Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jul 13, 2025 | 6 comments

BRONZE AGE BONANZA: Great month for CURT SWAN, plus treasuries and magazines dominate. ALSO: KIRBY! DeCARLO! ROMITA! 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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Lotta treasuries this month and I’m guessing it’s because the publishers knew they were perfect for summertime car trips. Or lazy days around the house or pool or beach or yard or stoop or whatever. They were like Christmas in July!

Dig the TOP 13 COVERS OF JULY 1975 — RANKED:

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13. Plop! #17, DC. Basil Wolverton and his obsession with testicles.

Basil Wolverton

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12. Little Archie #98, Archie. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Unknown

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11. Archie Giant Series Magazine #236 and Pep #305, Archie. Counting this as one. I appreciate that Archie had 1,000,006 titles and coming up with fresh cover gags had to be a whole lot harder than it looks. But I gotta say something when they basically use the same gag at the same time.

Dan DeCarlo pencils, Rudy Lapick inks

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10. Ghost Rider #14, Marvel. When in doubt, bring out the Orb.

Ron Wilson pencils, Frank Giacoia inks, John Romita alterations

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9. Mystery Comics Digest #12, Gold Key. I bet when you woke up this morning you didn’t expect to see a ghoul playing leapfrog with a tombstone.

Unknown

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8. Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #34, DC. Jack Kirby’s departure from DC was announced in March 1975, but he still had some stories left to be published. So this one is by Kirby, but cover duties passed on to Joe Kubert, who brings a surprisingly delicate touch to the Last Boy on Earth.

Joe Kubert

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7. Marvel Treasury Edition #7, Marvel. In fact, this might be the King’s first cover for Marvel after his return. You Kirbyphiles can correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, but either way, he returned with a bang!

Jack Kirby pencils, Frank Giacoia inks

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6. The Phantom #67, Charlton. Don Newton will never get enough credit for some reason. Man, was he good.

Don Newton

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5. Planet of the Apes #12, Marvel. One of the best Planet of the Apes magazine covers ever. Great concept, great detail, great likeness of Roddy McDowall as Cornelius. Usually contenders for No. 1 don’t fall this low, but it shows you how stiff the competition is this month.

Ken Barr

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4. Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-39, DC. In fact, I wouldn’t argue if you wanted to swap it with this one. Both are great, but I give the edge to LCE #C-39 because it’s one of the best-known heroes-and-villains-running-at-each-other images ever. Love the orange background, too. (Colors by Sol Harrison.)

Dick Giordano

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3. Marvel Special Edition #1, Marvel. Flat-out terrific cover by Romita and Sinnott with all those Spidey villains. Too bad that Kraven’s vest is miscolored, but what’re you gonna do?

Romita pencils, Joe Sinnott inks

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2. Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-38, DC. Great, great Superman cover and concept. Gotta say with all of DC’s treasury edition Facsimile reprints, I’m surprised we didn’t see this (or this) in the lead-up to Gunn and Corenswet’s Superman. Then again, the year’s not over yet, even if the movie is out.

Curt Swan pencils, Bob Oksner inks.

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1. Amazing World of DC Comics #7, DC. But as great as the LCE cover is — penciled by Curt Swan — this Swan illustration is flat-out sublime. You rarely see Swan not inked by someone else, so it’s a rare treat indeed to bask in that elegant pencil linework. And that punim! That might be the handsomest Man of Steel Swan ever drew. Gorgeous cover all the way around.

Swan

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MORE

— The TOP 13 COVERS of JUNE 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.