July 16, 1969

I am a little ashamed that the Fortress Keeper posts more when he is down with the flu than I do when I am healthy (and just busy), so I thought I would share this little feature I found in Captain Action #3, (Feb-Mar 1969). In the midst of stunning Gil Kane artwork (although I swear I see some Wally Wood in there), came this:



If you can wade you way through the faux-Stan-Lee patter (complete with Don Adams shtick), you'll see it's the self-illustrated story of a young would-be artist (Sam Viviano, who now illustrates for Mad magazine, among other things) who paid a visit to the DC offices in September of 1968. He got to meet Carmine Infantino and others in what was apparently a real "gee whiz" experience for him.

The sequence spans two pages, and I can't imagine that it was very interesting even then, but this closing panel caught my attention:



What the heck happened on July 16, 1969?

Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the moon, launched that day. Rain Pryor was born on that day.

I thought it might have been the first official Comic Art Convention in New York, but Wikipedia says that was held on Independence day.

This was a little before I was involved in fandom, so although at that time (this would have been the summer after 7th grade, I guess) I still lived in Brooklyn, I have no idea what this is referring to.

Anyone?