PhantomStranger

Impressive sleuthing, I'm familiar with a lot of these issues and I don't think I would have come up with any of them. I'd be interested in knowing the most valuable issue to appear on screen in a movie. Probably one of the Golden Age books.

Dimension X

Thanks. Those last two were probably the most difficult, given the low-res sources. In both cases, it came down to matching enough shapes to convince myself.

Dimension X

I felt like looking at old comic book covers this morning, so I went back to my "unidentified" file. I've had this one for close to a year, but I was convinced I'd identify it eventually.

In The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953), there's a scene where Dr. T's minions are searching through the kids' luggage for contraband. Of course one of the confiscated items is a comic book. For a few moments, we see a heavily redacted comic on screen.



Which, oddly enough, appears to be a copy of Young Romance #1 (Prize Comics - Sep./Oct., 1947).

Dimension X

In Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), as Dustin Hoffman reads the letter from Meryl Streep, there are two comic books on the bed (which move around during the scene).


One of them is Dennis The Menace Bonus Magazine #162 (March, 1977). You can read it here. I'm not even going to try to identify the other one.

A few minutes later in the film, we see three comics on a table, one that the boy picks up to read (giving us a good look at the cover).


Marvel Tales #81 (July, 1977). No idea what the other two on the table were, although the top one might be Champions #14 (from the same month).

Finally, near the end of the film, Dustin Hoffman is reading a bedtime story to the boy.


It's Tintin Red Rackham's Treasure (most likely the 1974 Little Brown and Company version).

Dimension X

Here's another one for the "guy being interviewed for a documentary has a comic book behind him" file. This one is from MonsterKids: The Impact of Things That Go Bump In The Night (2017).


Looks like he has a framed copy of Conan the Barbarian #1 (Oct.,1970), or at least the cover, on the wall behind him.

Dimension X

Near the end of Double Dynamite (1951), Groucho Marx and Frank Sinatra are searching the bank manager's office when they discover something interesting in his desk, leading Groucho to ask "What have we here?"


Looks to be at least four issues of Dick Tracy Monthly. #12 (December, 1948), #9 (September, 1948),and #3 (March, 1948), and at least one more that I didn't identify.

EDIT: Okay, the fourth one appears to be #4 (April, 1948).

Ash Ketchum

Jack Kirby did that cover. When they reprinted some Kirby classics a few years ago, that was one of them.

Dimension X

In the horror short Summon (2014), the main character has a stack of comics sitting on a table in his living room.


There appears to be a copy of Man of Steel #1 (July, 1986) on the top of the stack.

Watch it yourself:

EDIT: Looking back at it, there is another stack of comics on the left side of the table, but I can't make out the one on top because there is a VHS tape and a candle sitting on it.

Dimension X

In one scene in The Unseen (1945), the boy runs into his bedroom and jumps into bed and pretends to have been reading a comic. We get a decent view of the cover of the comic when it bounces off the bed (too bad I can't find a better copy of the movie).


I believe it's a copy of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #41 (Feb., 1944).

Later in the movie, he's reading another comic book in bed, but I haven't been able to identify it yet.
EDIT: Here's a couple of shots from the later scene.


I think the comic is Key Comics #1 (Jan., 1944).

Dimension X

There are some comics in The Little Dragons (Karate Kids USA) (1979). First, we see the bad guys clipping letters out of some Archie comics to make a ransom note.

The three visible covers appear to be Archie and Me #103 (Aug., 1978), Life With Archie #196 (Aug., 1978), and Archie #273 (Aug., 1978).

Later, we see Joe Spinell reading a copy of Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #125 (Aug., 1978).


And, soon after, a copy of Limited Collectors' Edition C-44.


I didn't bother trying to identify any of the books used for the ransom note, or what appear to be comics pages lining the interior of an outhouse, but here they are, if anyone wants to try.

Dimension X

I saw the trailer for No Way Out (1950) earlier, and this shot pops up...


Well, I didn't think I could stay awake to watch the entire movie, so I scanned through it to see if I could tell what comic he's reading.

In that scene, he takes a folded up, coverless comic out of his hip pocket and sits down to read.


While the camera is behind him, we get a pretty good look at a couple of pages from what I believe to be Archie Comics #41 (Nov.-Dec., 1949).


We see another page from the same comic when the camera angle changes to the one used in the trailer.


I saw another comic book in an earlier scene, but nothing looked familiar in it. Maybe I'll have better luck after I watch the movie.

Dimension X

It dawned on me later that I should've just taken the easy path and looked for a match in the same comic book for the comic in the other scene. Sure enough the comic behind Richard Widmark, on the table next to the bed, appears to also be Archie Comics #41.


I forgot to post the cover last night, so here it is.

Dimension X

A gangster in Smart Alecks (1942) is reading what looks to be Whiz Comics #31 (June, 1942).



EDIT: After posting that, I remembered that there was a scene in the movie with a newsstand in the background, so I went back to look at it closer. There do appear to be some comics, but the covers aren't visible. However, while I scanned through the movie I saw another comic that I missed while watching the film.

This crook is reading a comic book when the East Side Kids break his window with a baseball. It's folded over, but slowing the scene down, I was able to catch a glimpse of the cover.


It looks like another Fawcett book, Spysmasher #5 (June, 1942).


And, assuming that is correct, it appears we saw page 14 in that first shot.

There may have been another comic in the final scene, but I haven't found a match for it.

Dimension X

In the environmental short, The Treehouse (1969), a kid climbs into his treehouse, rummages through a trunk, and pulls out a small stack of comic books. After a quick look through the books, he chooses one and lies back to read it.


The book he's reading appears to be Fightin' Army #87 ( September, 1969).


Then we get a few shots of the quiet woods and a babbling brook, before it cuts to a closeup of page 14 from Fightin' Army #87...



...which segues into a shot of an approaching bulldozer (very artsy).

Here are the other comics I noticed in the short.

On the top of the stack, in the trunk behind him, is what looks to be a copy of Our Fighting Forces #120 (August, 1969).



In the stack, as he looked through it, was a copy of Sgt. Fury #68 (July, 1969).



and, this last one is pretty iffy, given the poorly lit scene, 16mm source, color fading, and mpeg compression...


but, after lots of looking, I believe it is Captain America #115 (July, 1969). The publication date matches up with the others, at least.