis; Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever; the cult classic The Rocketeer; the Billy Crystal comedy City Slickers, which provided a comeback vehicle for Jack Palance; Ron Howard’s Backdraft, which later lent its theme music to the dubbed, original Japanese version of Iron Chef; and the regrettable Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring a spectacularly miscast Kevin Costner. The only thing good to come out of that movie was its theme music.

Also newly released was Richard Linklater’s debut feature Slacker, which was one of the defining movies of young Generation X. See, we were looked upon by the Baby Boomers, and their elders, as a bunch of aimless kids who lacked a work ethic. Today, we’re seen as the gets-shit-done, last of the “we don’t whine” generations. Just shows you how stupid these labels are.

Anyway, on July 12, one of the most beloved action movies of all time was released: Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, with Gary Busey giving one of his most memorable performances. (“Utah! Get me two!”)

60 Minutes, 20/20, Cheers, Unsolved Mysteries and Designing Women were among the most popular TV shows.

I wasn’t listening to the big radio hits at this point — I was listening to a ton of Stones, Beatles and Pink Floyd — but you still gotta dig EMF’s Unbelievable, which topped the Billboard 100 this week. Van Halen’s not-at-all-cleverly-titled For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was the top album. At No. 5, though, was C+C Music Factory’s Gonna Make You Sweat, whose title track is killer.

Your purple prose just give you away…

—

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

Captain America #392, Marvel. If memory serves, Cap was transmogrified into a woman for a large part of this storyline. Toward the end of Mark Gruenwald’s lengthy run on the book, Da Gru had a fondness for “transformed Cap”-type stories.

— 

The Infinity Gauntlet #3, Marvel. Not the most significant issue of the series, but just seeing George Perez draw pretty much everyone in the Marvel Universe at the time is worth the price of admission.

—

Challengers of the Unknown #7, DC. This revival of the Challengers by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is an undiscovered gem of ’90s comics.

—

Flash #54, DC. This is a great done-in-one Wally West tale from writer William Messner-Loebs. Wally is on a commercial flight that decompresses, sees a flight attendant sucked out of the aircraft, and dives out after her, realizing full well he has no idea how to save her or himself. Brilliant.

—

Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Deathstroke: The Terminator #2, DC. Will always make me think of this video, from the late, great Dave’s Long Box, one of the biggest influences on the creation of 13th Dimension.

—

Wonder Woman #58, DC. War of the Gods! Between that and Infinity Gauntlet, George Perez was trying to do too much. Here’s his story of what happened.

—

Hawkworld #15, DC. I’ve never been able to get behind the big, metal triangle wings.

—

New Kids on the Block: Chillin’ #6, Harvey. Here’s a story for you: Around this time, I was cutting my teeth at a now-defunct weekly newspaper in suburban Boston. We had a rotating column, and one time I chose to write about how it drove me crazy that New Kids on the Block — who were enormously popular, especially so in their hometown of Boston — were being compared to the Beatles. It was a screed. But the top rock afternoon DJ in town read it, liked it — and invited me to come on his show to talk about it. It was a memorable moment for 24-year-old me.

—

Cerebus: Church & State #12, Aardvark-Vanaheim. Not a Cerebus guy or a Dave Sim guy, but here’s your requisite reminder that there was a lot more going on than the Big Two.

—

MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of July 9 — in 1971! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of July 2 — in 1956! Click here.

—

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