BRONZE AGE BONANZA: A Warren kind of month, plus Adams, Kirby, Perez and 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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You got sharks, the Bicentennial, and a lot of anniversaries!
Dig the TOP 13 COVERS OF MAY 1976 — RANKED:
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13. Ka-Zar #17, Marvel. This month’s requisite Jawsmania cover.
Rich Buckler pencils, Frank Giacoia inks
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12. Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals #107, Archie. You remember it as well as I do. This is exactly how high-school girls dressed in 1976. Exactly. I just don’t know who’s carrying the weed apple — Betty or Veronica.
Dan DeCarlo pencils, Rudy Lapick inks
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11. Creepy #81, Warren. The most demented Spy vs. Spy strip ever.
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10. Iron Man #6, Marvel. I dig all the crazy, intersecting lines and angles by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia, and I love the Yu-Ti’s bemused hand gesture over his hood. But the real star is the unnamed colorist who brought just about the whole spectrum with them.
Gil Kane pencils, Giacoia inks
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9. Emergency! #2, Charlton. Eye-catching painted cover by Joe Staton. Again with the color! The Randolph Mantooth corner logo should be on a T-shirt.
Joe Staton
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8. House of Mystery #244, DC. Horror covers were a dime a dozen, so to find one that is actually bona fide terrifying is really special. I’m a big fan of Luis Dominguez anyway, but this really taps into that ’70s cult-panic zeitgeist. Superb colors by the late Tatjana Wood, whose starkly red demon plays off the ghostly acolytes so well. Dynamite.
Luis Dominguez
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7. Ragman #1, DC. Ragman was such an odd idea. Nice, unorthodox panel cover by Joe Kubert. I’m betting this was also Wood colors. Oh, and “tatterdemalion” literally means “ragged or disreputable in appearance.”
Joe Kubert
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6. Green Lantern #90, DC. The triumphant return of Green Lantern/Green Arrow! Mike Grell is second only to Neal Adams as far as GL/GA goes, even if Hal Jordan’s pose is on the wooden side here. It’s a very popular cover but it’s that detail that takes points off for me.
Mike Grell
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5. The X-Men #100, Marvel. One of the seminal X-covers of the Bronze Age and, like GL/GA above, I’m sure a number of you would top the list with it. But heroes running at each other on a cover — while extremely well executed here — was a bit of a cliche at this point.
Dave Cockrum
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4. The Avengers #150, Marvel. Another “anniversary” issue! Avengers covers that tease a new line-up are always a kick and this one’s elevated by the question-mark schtick and the black background. A cool approach to a superhero group shot.
George Perez, Dan Adkins and John Romita evidently
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3. Captain America #200, Marvel. Yet another “anniversary” issue. I don’t know if it was classic ’70s paranoia creeping into Jack Kirby’s work but he frequently drew Cap like he was in an unhinged panic. Still striking though. Kirby’s Cap has made BRONZE AGE BONANZA every month this year, so far.
Jack Kirby pencils, Giacoia inks
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2. Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-46, DC. A classic cover and one that I would ordinarily put at the top. Neal Adams and Dick Giordano give us the Platonic ideal of how the 1970s Justice League of America should look. Thing is, this image was repurposed from the back cover of DC’s 1976 calendar, so I can’t in good conscience lead the list with it. Aquaman replaced Captain Marvel for this cover, by the way. (A great candidate for a Facsimile Edition, if you ask me.)
Neal Adams pencils, Dick Giordano inks.
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1. Vampirella #52, Warren. Perhaps the most lascivious of all the Vampirella covers, but you still have to admire Enrich Torres’ in-your-face artistry. It does give rise to the argument over whether it’s fair to compare painted magazine covers with standard comics, but there’s no question this is the boldest image on this list — and a superbly rendered one at that.
Enrich Torres
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MORE
— The TOP 13 COVERS of APRIL 1976 — RANKED. Click here.
— BRONZE AGE BONANZA: The 1976 INDEX. Click here.
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Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.
