10 SONGS: 2/28/2026

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1325, celebrating Black History Month

RIHANNA: Shut Up And Drive

Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive" is a stupid song about sex. But it's a great stupid song about sex, probably the best-ever stupid song about sex, and a legit contender for my all-time Hot 200. Yeah, even among songs that may or may not be stupid and may or may not be about sex.

"Shut Up And Drive" strikes me as a sort-of equivalent to "Heavy Music" by Bob Seger and the Last Heard, a track I initially dismissed as a stupid song about sex before realizing it was--you guessed it!--a great stupid song about sex. Rihanna's song is greater. We'll hear it again on the radio in Syracuse this Sunday night. Drive, baby. Drive.

CHUCK BERRY: Come On

Chuck Berry's 1961 single "Come On" was not a hit in the USA, but it did make the British Top 40 (# 38). One presumes that's where the boys who would soon become the Rolling Stones heard it, and their subsequent cover of "Come On" served as the A-side of the debut Stones single in 1963. Chuck Berry led the way.

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go

Pop perfection, with an aching plea for harmony that resonates and reinforces our hopes for something better than the hateful tsuris surrounding us. Slyboots' 2024 single "If We Could Let Go" is just unforgettable, endlessly enriching, and for damned certain on the best new tracks of the decade to date.

LEMOYNE ALEXANDER: Insecurity

From a previous 10 Songs:

I often mention that there is so much more great music out there that most of us don't get around to hearing. Credit our friends Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg at the essential weekly podcast Only Three Lads for my recent belated discovery of LeMoyne Alexander. Mr. Alexander is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer with a long list of credits in hip-hop and R & B, and his recent guest appearance on O3L not only introduced me to LeMoyne Alexander, but specifically to his extraordinary 2024 single "Insecurity." Whoa! I'm retroactively declaring "Insecurity" to be one of my top tracks of '24. 

There's so much out there that we don't know, that we don't get an opportunity to know. With LeMoyne Alexander's superb rockin' pop track "Insecurity," we'll try to make up a little bit of lost time.

DONNA SUMMER: I Feel Love

From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

1977 had the potential to be a year of musical revolution. When we say that, most of us are talking about punk, about the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash. Maybe we're not thinking as much about disco, and maybe that's fair. But if we want to consider the potential of pop music's revolution in '77, our discussions of "God Save The Queen," "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," and "White Riot" had better allow some room on the dancefloor for "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer.

In the late '70s, disco and punk were supposed to be at war with each other. As a self-professed punk rocker in that era, I can attest that, yeah, punks didn't like disco, and the bumpin'-n-hustlin' set was appalled by the loud and fast noise my people favored. Hatfields and Capulets, meet McCoys and Montagues. Never mind the fact that the mainstream rock crowd held both punk and disco in nearly equal disdain; this was war!

Except that it wasn't. I'm skeptical of the notion that many of the Saturday Night Fevered ever took much interest in the Damned or the Dead Boys, but some among the new wave brigade did eventually allow their ears and minds to be a bit more open to non-pogo dance music, to the beat of dat ole debbil disco. Maybe it was just me, but I was a pop fan anyway; my intense dislike of disco music evolved into occasional tolerance, and tolerance evolved into a sporadic realization that some of the records weren't bad. 

Plus: Donna Summer. Donna Summer was gorgeous. I feel love.

Donna Summers's first hit, "Love To Love You Baby," was basically an extended orgasm set to a disco beat (which is not necessarily a bad thing).  But "I Feel Love" is more interesting; still shimmering and sexy--Donna Summer at that time could have covered the Singing Nun, and still been shimmering and sexy--but its European syncopation makes it even sexier, if not quite as sweaty. Or perhaps not as obviously sweaty....

WILSON PICKETT: Land Of 1000 Dances

"Land Of 1000 Dance." Our National Anthem. Well, it should be our National Anthem. And with no disrespect intended toward the 1962 original by Chris Kenner nor the hit 1965 remake by Cannibal and the Headhunters (whose fine version was the first to add the familiar na nana na na, nana na na na na na na na na, nana na naaaaaaa), I say folks attending baseball games across this occasionally (if not lately)-great land of ours should all rise for the wicked Wilson Pickett's evocation of doin' the Pony like Bony Maronie. Na nana na na, nana na na na na na na na na, nana na naaaaaaa. Batter up!

