Bonus DC Time Capsule: August 1958

 

Time to journey back once again to the early days of the Silver Age… “Lolita” and Nautilus were in the news, and in the spinner racks, DC brought us the debut of Bizarro and a time travel cross-over featuring Robin visiting Superboy, while in Julie Schwartz’s sci-fi books there was both a debut and a finale!
 
News of the Month:
 
1^st - As part of its Operation Hardtack tests, the United States detonates a 3.88 megaton hydrogen bomb directly above the test site at Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. The blast, occurring at an altitude of 252,000 feet, is witnessed by thousands of people in the parts of the U.S. territory of the Hawaiian Islands 700 miles away.
 
1^st - US 1st class postage raised to 4 cents (had been 3 cents for the previous 26 years)
 
3^rd -  US atomic submarine USS Nautilus becomes first vessel to sail underneath the North Pole
 
8^th - In a turning point in the Cuban Revolution, Cuban Army General Eulogio Cantillo, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces for President Fulgencio Batista, signs a secret armistice with Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement.
 
13^th - Jack Cole, 43, American cartoonist and comic book artist who had created the character Plastic Man for Quality Comics in 1941, and then later worked for Playboy magazine, dies by suicide
 
15^th - American rock singer-songwriter Buddy Holly (21) weds Puerto Rican-American record company receptionist María Santiago (25) at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas
 
16^th - The TV game show Dotto, so popular in the United States at one time that it was shown on both the CBS and NBC networks, is canceled abruptly by its sponsor, the Colgate-Palmolive Company, in the wake of accusations by a former contestant that the show's producers had supplied answers in advance to players.
 
18^th - Novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov is published
 
23^rd - People's Republic of China resumes bombardment of the Quemoy and Matsu islands in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
 
29^th - Guitarist George Harrison (15) joins The Quarrymen, who later become The Beatles
 
 
Newsreel of the Month:  Nautilus: Across the Top of the World (August 14, 1958)
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Magazine Cover of the Month: “To Tell the Truth” (August 30, 1958, TV Guide)

 
Music of the Month:  
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US Top Singles:
1. Poor Little Fool - Ricky Nelson
2. Patricia - Perez Prado
3. My True Love / Leroy - Jack Scott
4. Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) - Domenico Modugno
5. When - Kalin Twins
 
UK Top Singles:
1. All I Have To Do Is Dream / Claudette - Everly Brothers
2. When - Kalin Twins
3. Hard Headed Woman - Elvis Presley
4. Return To Me - Dean Martin
5. You Need Hands/Tulips From Amsterdam - Max Bygreaves
  
TV Clip of the Month: Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme appear on What’s My Line (August 17, 1958)
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Sports Moment of the Month:  Floyd Patterson TKOs Roy Harris in defense of his heavyweight boxing title after Harris was unable to come out for the 13^th round (August 18, 1958)
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Top 10 DC Comics of the Month (as selected by Osgood Peabody, listed in order of their publication):
 
Challengers of the Unknown #4: The Challs pursue an evil scientist back through the past and then forward into the future in “The Wizard of Time”!  (Cover by Jack Kirby)

 
Brave & The Bold #20: The Silent Knight battles to save his fair lady Celia from “The Haunted Castle”, then the Viking Prince must decipher “The Secret of Odin’s Cup”!  (Cover by Irv Novick)

 
Strange Adventures #97: A trio of top-notch sci-fi tales as a new artist is welcomed to the Schwartz stable!  (Cover by Murphy Anderson)

 
Superboy #68: A new character makes its debut in “Bizarro—The Super-Creature of Steel”!  (Cover by Curt Swan & Stan Kaye)

 
Jimmy Olsen #32: Professor Potter gives Jimmy a “Super-Nose for News”, then Jimmy turns his pal into “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Superman”, and gets transformed into “The Jimmy Olsen from Jupiter”!  Cover by Curt Swan & Stan Kaye)

 
Sugar & Spike #19: Your Favorite Tots become “Dude Ranchers” and get another visit from Uncle Charley in “Look Who’s Here Again”!  (Cover by Sheldon Mayer)

 
World’s Finest Comics #97: Can it be true?  Find out the shocking secret behind “The Day Superman Betrayed Batman”!  Then Tomahawk and his pal Dan discover “The Strange Journal of Old Blue Jay”, and Green Arrow & Speedy confront “The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus”!  (Cover by Curt Swan & Stan Kaye)

 
Action Comics #245: An escaped criminal from Kandor creates havoc in “The Shrinking Superman”, then Tommy Tomorrow encounters “The Interplanetary Scarecrow” and Congo Bills discovers “The Secret of the Super Animals”!  (Cover by Curt Swan & Stan Kaye)

 
Adventure Comics #253: A time travel paradox is unraveled when “Superboy Meets Robin the Boy Wonder”!  Then Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves “Prisoners of Dimension Zero” and Aquaman is transported back in time to “The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.”!  (Cover by Curt Swan & Stan Kaye)

 
Mystery In Space #47: Earth finds itself involved in an “Interplanetary Tug-of-War”, then discover the secret behind “The Surprise Package Planet” and Space Cabbie picks up his final fare as he solves “The Riddle of the Rival Space-Cabbies”!  (Cover by Gil Kane)

 
 
You can find all DC comics published this month right here courtesy of Mike Voiles’ Time Machine!
 
You can also find a lot of other publishers’ output this month courtesy of Mike’s site right here.
 
 
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statistics: Posted by Osgood Peabody — 7:43 AM - 1 day ago — Replies 10 — Views 120

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