A reminder from a possum

 

That time again, if you're an eligible voter and haven't done so yet, get out there and vote.  And as always, while I agree with Mr. Possum in principle, you're welcome to ignore the advice if you can't vote my way, although I'm sure there are a vanishingly small number of people who will see this who wouldn't.

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 Presnts 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

DC Finest Prospective - Thoughts on future books

As requested by no one, my thoughts on all 31 DC FINEST books on the schedule from here to next summer, ahead of the first ones coming next week. General thoughts on the line here.  Note all comments are based on tentative contents, taken from the listings on this site.  Some will change, some of the books might never come out, the covers of a few will be different (looks like they'll all have the classic DC logo, for one thing).

AQUAMAN
"King Of Atlantis"

Aquaman adventures from the early Silver Age, with great art by Ramona Fradon and Nick Cardy.  Looks like they moved back the start point from what they used in ARCHIVES and SHOWCASE PRESENTS, so you get a few dozen 1950s stories that have never been reprinted, drawn by Fradon.  Makes this a tempting book.

BATGIRL
"Nobody Dies Tonight"

A run of a Batman family book featuring the Cassandra Cain version of the Batgirl character, the first one to ever hold her own solo series, launched in 2000.  Tried it a few times, never really appealed to me, though I often like Kelley Puckett's writing in other books, so I'm not opposed to trying a bigger chunk.  But not in any hurry, either.  Starts with #7, leaving room for an earlier volume to have stories from before the series starts.

BATMAN
"Year One & Two"
"The Killing Joke And Other Stories"

Two consecutive runs of the main Batman books, BATMAN and DETECTIVE, and a few side things starting in 1986, pretty much what would be considered the launch of the post-Crisis version of Batman.  These are going to read as  pretty disjointed books, but they will have a lot of highlights, including the title stories "Year One" and "The Killing Joke" ("Year Two" less so, but it has its moments.  If only it had more consistent art...), "Son Of The Demon".  Some very good work by Jim Aparo, Alan Davis, Norm Breyfogle, David Mazzucchelli, Brian Bolland and others.  Maybe not enough for me that I don't already have in preferable formats.

CATWOMAN
"Life Lines"
"Vengeance And Vindication"

Two consecutive books with the earliest solo adventures of the longtime Batman villain, from the 1989 mini-series to some one-shots and short stories to the 1993 on-going series. Pretty much the most "not for me" that the line is getting in the announced books.

DOOM PATROL
"The World's Strangest Heroes"

Very entertaining comics by Bruno Premiani and Arnold Drake starting with the launch of the team in 1963.  Major point of interest here are a few crossover issues, an issue of CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and a Flash team-up in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD,  which have been reprinted but not as widely as the other issues (most importantly, not in any of the SHOWCASE PRESENTS books).  I could see myself buying this someday. A second book would run out of Drake/Premiani stuff quickly, so probably leak into the later revivals.

THE FLASH

"The Human Thunderbolt"

Hey, I'm not going to really complain about a book of Infantino, Kanigher and Broome, but talk about starting with the most oft-reprinted part of the characters run.  

Might still get this after I get a few of the other books, if it becomes my preferred format for DC reprints, but I hope we see some stuff from the vast unreprinted (especially in colour) years of Barry Allen.

GREEN ARROW
"The Longbow Hunters"

Initially, didn't care that much about this.  Mike Grell's Green Arrow run is okay, aged a bit poorly, falls off in quality quickly and is as common as dirt in both the original issues and prior reprints.

But...

Unlike those prior reprints, which only took Grell's stories, this one is including some Dennis O'Neil stories, in particular the "Fables" storyline which spanned the 1988 annuals for DETECTIVE, GREEN ARROW and THE QUESTION (plus two earlier issues of THE QUESTION with a cameo and guest role for Green Arrow).  That is some remarkable stuff, and until recently hadn't been reprinted (and still hasn't outside a $100 book).  That's some of the best writing O'Neil did in a career full of great writing, and some great art by Denys Cowan.  Might be worth the book for that stuff alone.  And some of the rest is okay.