LL COOL J: Mama Said Knock You Out

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE BELLRAYS: One More Night

Like LeMoyne Alexander, the BellRays are another supercool act introduced to my eager ears via the Only Three Lads podcast. See? Ya learn stuff listening to O3L! You can catch up with your BellRays acclimation via their two-part O3L appearance in 2024: Part 1 and Part 2. To supplement your essential BellRays 101, let's review how the mighty Brett Vargo hyped their O3L spot:

"We're havin' a party this week! Joining us for a lively, laugh-filled exploration of 1973 albums is the heart and soul of the BellRays, singer Lisa Kekaula and guitarist Bob Vennum, who have been gloriously blending high octane punk, powerful soul music, deep blues, gritty garage rock, and whatever else they want to throw into the stew, since 1990. This is a band that defies expectations or pre-conceived notions and transcends any one genre or scene. Their music is all about energy and feel, and that makes them authentic no matter what the style is. To quote their 2020 compilation, It’s Never To Late To Fall In Love With...The BellRays."

NEVER too late! I can't explain why it took me so long to purchase some BellRays music and get it on the radio where it belongs. In that never-too-late spirit, the BellRays finally make their long-overdue TIRnRR debut with this killer track from their 2024 album Heavy Steady Go! They'll be back. We have a lot of time to overcompensate for, one more night at a time.

BOOKER T AND THE MG'S: Green Onions

Dana's pick for what oughta be our National Anthem. Booker T and the MG's with "Green Onions' or Wilson Pickett with "Land Of 1000 Dances?" Can't go wrong either way.

THE FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I'll Be There

Reach out. The bad guys have the power. We have the numbers. Reach out, my friends. Reach out.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.

COMIC BOOK RETROVIEW: Super DC Con, 1976

Fifty years ago this weekend, February 27th through the 29th 1976, it was my great pleasure to attend Super DC Con '76 in New York City. It remains the only large-scale con I've ever experienced, and it provided quite an enduring memory for this then-teen DC fan. 

Alas, while the memory is enduring, the specifics are not. I wish I'd thought to take notes, to jot down...well, everything. I was caught up in the totality of the experience as it happened, and the details are a blur. But it's a happy blur, a lingering buzz of delight and warmth. 

In 2018, I posted found images recreating the Super DC Con program book. You can see that post here. The post included this reminiscence:

"...I was 16 years old, and the Super DC Con was my first comics convention. It's still the only big con I've ever attended, and I wish I could find more coverage of that weekend somewhere. (And if anyone is aware of such coverage, please let me know!) A recent issue of Back Issue magazine included a brief retrospective of that convention, but I would surely love to read much, much more.  Someday, I'll try to recreate my own memories of the con for posterity: of my Dad and I taking the train from Syracuse to New York--the trip was a present for my 16th birthday--and being informed upon arrival at the Hotel Commodore that a strike had moved the convention over to The Americana; of learning at con check-in that DC publisher Carmine Infantino had been replaced by a woman named Jenette Kahn; of Dad leaving me free to fully immerse myself in the entirety of the convention experience without a chaperone (and his amazement that I didn't even want to stop for lunch); of meeting other fans; of meeting Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Batman co-creator Bob Kane, my writer-artist idols Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, and legendary editor Julie Schwartz, among others; of losing to Richard Morrissey in a trivia contest administered by E. Nelson Bridwell; of the treasures of the dealers room; of the cavalcade of DC superhero films screened, including a fragment of Kirk Alyn in Superman, a 1948 serial then thought to be lost; of wearing plain clothes in the costume parade, claiming I was dressed as writer Elliott S! Maggin, who had written himself into a Justice League of America story the previous summer (afterward, Maggin shook my hand, laughing, saying that Jenette Kahn had just been telling him that his JLA appearance meant that DC now owned his name and likeness); the panels; the giddy thrill of participating in something I loved, surrounded by others who loved it just as much as I did; the satisfied train ride back home to Syracuse after the enchantment ended. I really need to write about all of that.

"But for today, this program will serve as a souvenir. This scan came from that vast series of tubes we call the internet. But I still have my copy, covered with autographs from all of the comics luminaries named above, and many more. There's an autograph from Jenette Kahn, with the inscription, 'May you be published soon.' There are memories contained therein, memories that fill me with a glow of contentment more than four decades later. Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. This feeling can still leap tall buildings in a single bound. You had to be there. I had to be there. I'm so grateful that I was."

