Posted by Dan Greenfield on Oct 13, 2024
The TOP 13 COVERS of OCTOBER 1974 — RANKED
BRONZE AGE BONANZA: Big month for Nick Cardy! PLUS: Kirby! Kane! Mingo! MORE! — Welcome to BRONZE AGE BONANZA — our monthly series that looks at the greatest covers of the Bronze Age — exactly 50 years later. For more info on this feature, click here. — Hey, this month’s No. 1 is a publication that’s never been there before! Plus: A big month for Nick Cardy! Dig the TOP 13 COVERS OF OCTOBER 1974 — RANKED: — 13. Action Comics #443, DC. Sometimes a cover makes it just because it’s fun. — 12. Betty and Me #62, Archie. Respect to sex-positive Betty Cooper. — 11. Daffy Duck #91, Gold Key. Daffy’s going the wrong way. Daffy don’t care. That grass Daffy ate was some seriously good shit. — 10. World’s Finest #227, DC. Probably my favorite issue of WF when I was a kid because it reprinted that groovy story with Anti-Superman and Anti-Batman, who wore cool outfits and — DECADES-OLD SPOILER ALERT — were really Perry White and Commissioner Gordon. But the cover is more than that: It also has Superman smashing the Statue of Liberty, which was unsettling to Young Dan. Just a good, basic 100-Pager cover, with well-done trade dress. The white background really works here. — 9. Kamandi #25, DC. Jack Kirby predicts Jawsmania with FLYING SHARKS! Farewell and adieu, to you fair Spanish mutants… — 8. Adventure Comics #437, DC. Also with the nasty, big, pointy teeth. Damn, the Spectre had no mercy and Jim Aparo may have been the best ever at showing it. — 7. The Witching Hour #50, DC. Boy, doesn’t it suck when this happens? Also when your eyes are two different colors it’s called heterochromia. — 6. The Amazing Spider-Man #140, Marvel. Grading on a curve here. The multi-vignette Spidey cover was already a well-worn trope by this time. This one’s a little too loose, there’s a bit too much white space, and there’s not really enough variety among the images themselves. But it works because the schtick always works. — 5. Savage Sword of Conan #3, Marvel. Grading on a curve here, too. Taken on its own terms, a painted Mike Kaluta cover is almost certainly going to be better than any other cover on the stands. But A) Kaluta could (and did) do better, and B) he had the advantage of...
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