1966 is the coolest year in pop culture history

1966 is the most “sixties” year of the 1960’s, the coolest year in pop culture history, from one of the top two decades in pop culture history, the other being the 1950’s, which is my favorite decade for pop culture.

from http://www.wesclark.com/am/1966.html

 

Introductory piece about Hal Lifson’s 1966 by Liz Smith:

Liz Smith, February 19, 2003

REMEMBER 1966? It was the year of “Batman,” “The Monkees” and “Star Trek.” It was the year Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow … the year Raquel Welch burst out in “Fantastic Voyage” … the year the Beatles released their “Revolver” album … the year Nancy Sinatra put her stomp on pop music with “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” All these events and much more are covered in “Hal Lifson’s 1966,” a zippy and colorful look at this watershed year. Lifson, a PR guy from way back, covers everything ’66 – movies, music, TV, advertising, toys, food, etc. Adam West, Batman himself, wrote the foreword, and Nancy Sinatra provides the introduction.

We thought pop culture and moral standards had gone as far as they could go, back in the swinging mid-’60s. Those days seem almost Victorian now. 

full interview with Hal Lifson at http://www.wesclark.com/am/1966.html 

Comics of 1966:

 

from http://www.fanboy.com/2006/12

Forty years ago the Silver Surfer (top left) was introduced for the first time, and on the top right fanboys were watching Batman on TV in FULL COLOR and reading ‘The Fantom’ by Lee Falk (shown on the middle right). In 1966 comic books tackled heroin abuse, shown below are two panels from ‘Hooked!’. 

Comics were hip to the new sounds in pop music in 1966:

from http://www.fanboy.com/2006/12

Forty years ago fangirls were going through a Beatlemania phase as seen in the above comic book ‘Summer Love’ published by Charlton Comics in 1966. For only twenty five cents you can learn how “The Beatles Saved My Romance”! Hint: ‘She loves you yeah yeah…’ 

I once had a Twiggy T-shirt, but sold it:

from http://www.twiggylawson.co.uk/fashionpic3.gif

In early 1966, Lesley Hornby found herself propelled to the heights of international fame as the world’s first supermodel – Twiggy.

I regret selling my Twiggy T-shirt now, she was the face of 1966.

Twiggy milestones in 1966:

Twiggy is named the Face Of ’66 by the Daily Express

Twiggy’s slim figure and short, boyish hair represented youthfulness and the new-found Sixties freedom

Twiggy records her first single ‘Beautiful Dreams’ for Ember records, released in the UK and then distributed throughout the world. 

Twiggy releases her first line of clothing called Twiggy Dresses. The range was aimed at the teenage market. 

I always found her too skinny, maybe that was why I sold the T-shirt. Or maybe I was afraid I’d get beaten up if I wore it.

The new sounds of 1966:

 

 

  

  

  

  

     

And in the US the French bande dessinée for adults were introduced that year, when Grove Press published an English translation of Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 graphic novel, “Barbarella”, before the hit movie starring Jane Fonda was released:

BARBARELLA, Collected Comic Strip, 2, 1966, Grove Press, HB. Writer/ Illustrator: Jean Claude Forest.  The true father of the comic “graphic novel.”

A movie cover tp was published in 1968:

FOREST, JEAN-CLAUDE, Barbarella.
New York, Grove Press, (1968). 28×21 cm. Pb. 68 pp.; comic-strip, translated from the French, cover-photo Jane Fonda, courtesy Paramount Pictures. 

Can’t have an article on 1966 without a youtube clip of the opening credit sequence of the cult “Batman” TV show starring Adam West, whom I once saw open the second Forbidden Planet location in London back in the ’80s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgE-lrfZ3k

ukbatmania
May 19, 2007

The Batman intro used for season one and two. 1966 to 1967.
http://www.bat-mania.co.uk 

And “Star Trek” also preemed that memorable year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGnTfg-MUhs

Gold Key specialized in comic book adaptations of TV shows, and they already started a “Star Trek” comic book series in 1967, the year after the show preemed on NBC:

from http://curtdanhauser.com/Logs.html 

Reprint Editions – The Enterprise Logs

    Golden Press, a division of Western Publishing which owned Gold Key comics, reprinted several of the STAR TREK comics in four volumes from 1976 to 1977. The four volumes are shown below and detailed information about each is given. These four books are still an affordable way for one to read 35 of the Gold Key STAR TREK comic stories. There is a page within this site which gives details about the Psycho-Files which were some new material included in volumes one and three of the Enterprise Log reprints. 

  

  

Covers of the first four Gold Key issues from 1967 to 1969, interior art by Nevio Zaccara in #1 and #2, Alberto Giolitti in #3 and #4:

  

 

Between 1967 and 1979, Gold Key published 61 “Star Trek” comics. Checker Books has been reprinting them in chronological order in full color tp’s since 2004, here are the first two volumes: