Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #17

The cover of this May 1974 DC issue tells you everything you need to know about the wild post-apocalyptic world Kamandi inhabits: the blond hero is bound with rope and dangled helplessly into a pit swarming with clawed, grasping humanoid creatures, while armed apes in purple-and-green suits look on from above — apparently content to let the creatures do their dirty work, as the cover blurb cheerfully announces. Jack Kirby's pencils and D. Bruce Berry's inks give the scene a visceral, kinetic energy, with those reaching claws crowding the foreground in a way that genuinely puts you on edge. "The Human Gophers of Ohio!" promises the kind of gloriously bizarre sci-fi adventure that made Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth one of DC's most imaginative series of the era.