A few other memories peek through the decades of accumulated fog. One such memory involved writer Martin Pasko and his creation the Albatross:

"...The Albatross was a phantom project. Not only did it fail to see print, it was never even announced as forthcoming (unlike, say, Gerry Conway's also-unpublished Ninja the Invisible), probably never assigned to an artist, possibly never even completed by Pasko. The only reference I've ever seen made to the Albatross was in my own work, specifically in an Amazing Heroes article on humorous superheroes I wrote in the '80s. You say you've never heard of the Albatross? It's okay. Neither has anyone else.

"The only reason I know anything at all about the Albatross is because I attended the Super DC Con...It was at one of the panels that the subject of The Albatross was introduced. I wish I could remember which panel it was, and who the participants were. I'm pretty sure writer Bob Rozakis was there--I have a vague memory of him responding to a friendly barb from his wife, with a 'Thanks, Laurie!'--and maybe Maggin, Denny O'Neil, and Cary Bates? That would indicate it was the writers' panel, which would have been a logical setting for Martin Pasko to talk about the Albatross.

"I do remember Pasko looking around the audience to be sure a specific, unnamed DC editor wasn't in the ballroom at the moment. Satisfied that the coast was clear, Pasko smiled and proceeded to tell us the brief saga of this DC Comics character no one would ever know.

"The concept of the Albatross had been the brainchild of a DC editor. Pasko would not say which editor it was. Pasko was given the assignment to develop the Albatross, possibly as a back-up feature. In the editor's premise, the Albatross was secretly a prison inmate, either a man convicted of a crime he hadn't committed, or a former felon who'd seen the error of his ways (I forget which). Every night, as his fellow convicts were snug in their beds, with visions of reasonable doubt dancing in their heads, the prisoner we call the Albatross would break out of prison--every night--don his mysterious costume to battle the forces of evil, presumably succeed in boppin' the bad guys, and then return to his cell, his nocturnal missions undetected by unsuspecting prison guards. Enter: The Albatross! BEWARE THE ALBATROSS!

"Spine-tingling, right? No?

"Yeah, Pasko also thought it was ridiculous.

"But an assignment was an assignment. Pasko almost certainly was the one who named our jailbird protagonist the Albatross, and as he wrote the strip, he found he could not take it seriously. He decided to play up the absurdity, go for subtle laughs, a nudge in the ribs rather than a leap over a tall building in a single bound. The editor still saw this Albatross as a straightforward costumed crimefighter, and he kept rejecting Pasko's attempts as inadequate. You don't seem to be getting the right feel for this, the editor told Pasko. One presumes that all involved finally acknowledged a dead end and moved on. The Albatross could escape from prison with ludicrous ease, but his comic-book exploits never saw the light of day.

"Pasko smiled again as he concluded his story. Those of us in the small crowd giggled in appreciation. And that was the end of what I'm sure was history's only public discussion of this DC hero called the Albatross...."

What else? I attended every panel I could. At one panel, I recall a fan expressing appreciation for artist Mike Grell's choice of Hammer Films horror actor Christopher Lee as the model for a vampire in an issue of Detective Comics, and editor Julie Schwartz dismissing the praise and complaining instead that Grell's use of Lee's image was just a lazy way out. I burrowed my way through the dealers' room, admiring original artwork from the 1940s, snagging whatever treasures I could afford (including 1960s paperback novels Batman Vs. 3 Villains Of Doom and The Avengers Battle The Earth-Wrecker). I remember meeting fans--OTHER COMIC BOOK FANS!!--and reveling in the company of kindred spirits. And I remember ending each evening with screenings of DC movies, TV shows, and serial chapters. It was magic. Magic.

I would just adore an opportunity to read more about this Super DC Con weekend; if anyone knows of any Super DC Con retrospective ever published or posted on line somewhere, please point me at it. Meanwhile, I'll close my own fragmented reminiscence with one additional memory:

"...I was 16 years old, and I was in my Heaven...It was an amazing experience, and I wish someone would publish an in-depth retrospective of that convention. Decades later, when my Dad was in hospice care and trying to express his gratitude for a strawberry milkshake I'd brought for him to enjoy, I joked to him, 'C'mon, Dad--remember that time you took me to New York for the DC Comics convention? I'd say I still you a little more than a strawberry milkshake.' Dad smiled, and enjoyed his milkshake...."