GREEN LANTERN

"The Defeat Of Green Lantern"

What will end up being the second book of Hal Jordan's adventures as Green Lantern, mostly still by Gil Kane, John Broome and Gardner Fox.  Solid stuff, well worth a look.  Most interesting thing might be the less-often reprinted THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD issue with a GL/Batman crossover drawn by Ramona Fradon.  And like FLASH there are a lot of later unreprinted runs to get to.

HARLEY QUINN

"Birth Of The Mirth"

Interesting approach to this one, mixing in some Harley Quinn books based on the animated series, where she made her debut, and her appearances in the main DC comics universe, leading up to an including the early issues of her solo series by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson, which is a lot of fun.  The animated stories are good coherent stories, sometimes excellent (including the origin story "Mad Love" by character creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini).  The DC universe stories can be a bit disjointed, often lone chapters of long stories, until you get to the on-going.  It'll be interesting to see if they separate the two version of the character in the book, or mix them in publishing order.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
"The Bridge Between Worlds"

Pretty straight forward, probably the eventual third volume of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, in an era of transitions as original artist Mike Sekowsky gets replaced by Dick Dillin partway through the book, and a few issues later original writer Gardner Fox gets replaced by Dennis O'Neil.  O'Neil and Dillin probably do enough to warrant names on the cover, which DC can do while they're in there fixing "Sekowsky".  Anyway, good stuff, but I'm looking more forward to a less-reprinted era like Steve Englehart in the 1970s.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
"For America And Democracy"
"The Plunder Of The Psycho-Pirate"

The earliest adventures of the Justice Society from the 1940s.  The stories are generally still solo adventures of each member by different artists, tied together with a framing sequence.  Enjoyable, and much more so in two $40 paperbacks than they were in five $50 hardcovers a generation ago.  Although originally just a dime each, $2.10 for the whole shebang a few more generations back.  Those were the days.  Boy, the way Glenn Miller played...

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES

"Zap Goes The Legion"

Odd choice from the Legion history to start.  Can't recommend the first half of the book, as the Legion goes from lead feature to back-up to occasional guest stars.  But the second half is pretty nearly all Dave Cockrum, his full run on the series, as the Legion works its way back to lead status.  Cockrum is one of the best regular artists the Legion ever had, and he starts early in his career and starts good and gets even better quickly.  The writing improves as the book goes on as well.  But it's a bit of a slog to get there.

METAMORPHO

"The Element Man"

The choice to include Metamorpho early in the run of SHOWCASE PRESENTS was unexpected and great, one of the things that sold me on that line.  The choice to include it early in this run is less unexpected (the character is appearing in an upcoming film), but still pleasant.  This also includes one additional Batman team-up not included in the SHOWCASE.

PEACEMAKER
"Kill For Peace"

And this is the one that drives me crazy.  First half of the book is long overdue, the 1960s comics by creators Pat Boyette and Joe Gill, published by Charlton.  You figure with the character being in a movie and on TV we'd have seen a nice slim book of that by now, only five issues and a few back-ups.  Instead we get this, mixing in the later DC version of the character from the 1980s on.  I can't see many people who want the front half being happy with the second half, and the people, if any, excited by the second half having any interest in the first.  It's not like the HARLEY QUINN book, where it's different but compatible versions of the same character, it's essentially two different characters sharing a common trademark.

And I've got no faith they'll go with that great Boyette cover.  Not sure I can bring myself to buy the book anyway, but definitely not with a non-Boyette cover.

I'd almost rather have had something like this:

PLASTIC MAN

"The Origin Of Plastic Man"

Most of what was reprinted in the first three PLASTIC MAN ARCHIVES back in the day, the first four years of Jack Cole's 1940s comics published by Quality.  On the one hand, great comics, great price.  On the other, DC's ability to really capture Cole's linework from printed comics wasn't really that good 25 years ago, and I doubt they've gone back to square one with this, more likely they're using the same "restoration" created then.  But even watered down Cole is still great.

