A gratuitous choice of oldie to lead off: the oversized Marvel Special Edition Presents Star Wars #1, which reprinted the first three issues of their original 1977 series. Cover art by Howard Chaykin.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…
One of the fair’s regular features is the antiques competition, chiefly displayed on the second floor of the Indiana Arts Building. No one’s ever posted the rules, criteria, rankings, or anything expository beyond signage implying, “Here are some antiques not for sale.” Contestants bring in ancient items they unearthed somewhere, a secret council convenes far from inquisitive eyes, prize ribbons are placed next to some of them, yadda yadda yadda, they’re at your Indiana State Fair.
Amid the quilts and ’50s baby dolls and blue-and-white dishware, a few items with historical value and/or pop culture cachet will catch our attention. We congratulate the winners of this year’s Antiques We Noticed Most Contest!
Souvenir button from George McGovern’s 1972 Presidential campaign. Alas, America loved Nixon more.
Vintage World War I poster selling liberty bonds, because in the old days our favorite weapon was fundraisers.
An accordion! Lessons and “Weird Al” tropical shirts sold separately.
Before Google Maps or its dead uncle Mapquest, we used to navigate using paper maps. This one was printed before Mississippi legalized paved roads.
The Indiana Arts Building’s vitrines always include a selection of vintage vinyl, but they were even more in tune with this year’s fair theme, “The Soundtrack of Summer”.
The Beatles’ 1967 classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I have this on CD!
Their 1970 swan song Let It Be, whose recording was the subject of Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary on Disney+ a while back.
That time Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead toured together back in 1988.
Albums you definitely don’t have by Wayne Newton and Traffic (Steve Winwood’s ’70s band before he topped the charts solo in the ’80s).
For fans of anti-Nazi films: The Sound of Music soundtrack, autographed by several cast members!
If you love vinyl but hate music, enjoy the sounds of Mike and Gloria Stivic arguing a lot! Edith Bunker screeching! Archie bellowing “STIFLE IT, DINGBAT!” And more!
…and of course, there’re my personal favorites: comics!
Batman #181 (June 1966); Suicide Squad #1 (May 1987), the only of these I have; Betty and Veronica #122 (February 1966); and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #67 (April 1946).
Uncle Tom’s Cabin came to comics in Classics Illustrated #15 (Nov 1943); Fury (Dell #01-292-208, June-Aug 1962), based on the 1950s TV show starring Peter Graves; Charlton’s Navy War Heroes #4 (September 1964); and the Silver Surfer’s very first #1 (August 1968).
(Fury was surely an issue of Dell’s long-running Four Color Comics umbrella anthology, but if it had an actual issue number within that series, heck if I can nail it down.)
Gene Autry Comics #54 (August 1951), Katzenjammer Kids #5 (July 1948), Tarzan #75 (Dec 1955), and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith #2 (Aug 1951).
The most surprising find: a page of original art by John T. McCutcheon (1870-1949), a Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist who worked for the Chicago Tribune for over forty years.
To be concluded! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:
Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour
Part 2: The Soundtrack of Summer
Part 3: The Year in Food, “Look But Don’t Taste” Division
Part 4: The Year in Lego
Part 5: The Year in Art
Part 7: Outtakes and More!
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