The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.

While his comrades in the 34th eventually went into combat in North Africa and Italy, Swan spent most of World War II working as an artist for the G.I.

[12] Initially, Swan drew many different features, including "Tommy Tomorrow" and "Gangbusters",[10] but slowly he began gravitating towards the Superman line of books.

[13][14] Many comics of the 1940s and 1950s lacked contributor credits, but research shows that Swan began pencilling the Superboy series with its fifth issue in 1949.

[16] The two heroes began teaming on a regular basis in World's Finest Comics #71 (July–August 1954) in a story which was also drawn by Swan.

[19] A couple of years later, starting with the episode of June 18, 1956, Swan drew the Superman daily newspaper comic strip, which he continued on until November 12, 1960.

[20] In the view of comics historian Les Daniels, Swan became the definitive artist of Superman in the early 1960s with a "new look" to the character that replaced Wayne Boring's version.

[24] Among Swan's contributions to the Superman mythos, he and writer Cary Bates co-created the supervillains Terra-Man[25] and the 1970s version of the Toyman[26] as well as the superhero Vartox.

Critic Wallace Harrington summed up Swan's dismissal this way: ... the most striking thing that DC did was to completely turn their back on the one man that had defined Superman for three decades ...

[30] After this, Swan continued to do occasional minor projects for DC, including the artwork of what is thought to be one of the rarest Superman comics ever published, titled "This Island Bradman" (written by David P. Levin), a comic book that was privately commissioned in 1988 by real estate tycoon Godfrey Bradman as a Bar Mitzvah gift for his son,[31] as well as an Aquaman limited series and special in 1989,[32] and various returns on illustrating Superman, including the prestige format graphic novel one-shot Superman: The Earth Stealers in 1988.

[33] In 1995, Swan did four illustrations for Penthouse Comix[34] for the Larry Niven essay "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex," which detailed the problems that Superman would face in having sexual intercourse and reproducing with a human woman, using arguments based on humorous yet logical reconciliations between physics, biology, and the abilities of Kryptonians as presented in the Superman comic books.

[38] Comics historian Arlen Schumer praised Swan's ability to depict "the spectrum of human emotion, from agony to anger, mournful to mirthful.

"[39] As characterized by critic Paul Gravett, Swan's Superman made "... Krypton's last son in exile, the alien in our midst, into someone like us, who would think and feel as well as act, who was approachable, big-hearted, considerate, maybe physically superpowerful yet gentle, noble yet subtly tragic.

[46]The Westport Arts Center has dedicated a granite plaque in memoriam of Curt Swan, alongside others Connecticut artists.