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Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 44 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of April 23, 1981.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of April 16, 1964. 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 April 20 and April 26.)
So, let’s set the scene: FERNANDOMANIA! Los Angeles Dodgers rookie lefty Fernando Valenzuela was taking the nation by storm. The 20-year-old Mexican on April 22 tossed his third shutout in four starts. He would only give up one run in the month of April and go on to win his first eight starts, five of them shutouts. Every kid I knew who was into baseball — which was pretty much all of us — tried to emulate his idiosyncratic, eyes-to-the-sky windup. Fernando to this day is the only player to win the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season.
On April 24, President Reagan ended the grain embargo against the Soviet Union. On the same day, he sent a handwritten letter to USSR head of state Leonid Brezhnev to open a dialogue between the US and its primary Cold War adversary: “Is it possible that we have permitted ideology, political and economic philosophies, and governmental policies to keep us from considering the very real, everyday problems of peoples?” the anti-communist hardliner wrote. Reagan had written the letter weeks earlier when he was still in the hospital recuperating from the assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr.
The top film at the box office was John Boorman’s Arthurian Excalibur, starring Nigel Terry and Helen Mirren, and featuring three young actors who would establish major careers of their own: Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne.
Also in theaters was a re-release of Star Wars; the steamy The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange; Caveman, starring Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach (it’s where the two met); and the action flick Nighthawks, starring Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams and Rutger Hauer. (I would later discover it on cable. I dug it.)
Oh, and then there was the Jerry Lewis vehicle Hardly Working, one of the most maligned movies in history. Roger Ebert gave it a rare zero stars and called it, “one of the worst movies ever to achieve commercial release in this country.”
The TV season was transitioning toward reruns but the most popular shows included Dallas, 60 Minutes, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Lou Grant, House Calls, The Jeffersons, MASH, Alice, Little House on the Prairie, Three’s Company, and The Dukes of Hazzard.
The I-can-barely-listen-to-it earworm Kiss on My List by Daryl Hall and John Oates — who now absolutely loathe one another — was the top song in America, followed by Morning Train (Nine to Five), by the terminally cute Sheena Easton, at No. 2. The badass and funny Rapture by Blondie was at No. 6; Woman, by John Lennon, from his No. 9, 1980 album Double Fantasy but which was released as a single posthumously, was at No. 8. The Police’s Don’t Stand So Close to Me, off the No. 8 album Zenyatta Mondatta, was at No. 10.
Best-selling albums included Hi Infidelity, by REO Speedwagon, at No. 1; Paradise Theater, by Styx, at No. 2; and Face Dances, by the Who, at No. 4. At No. 6 was Rush’s classic Moving Pictures, featuring the headbanger anthem Tom Sawyer.
A modern-day warrior, mean, mean stride. Today’s Tom Sawyer, mean, mean pride…
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Fantastic Four #232, Marvel. John Byrne kicks off his epic, years-long run on Marvel’s First Family. A lot of fans put Byrne’s time on the book second only to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s title-defining period of the 1960s. To celebrate, Diablo hosts a cookout!
Scott adds: One of my favorite Byrne FF covers!
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Detective Comics #504, DC. Years back, I completed a Batman/Detective re-read starting with 1964’s New Look and ending with the finish of the Bronze Age. Most of these comics I hadn’t read in a very long time, and I was happy to discover just how good Gerry Conway’s run on the two titles was.
In 1981, I was less enthusiastic because I so loved what Len Wein, and then Marv Wolfman, had done just before. But in looking at Conway’s stories with fresh eyes, I found them to be tight and engaging, like this Joker one-off with a groovy Jim Starlin cover and first-rate interior art by Don Newton and Dan Adkins. Plus, it has a Commissioner Gordon back-up story written by our pal Paul Kupperberg!
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Star Wars #49, Marvel. Hey, look! The Last Jedi! By Mike W. Barr, Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer!
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Adventure Comics #483, DC. I’ll just repeat what I wrote in RETRO HOT PICKS two weeks ago about the original 1960s version of the feature: “Dial H for HERO is the greatest DC TV series that’s never been. Sure, there was the derivative (yet fun) Ben 10, but James Gunn really needs to get onto this. Just imagine the merch potential (if Ben 10 was any indication)!”
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Green Lantern #142, DC. Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton continue the debut of the Omega Men from the previous issue. Great George Perez cover.
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The Brave and the Bold #176, DC. This issue always sticks out to me because Michael Kaluta’s cover, while dandy, is just so out of place for The Brave and the Bold.
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The Warlord #47, DC. Man, Warlord was popular.
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Richie Rich Cash #41, Harvey. Go to hell, Richie Rich.
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Madame Xanadu #1, DC. Madame Xanadu never lived up to the potential of this beautiful Kaluta cover.
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The Legion of Super-Heroes #277, DC. I’m not even gonna get into who the hell “Reflecto” is. It’s overly complicated even by comic-book standards. Trust me, you’re better off.
Dan adds: Another great Perez cover, though!
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The Spectacular Spider-Man #56, Marvel. Look at that Frank Miller cover! Miller can even make Jack O’Lantern look awesome.
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MORE
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of April 16 — in 1964! Click here.
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of April 9 — in 1967! Click here.
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Primary comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, the Grand Comics Database.
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