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.

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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.

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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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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In Prey of the Jaguar (1996), the first time we see the hero's son, he's reading a comic in bed. Unfortunately, we don't get a very good look at it before he closes it and puts it aside. However, he's seen reading the same book in a later scene, and we get to see the back cover ad, and most of the cover. I was able to find the ad - a video game ad that was featured on the back of several DC comics in February, 1996. The cover, however, doesn't appear to be the same as any comics with that cover date, so I have reluctantly concluded that that comic was a fake.

Luckily, for our purposes, the hero later goes to visit Paul Bartel in his toy shop, and Paul has some comics strewn about the counter.


One is obviously Static #33 (March, 1996). The one next to it might be Action Comics #718 (February, 1996), but the angle makes it hard to be certain.

Comics related bonus:

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I'm starting to think that all Joe Dante movies have comics (or at least pieces of comics) somewhere in them. In The Howling (1981), the walls of Eddie the werewolf's apartment are covered with his artwork, along with pages and articles ripped from various magazines.


Here we see the covers of Weird #64 (June,1980) and Weird Vampire Tales #6 (July, 1980), with the titles removed.

The next one was even less obvious...

Two interior pages from a comic, partially hidden by other stuff.


Which appear to be page 9 and about 2/3 of the splash page from Man-Thing #5 (July, 1980).

Inhumans99

Nice, I gave your post a like because I own that issue of Man-Thing. Picking up some Man-Things in a quarter comics box was what got me started on buying comics.

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Yep, Joe Dante movies are pretty much a given. In Piranha (1978), Summer Camp Administrator Paul Bartel walks up to this camper and says "No comics!" as he takes away her comic book.

The book she was reading appears to have been The Hooded Menace #1 (July, 1951). That may seem like an old book, but to put it into perspective, it would be like a kid in a current movie reading a comic from 1996.

Soon after, we see this girl (one of the main characters), sitting among a few comic books, reading a then current comic, Mickey Mouse #183 (May, 1978).

The more obvious books which can also be seen in that shot are Spider-Woman #3 (June, 1978), Daffy Duck #114 (April, 1978), and Superman #324 (June, 1978).

As the scene progresses, the camera angle changes, and we get to see more comic book covers.

Star Wars #11 (May, 1978), Fat Albert #24 (April, 1978), Laugh #326 (May, 1978), and The Bionic Woman #4 (May, 1978). Plus, it looks like there are two copies of Superman #324 in that pile.

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The kid in Tales from the Hood (1995) has some comic book pages stuck on the walls in his bedroom. First, we see two pages on the wall that I couldn't identify (I gave up on them). Then a little later, when the monster is breaking through the door, we see a few more pages stuck up on a different wall.



Zooming in, and flipping them over, I see what appear to be two pages from Ghost Rider #51 (July, 1994) among them.

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During the second story in The Uncanny (1977), the bratty girl is reading what looks to be a copy of Flash #246 (January, 1977)...


even though the story is set in 1975.

Later, in the third story, this character is seen reading Tarzan #257 (January, 1977)...

and that story was set in 1936.

Brian T

I saw an Argentinian movie at TIFF this year called THE DELINQUENTS, about a bank employee named Morán who engineers a low-key robbery, gives the cash to his friend to hide in the countryside, then confesses to the crime and serves his sentence.

The bulk of the movie – which runs an painfully unnecessary 3 hours 9 minutes, despite being extremely well-acted and photographed – is about his friend hiding the loot, then discovering the joys of the rural life . . . or something.

His friend’s name is Román.

After burying the money where he was instructed, Román comes across a trio of locals picnicking and swimming near the local river. They insist that he join them for lunch. After he sits, the camera pans from one to the next as they introduce themselves.

”I’m Norma.”

”Ramon.”

”Román.”

”Morna.”

Then the camera whips down to reveal a Namor comic book nestled amongst the containers of food and drink.

It’s a very weird, self-indulgent gag in a very self-indulgent movie. It’s so left-field that I wondered if the director, Rodrigo Moreno, was signalling Marvel about potentially working on a Sub-Mariner movie or series (given that he and the MCU character have a Hispanic/Latino connection). He wasn’t at TIFF to present the film, but it would’ve been cool to ask him about this in the Q&A.

The cover of the book appears pretty large on screen, but also pretty quick, and I couldn’t have ID’d it if I tried as I only collected Namor comics when John Byrne drew them, and this one was definitely from much later in the series.

Figured I’d plant this here as a heads-up in case anyone ever sees the film on streaming or disc. or maybe spots a clip of the scene online.

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In Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), one of the kids staying at the newly opened Camp Forest Green appears to have fallen asleep while reading Power Man & Iron Fist #99 (Nov., 1983).




There was a comic book in Tommy's room in Part 4, but you can only see part of a page, and I didn't see anything familiar to try to track down.

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A copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way can be seen in Psycho Goreman (2020).

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In Blade Trinity (2004), Ryan Reynolds hands Wesley Snipes a copy of Tomb of Dracula #55 (April, 1977), which he quickly looks at, then tosses aside.

ntnon

Fantastic Four #121 at 39m39s into Chameleon Street (1989) with hundreds more on the floor and a couple more being read as they talk briefly about Kirby, Ditko, Thor, Spider-man, Nick Fury, etc.