BRONZE AGE BONANZA: Grell! Kane! Adams! MORE!
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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.
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Kinda tough to pick the top slot this month, but, hey, that’s why I get paid the big (imaginary) bucks.
Dig the TOP 13 COVERS OF AUGUST 1975 — RANKED:
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13. Batman Family #2, DC. Total sentimental pick. All of the images are reprinted (except maybe Mystery Man?) but it matters not: This was the first issue of Batman Family I got, and it was a watershed moment in my fandom. It’s also how I learned the word “astonishing.”
Main image by Gil Kane
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12. Archie Giant Series Magazine #238, Archie. Stylish!
Dan DeCarlo and Rudy Lapick
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11. MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz, Marvel/DC. Really nice John Romita illo of Judy Garland and the cast for the first Marvel/DC co-production.
John Romita
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10. Iron Man #80, Marvel. An exceptionally weird and stiff-looking Iron Man by the King. Nevertheless, you can’t not look at it. Good color palette, too.
Jack Kirby and Al Milgrom
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9. Tarzan #243, DC. Shrewd. If this was published in August, then it was probably done by May or mayyybe June. Jaws came out June 1, 1975, but the advance hype was so big DC probably realized it had to capitalize on sharkmania. And capitalize they (and other publishers) did.
Joe Kubert
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8. Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6, Marvel. Yeah, that’s a pretty shocking cover, so credit where credit’s due, Frank Brunner. The story, by the way, is about a time traveler who goes back almost 2,000 years to try to meet Jesus and ends up crucified himself.
Frank Brunner
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7. Vampire Tales #1, Marvel. I think this is the best Morbius illustration I’ve ever seen. Complete with messed-up nose!
Bob Larkin
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6. The Avengers #141, Marvel. One of your better-known super-teams-running-at-each-other covers. This is considered an Avengers classic, and I get that, but it feels a little loose to me, like something’s missing. Feel free to move this up in your head, if you like. (Side note: This was George Perez’s first Avengers issue on interiors. Just pointing it out.)
Gil Kane and John Romita
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5. Justice League of America #124, DC. You will never go wrong putting Earth-2 Robin front and center on a cover, even if he is a washed out, ghostly presence.
Ernie Chan
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4. The Legion of Monsters #1, Marvel. Great Adams painting, particularly his rendition of Manphibian. (Manphibian!) This is one of those months where you could argue that any of the, say, top four covers should be at No. 1.
Neal Adams
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3. The Tomb of Dracula #38, Marvel. But I tend to grade magazine covers on a curve because they have the inherent advantage of time and larger image space. So, I give Gene Colan and Tom Palmer’s memorable cover, with its differing textures, the edge here.
Gene Colan pencils, Tom Palmer inks
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2. The Amazing Spider-Man #150, Marvel. A standard Spidey vignette approach, only without the spider or web motif. What makes it is the sheer size of Peter Parker’s noggin and how Gil Kane makes him look quite mad, even though we can’t see his face. They made a mistake with the word balloons, though. Shoulda said, “Calgon, take me away!”
Kane and Frank Giacoia
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1. 1st Issue Special #8, DC. How any pre-teen in the mid-’70s could pass this up, I don’t know. Then again, not many did, I suppose, because Iron Mike’s Warlord went on to become one of DC’s most popular titles over the next 10 years or thereabouts.
Mike Grell
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MORE
— The TOP 13 COVERS of JULY 1975 — RANKED. Click here.
— BRONZE AGE BONANZA: The 1975 INDEX. Click here.
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Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.
August 17, 2025
Avengers #141….had it as a Mead folder in school…deserves to be #1 with no doubts.
August 17, 2025
Yeah, that Mead folder arguably makes this the most famous Avengers comic of all time, even more than No 1
August 17, 2025
Looking back with eyes of a 9 yr old fan, I will skip the magazines in my version of this list. I simply didn’t know they existed. They were no where near the spinner racks. I would have that JLA/JSA cover my number #1 for sure. Adult Robin never looked better! The Avengers edition is classic for sure as is the Spider-Man. I love the cover of BATMAN Family but that issue was full-on reprints. I never would have given the Wizard of Oz a first look. Now if they did a facsimile edition knowing it has JR art, I would definitely pick it up.
August 17, 2025
Yeah, Avengers 141 is a great cover. An iconic cover. What makes it work so well is the pose for The Beast as he’s leaping into the fray! The rest of the cover is just as good, but The Beast just puts it all together and makes it work. It’s a fantastic cover by Kane and Romita.
August 17, 2025
And I’d put Avengers 141 at #1 and ASM 150 at #2.
August 17, 2025
I’d put a word in for Witching Hour #60, an entirely eerie affair that was apparently a Nick Cardy/Luis Domingo mash-up.
August 17, 2025
The two comics I had as a kid that are on this list were both given to me by someone. My cousin (who was female) usually read the Archie related comics. I’m not sure why she bought Batman Family #1 knowing she had no real interest in it. Regardless, she saw me reading it and told me I could have it. I also had the JLA featured on this list. I got it from a kid up the street after we did a big comic book swap. We each trade about ten comics with each other and JLA #124 was included in the comics I received. I don’t remember what I gave him but I do remember thinking I got the better end of that deal.
August 18, 2025
I should have grabbed the Wizard Of Oz book, I actually read Baum’s book when I was in Grade School! And the Betty and Veronica cover still made me laugh, fifty years later!
August 18, 2025
Got that Bat Family issue 3 years later in the UK – weird stuff from the last few years would turn up on spinner racks here. I was in a village and the local shop had issues 2, 3 and 4, as well as other cool stuff. Luckily my grandparents were generous:-)
August 18, 2025
7-11 spinners were like that too up and down I-75. And, I was also very blessed with very generous grandparents who 100% encouraged my love of comics and drawing.
August 18, 2025
You have Iron Man down as DC.
August 18, 2025
Not anymore, I don’t!
August 24, 2025
I liked them all. But Avengers #141 ought to be #1.
October 5, 2025
I still have that Tomb of Dracula issue. I can’t believe I got that when I was eight years old! I’m pretty sure that Gene Colan art was impossible to resist, because all my other comics at that time were superheroes.