Timewarp 1969/70
- Protest Comic Books
by Ron Cloer
Beyond the psychedelic clothes, the long, straight
hair and the groovy language the late 60’s and early
70’s were a time to protest. Americans listened to
the deep, overly dramatic voice of Walter Cronkite
nightly addressing the nation about some type of
march or protest. There were women protesting the
Miss America Pageant in 1968 and 69, proclaiming to
the world that women shouldn’t try to conform to the
male chauvinist pig’s idea of beauty. The civil
rights movement was staging non-violent marches even
after Martin Luther King was tragically shot in
1968. Campuses around the country were in various
stages of protest about our involvement in the
Vietnam War.
To escape the unrest, average Americans tuned in to
intellectual shows like Family Affair (At least Mr.
Frenchie sounded smart), Laugh-In and Bonanza. Or
they slid into their Mustangs, Novas and Barracudas
and rumbled through neighborhood streets or cruised
around town. Since gas was under $1.00 a gallon it
didn’t matter that you only got 8 mpg, you were
cool. Maybe your push button AM/FM radio would be
playing a tune by the Beatles, Credence, Cream or the Mama’s
and the Papa’s.
Comic books were in a stage of transition, they
didn’t know if they should market to young adults or
kids, so they did both. The college aged crew was
looking for a worthwhile march or protest so the
comic industry obliged.
Can you guess how many protest sign comic book
covers there were in 1969 and 70?
Give up? According to my research there were 7.
Appropriately it started with Amazing Spider-Man #68
in January 1969 with a “Crisis on Campus”. Showing
an awareness of current events, Marvel and Stan Lee
were in touch with their audience.
DC tried with 3 protest covers in 1969 as well,
Flash 185, Jimmy Olsen 118 and Batman 214. The
problem is that all the DC covers were hilarious,
mimicking reality but not capturing the essence. In
Flash 185 the scarlet speedster was attacked and
beat down with a protest sign saying “Stamp out
violence”. Typical of this timeframe Superman
spin-off titles like Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen
portrayed Supes as a complete jerk. So in March of
1969 when Jimmy Olsen 118 had a protest sign cover
it was against the Man of Steel. One especially
goofy sign read, “Superman is a freak out”. Oh, no,
not a freak out, anything but that.
Please remember
that “freak” in 1969 was a derogatory remark, not a
compliment. Finally Batman 214 showed women
protesting Batman. Were they protesting his vicious
vigilante ways? No. Were they protesting his blatant
overuse of comic book words like “Pow”, “Biff”, or
“Zowie”? No. There was a group of women protesting
because he was single. I’m not sure how they could
see a ring-less left hand under his Bat glove, but
they did.
In case you’re wondering here’s a list of other
protest sign covers from the same era. It’s not a
complete list.
The most shocking thing about this list is that
Green Lantern/Green Arrow isn’t on it. That book was
known for being relevant and poignant in the early
70’s but Neal Adams didn't use a protest cover, it
was more of a protest mentality.
Part of the joy in being a comic book collector is
that you can easily warp through the decades by
picking up a book. You can hear outrageous phrases
that were at the time "totally mod, man". Even
beyond the Charles Atlas ads, the 6-foot
Frankenstein and the X-ray glasses you get a sense
of how people thought. In 1969 and 70 everyone
seemed to love a good protest.
The kid version with Saturday morning cartoons and comics can be found
here.
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