Showcase Presents Retrospective - The Inevitable Errata

Okay, if you've read this weblog for a while you know I've got this thing, some would say obsession, for errors in comic books, in particular errors in reprints.  And the Showcase Presents line, well, you can't publish over 60,000 pages without making a few mistakes, and I can even excuse a few of them given the low price of the line.  The bar for forgiveness of an error in a $15 book is way lower than for a $150 book.  But no reason not to document them...

Which, by the way, DC themselves did for a while, they have a whole page devoted to Errata for their books, which I've talked about before.  They don't seem to have updated it much beyond the initial entries well over a decade ago, and sometimes it's hard to find on their site, but it's there.  In case it gets hard to find again, here are their entries for the Showcase Presents line.

Showcase Presents Collections

Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 1

The art on pages 22-36, 37-48, 50-64, 82-93, 94-106, 108-122, 124-135, 136-147, 174-188 and 190-213 was pencilled by Sheldon Moldoff, not Bob Kane.

Showcase Presents: Metal Men Vol. 1

The story from The Brave And The Bold #55 was written by Bob Haney, not the artists Ramona Fradon and Charles Paris.

Showcase Presents: Metamorpho Vol. 1

Ramona Fradon was the cover artist on Metamorpho #5-8.

Showcase Presents: Superman Vol. 1

Al Plastino was the both penciller and inker on all the stories from Action Comics #251-252 and Action Comics #254-255.

Showcase Presents: Superman Family Vol. 2

On page 6, Table of Contents: "The Girl of 100 Costumes", should have Al Plastino listed as sole artist.

On to my list.  Just a basic list for now.  I noticed a handful of other errors as I was reading them over the years, but (uncharacteristically) didn't make precise note of them.

The biggest mistake I know of was one they actually fixed, and got its own post here.  To summarize, some pages were missed up in SHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERMAN FAMILY Vol 2 back in 2008.  A correct edition, only distinguishable from the incorrect one by the correction and the logo colour on the cover, was issued a few weeks later.  If you ever look for it, you want the white and red logo, not the yellow and red.

Another error is related to one I first noticed in a 1983 British reprint of  DC COMICS PRESENTS #29 [1981].  A problem with lettering printed in colour rather than black ink led to some missing dialogue from the Almighty.  Also a hastily redrawn Supergirl headshot.

Somehow this was still a problem when they got around to including it in SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE SPECTRE Vol 1 in 2012, at least for one of the problem pages (the other two seem fine).  They got a second bite at the apple the next year in SHOWCASE PRESENTS DC COMICS PRESENTS - THE SUPERMAN TEAM-UPS Vol 2.  Let's see how they did by comparing the two books:

Well, that's much better.  Now to just photocopy the correct one onto the correct paper stock and carefully paste it into the SPECTRE book.

This next one is less a mistake than it is an interesting choice, and maybe even a rare correction from an earlier mistake.

As you can see the AMBUSH BUG Showcase from 2009 used the cover for ACTION COMICS #565 [1985].  Good choice, but someone also made a choice to colour the skin of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman green (most noticeable on WW, of course). Now, what I wonder is, was that supposed to be the joke Giffen intended in the original, finally restored 24 years later?  Or was this an entirely new bonus joke added for this book, at no additional cost to you, the reader? I guess only Irwin Schwab can answer that...

This is of course an evolving list.  Anything you think should be included, let me know at bobh1970 at gmail dot com