Thanks, Dad. It was one of a million big and little things you did for me over the course of our too-short span of fifty-two years together. I'm grateful for all of them. And I remain grateful for the Super DC Con.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! LL Cool J, "Mama Said Knock You Out"

This is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

LL COOL J: Mama Said Knock You Out

Written by James Todd Smith and Marlon Williams

Produced by Marley Marl

Single from the album Mama Said Knock You Out, Def Jam Records, 1991

I am aware of the fact that many rock 'n' roll fans don't think hip hop artists belong in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I would like to ask those who hold that view to explain to me why and how LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" isn't rock.

On second thought, save the explanation, because we're not going to agree. Man, the first time I heard "Mama Said Knock You Out," my immediate raised-fist reaction was that I'd just encountered rap's rippin' 'n' rampagin' anarchy-for-the-DJ equivalent of the Sex Pistols.

Granted, rap and punk share an attitude and a DIY ethic more than they share a sound. But the comparison of hip hop culture to punk rock culture is not made lightly. Aside from the Sugarhill Gang's 1979 hit "Rappers Delight" (which struck my ears at the time as a tangent to disco), much of my early exposure to rap came through a new wave perspective. In 1981, CBGB-bred pop group Blondie (with guest Fab 5 Freddy) had a # 1 hit with "Rapture," and in the mid '80s Buffalo, NY's aggressive and adventurous New Music Radio format station WBNY-FM programmed the likes of Run-DMC and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five right alongside X, the Ramones, Echo and the Bunnymen, and other left-of-the-dial luminaries. NEW music radio. Dinosaurs should seek quarter elsewhere.

My own interest in hip hop was casual. I loved hearing Run-DMC's "Rockbox" and Grandmaster and Melle Mel's "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" on BNY, but rap was never my main jam. As rap migrated from the margins to the mainstream, I was okay with some of the genre's big smashes while still not regarding any of it as the largest part of my own day-to-day soundtrack. Not until 1991.

Don't call it a comeback.

The ladies love Cool James. Born James Todd Smith, LL Cool J first hit the rap world with his debut single "I Need A Beat" in 1984. I was aware of LL Cool J when I worked record retail in the '80s, and our store sold its fair share of his first album Radio, but I don't recall taking any real notice of his music until "Mama Said Knock You Out" exploded into my airspace in '91. Where did I hear it? It must have been on MTV, accompanying the stark image of Cool James himself terrorizing a microphone with his furious vow to knock you out. I was sold. I bought the single, and it remains one of the very few rap records I’ve ever owned.

The song's pulse is a groove sampled from Sly and the Family Stone's 1967 non-hit "Trip To Your Heart," a song I didn't know until many years later. LL Cool J's (authorized) appropriation of that riff is the only known example of anyone ever improving on something Sly Stone created. Driven by that repeated sample, "Mama Said Knock You Out" seethes and simmers, bobbing and weaving like the battle-ready pugilist LL Cool J portrays in the song's video, ropin' the dopes as it floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. Just like Muhammad Ali.

And he's just getting warm.

There’s no plausible set of circumstances that would result in me becoming a big hip hop fan. I’m a suburban white Baby Boomer, and in the words of the great philosopher Popeye, I yam what I yam. But rock 'n' roll is a big, big tent, and hip hop is one of the many disparate genres, styles, and sovereign mojos that comprise rock's vast and glorious vistas. 

Some things rock more than others. I say LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" rocks pretty damned hard, and it's closer in spirit and vibe to original rockers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard than anything most prog groups could noodle up on their best day.

So play it loud, and make the tears rain down like a monsoon. A comeback? It's been here for years, rockin' its peers, puttin' suckers in fear. Fast. Furious. ROCK. 

You can disagree. But don't say you weren't warned about how Mama told us to respond.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.

Boppin's monthly day off: Another new short story!

 

Once a month, Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) takes a very brief pause from its commitment to daily public posting, and instead preps a private post shared only with its cherished paid patrons. 