SCIENCE FICTION
"The Gorilla World"

One of the more unusual choices for the line, so far the only title that's not a super-hero book, and gives some hope for the future of the line expanding further into DC's rich history (war, western, mystery, humour, funny animal).  This collects some early 1950s science fiction stories from STRANGE ADVENTURES, MYSTERY IN SPACE and ACTION COMICS, mostly stand-alone short stories with a few continuing characters like Captain Comet and Tommy Tomorrow. Fun stories with some great artists.  This is the book I'm most likely to buy, although it's not out for a while, next summer by the latest schedule.

SUICIDE SQUAD
"Trial By Fire"

The 1980s comics by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell, reprinted before but this time including a lot of other comics, such as the LEGENDS mini-series where the team debuted, the SECRET ORIGINS issue, several issues of Ostrander's FIRESTORM where the team appears and other crossovers.  Not sure it needs all those crossovers (and how something like MILLENNIUM #4 will read out of context, or if they'll only include the Squad relevant pages), but the core of the book is some really good stuff.

SUPERBOY
"The Super-Dog From Krypton"

The Silver Age SUPERBOY series (when not involving the Legion) is a bit of a blind-spot in DC's reprint history, at least partly because of some litigation involving the company and the creators of the character.  That seemingly resolved* we can now get this, the stories from SUPERBOY and ADVENTURE COMICS beginning in 1954, and including the debut of Krypto, the pet dog Jor-El shot into space before doing the same with his infant son.  Not sure how that test proved the rocket was safe, since he never got Krypto back...

[*SUPERBOY created by JERRY SIEGEL. By special arrangement with the JERRY SIEGEL FAMILY.  SUPERMAN created by JERRY SIEGEL and JOE SHUSTER. By special arrangement with the JERRY SIEGEL FAMILY.]

SUPERGIRL
"The Girl Of Steel"

Various short stories and guest appearances from Kara Zor-El from her 1959 debut on.  Most of it drawn by Jim Mooney, who does a great job.  Perfect, no notes.  Well, maybe a different cover, but there aren't many Supergirl covers of the era that don't have Superman on them.

SUPERMAN FAMILY
"The Giant Turtle Man"

How great would it be if there was just a 600-page story that was just about Jimmy turning into a giant turtle?  Sadly, that only takes up 8 pages of the book, which almost feels like false advertising.  Still, ten issues each of JIMMY OLSEN and LOIS LANE, plus various other relevant stories from the other titles from the early 1960s.  This starts a bit later and goes a few issues beyond what the SHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERMAN FAMILY got to in the fourth volume.

Oh, I was bored and, weirdly, this is the kind of thing I do for fun, I thought I'd re-imagine the cover with a few tweaks to the format as how I'd like it

Of course not all logos would work as well in the format as this one, based on one of the top logos ever designed for anything, ever.  And some of the books are based on concepts that never even had logos ("Science Fiction" and "Team-Ups" of the initial batch).

SUPERMAN
"The First Superhero"
"Kryptonite Nevermore"

Two distant eras of Superman, starting with the original stories in 1938 from creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, soon  joined by others.  That's all a well trodden path for reprints, not sure if DC ever improved the reproduction of some of those early issues.  Still formative stuff.

Then jump to 1971 and however many volumes later for a new era of Superman.  While they've collected the SUPERMAN issues of the era twice before under the "Krytonite Nevermore" title, with the work of Dennis O'Neil, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, this is the first time they'll be mixing in the contemporaneous stories in ACTION COMICS, also mostly by Swan and Anderson with other writers.  So that's a point in favour of the book.

TEAM-UPS

"Chase To The End Of Time"

An interesting choice to combine the team-ups with Superman (in DC COMICS PRESENTS) and Batman (in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD) starting in 1978, but not their team-ups with each other (in WORLD'S FINEST) from the same era.  I kind of like it. I wonder if they'll separate the two series in the book or alternate?  It's mostly single issue stories in this era (with some exceptions like the title story), so either could work fine.