This month's private post is a brand new short story, "The Traitor's Tourist Guide To Hell." I wrote the opening paragraphs of this story quite some time ago, added an internal paragraph to it late last year, and a transition paragraph last week. Here's where the story was at that time:

"The ghost of Quisling knocked back a drink. The liquor had no effect on him. Souls damned to spend eternity in Hell felt no buzz from alcohol, no fulfillment from food, no relief from any resource, no matter how much they consumed. Quisling drank anyway, out of habit. He downed another shot before rising to greet the tourists that had entered his dismal office.

" 'Vidkun Quisling at your service,' he purred, his cheery facade unconvincing to anyone who bothered to pay attention. The indifference of his guests rendered the point moot. 'I shall be your tour guide on your visit to Hell.'

"The guests murmured in vague acknowledgement. 'Follow,' the host bid them, and the group obeyed, trailing Quisling's ghost as he descended into the brimstone realm they'd come to see...

"...The question made the ghost pause. He resisted the unfamiliar urge to gaze toward Hell's opposite, toward the eternal realm reserved solely for the kind and the just. 'No,' Quisling replied. 'There is no music in Hell, no music of any kind."' A sadness tinged his voice. A memory of a waltz he'd loved in life almost--almost--crept into his head, but the memory was denied access. Hell's rules are Hell's rules. 'The devil has no music to call his own. Music belongs...elsewhere.'

"With a dismissive shrug, the ghost of Quisling consigned the tourist to the pits. To Quisling's ears, the hapless sinner's screams served as the best available substitute for music. The others in the tour group remained unconcerned. Nothing had happened to them...."

If you're not familiar with the name Vidkun Quisling, he was a real-life historical figure, a Norwegian political swine who collaborated with Hitler, ran Norway as a puppet state for Nazi Germany, delivered Norwegian Jews to the Holocaust, and was executed by a Norwegian firing squad at the end of World War II. Quisling's name became synonymous with "traitor." If there is a Hell, that's where Quisling is now, and where he will remain.

On Saturday night, working from memory, I pulled out my notebook and scribbled the rest of the story in longhand, filling in the missing parts and following the tale through to its conclusion. I transcribed the notes Sunday morning, tweaking as I went, made minor revisions, and finally declared it finished.

I am very pleased with this work. It's not a horror story, but it's as close to a horror story as I'm ever likely to write. "The Traitor's Tourist Guide To Hell" will appear in my short story anthology Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies, a book which seems on track for publication in May or thereabouts. I've wanted to write a short story collection since falling into thrall of Harlan Ellison's Paingod And Other Delusions more than fifty years ago. The publication of Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies will represent another dream come true. Another story in the book ("You'll Be Judged By The Hearts You Broke," which will immediately follow "The Traitor's Tourist Guide To Hell" in the anthology's running order) makes the point that pride is not  a sin. I agree with me on that; we should take pride in our work. And I am indeed proud of this new story, and proud of the stories that will accompany it.

Normal daily public posting will resume tomorrow. "The Traitor's Tourist Guide Ton Hell" will be shared with patrons on Sunday, March 1st. I would be quite proud to welcome you into those ranks: Fund me, baby!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.

COMIC BOOK COVER GALLERY: 24th issues acquired in the '60s, '70s, and '80s

Just for fun: On this 24th day of February, this week's Comic Book Cover Gallery gathers the covers from a bunch of # 24 funnybooks I snagged in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. It is--you guessed it!--an excuse to round up an otherwise-random selection of old comic book covers, for folks like me who like to look at old comic book covers. We'll even throw in one issue--Batman # 182--that doesn't technically count, but does carry an alternate number of G-24, as the 24th 80-Page Giant:

Close enough! Frankly, the challenge was in finding 24th issues that I owned within the chosen timeline. I started accumulating comic books in 1966, and a lot of DC Comics titles were already waaaaay past their 24th issues by then. Some Marvel Comics were in range, but I didn't always get those specific issues. And a lot of newer series from a number of publishers never made it to the double-dozen mark. Nonetheless, I found more than a few, and here they are.

As always, we'll be sticking exclusively to the '60s-'80s era of acquisition I've established for these galleries. Today's selection includes books I bought new, back issues I acquired after the fact (but within the timeline), and B-stock contraband originally purchased without their covers. These aren't actual photos of comics in my collection; most images are courtesy of the Grand Comics Database, which is grand indeed. But I did have each and every one of 'em at some point in time.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.