Kind of interested, although most of it won't be new to me.

TEEN TITANS

"The Judas Contract"

Pretty much undeniable material, up there at the top of the heap for 1980s DC.  The title story has been reprinted quite a bit, but not always with the surrounding material which provides the extensive set-up and aftermath in the same volume.  

WONDER WOMAN

"The Legend Of Wonder Woman"
"Origins & Omens"

Two era of Wonder Woman.  The first is the end of one age, right before the post-Crisis reboot by George Perez.  Only read the title story by Trina Robbins and Kurt Busiek, which isn't really indicative of the contents (most of which have never been reprinted), but I'll consider getting it.  The other is the most recent material being offered in the DC FINEST line so far, from 2008 to 2009.  Doesn't really appeal to me, I kind of suspect most people it would appeal to have gotten prior reprints.

EVENTS: ZERO HOUR

"Crisis In Time Part One"
"Crisis In Time Part Two"

I assume they'll standardize the subtitle by the time it comes out.  

A hodge-podge of DC comics from the middle of 1994, all around an event series I don't recall much at all, and dislike most of what I do recall other than the art.  Can't imagine it reads well as a book, with all these individual chapters of larger stories. It does give an idea of how they plan to handle crossovers in this series of books.

A prospective on DC Finest

As you might expect from my interest in DC's old SHOWCASE PRESENTS line I have some interest in their upcoming DC FINEST line, which is like a colour version of that line and also takes some cues from Marvel's long established EPIC line of reprints.  The initial releases are a few weeks away as I write this, and in an unusually aggressive launch DC has already announced 31 books coming in the line, almost weekly releases until the middle of next year. And they will look something like this:

These are preliminary covers from solicitations, expect at least a few of them to change by publishing date.  In particular I hope that the recent return to the classic DC bullet logo (seen only on the recently announced TEAM-UPS book) happened in time that it'll be used for this line*. It's not only objectively better, but the aesthetics of changing a design element so early into a run... well, if you don't think the change of logos on the last years of the SHOWCASE line don't bother me even more than the fact that the two logos on those books are the worst DC logos of all time...

[* thanks to Todd Klein's advance copy, we know the classic DC bullet will be used.  And they modified the contents a bit from the original solicitations starting and ending a few issues earlier]

I suspect the cover art on a few will change as well.

Overall I do like the design.

While I would probably go with a logo on the cover like SHOWCASE had, the bold font that they're using for the series titles is nice, and adds some consistency to the line.  Not really crazy about the "DC FINEST" name, but maybe it'll grow on me (I want to add a possessive, DC'S FINEST, since the antecedent is WORLD'S FINEST.  The title sounds like Bizarro "Them am DC Finest comics". Also, they aren't. The finest, that is. Some are, but others are at best mediocre).  I also like the relatively unusual choice to put all the title information on the bottom, which makes for a nice unique look for the line. I also like the addition of a subtitle for each book, and the credits on the cover (although the choice of credits, at least in the mock-ups, is questionable for some of the books).

And it's much better than any of these lines:

To compare with the competition, here's what Marvel's Epic line looks like:

(they've recently started a "Modern Era" line, which appears to be defined as roughly "21st Century"). Have to say, my ideal would probably be halfway between the classic Epic and the Finest.  That "Modern Era" Epic is some weak tea.  Seems almost apologetic about having to give you any information.

The preliminary look at the unfinished back covers and spines also reveals some information.

The sampling of covers provides some nice context, especially for a few of the books that have non-representative front covers.  The emphasis on the years is interesting, especially since there's no hint that these will be numbered in any way.  Like Marvel's EPIC line, they aren't being released in order (the SUPERMAN FAMILY book will probably be the fourth in the line, it mostly overlaps with the SHOWCASE SUPERMAN FAMILY v4, starting a few issues later and going a few beyond), so it'll be interesting to see if they have a number, like Marvel uses on the back covers, or will depend on the years to establish the order.

As to the choice of books, it's certainly eclectic.  Unlike the SHOWCASE line they seem to have all of DC's history to choose from, going back as far as 1938 and up to 2009 so far (with the cover design indicating plans up to at least 2023). While there does seem to be a bias towards stuff already reprinted before, there are some pleasant surprises.  I can confidently say I'll be buying some of these, but I will never be all-in on the line (cut to 15 years from now, "Can someone get me a copy of CATWOMAN: VENGEANCE & VINDICATION?  I can't find it anywhere.  How much?  Sold!").

I'll go over each individual announced release in a later post.  At a quick glance I'd say there are maybe seven I have no intention of ever buying, five or six I might buy on release, maybe as many more I would if I didn't already have almost all the contents in another form and a vast middle which I might pick up if the price is right or a leaf-through convinces me.

Showcase Presents Retrospective - Many a slip 'twixt...

Well, not surprising that in the ten years that DC was publishing the SHOWCASE PRESENTS line there were a few announcements for books which didn't end up coming out, especially as the industry evolved into announcements for books running further and further ahead of the publication date.  I've decided to call these Ghostcases. DC tends not to reveal the reason for the cancellations, might be a lack of sales, or problems with the quality of the physical source material requiring extra time in production, or problems with the contracts (there's apparently a period from 1976 to 1997 where they require a reprint fee which makes thick cheap books unworkable unless the creators agree to a royalty deal like they have for pre-1976 material)  Here are a few I've seen evidence for...

SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE CREEPER Vol 1

First heard about this one in late 2008, and there was some speculation for a while on the exact contents, beyond creator Steve Ditko's initial SHOWCASE #73 story and six issue series from 1968/1969.  The eventual list seemed to be

Showcase #73
Beware the Creeper #1-6
Brave and the Bold #80, 143, 178
Justice League of America #70
Detective Comics #418, 447-448
The Joker #3
First Issue Special #7

Doesn't matter because after that it fell off the schedule, and instead we got THE CREEPER BY STEVE DITKO, a (mostly) colour hardcover with just the stories that Steve Ditko worked on.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS WHO'S WHO Vol 1 & 2

Announced in 2006, this would have been a two volume set collecting everything from the 26 issue WHO'S WHO - THE DEFINITIVE DIRECTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE series first published from 1985 to 1987.  An ambitious and not entirely successful attempt to catalog DC's fictional universe, it had some great art, including a lot of Jack Kirby artwork on his many creations and some wonderful wraparound covers by George Perez initially (including the ones seen on the cover mockup). They seemed pretty gung-ho on the concept for a while, despite it being well outside the usual SHOWCASE era. Was not to be, and much later they came up with a much more comprehensive hardcover.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUICIDE SQUAD Vol 1

They had this on on the schedule at least twice, in 2007 and 2010.  Also outside the usual SHOWCASE PRESENTS timeline, it would have collected the first 19 issues of the 1987 series by John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell and others, plus a few relevant crossover appearances with the Justice League and Doom Patrol.  Eventually they went with a colour softcover for this one in 2011, and eventually continued the line (once the Squad movies started coming out) until they collected the full 66 issue series in 8 books by 2019. Now the series is set to be reprinted again in the next year as both a hardcover and in the new DC FINEST softcover line.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS HOUSE OF SECRETS Vol 3

Well, this is typical.  While Cain over in the HOUSE OF MYSTERY got three books collecting his series, his brother Abel only got two.  He was apparently promised a third, which would have presumably started with #120 where the previous one left off, and maybe run to the end of the series, #154.  Eventually all those issues were collected in colour in a the HOUSE OF SECRETS BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS Vol 2 (while a lot of HOUSE OF MYSTERY remains uncollected even after three books in that format.  Cain's not going to like that).

SHOWCASE PRESENTS SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS VOL 1

An odd little short-run series from 1976 to 1978, plus various related stories from JLA, SUPER-TEAM FAMILY and others.  Has some really off-model Fourth World depictions.  Eventually it showed up in two very thin hardcovers.

I remember a few more seemed to get to some stage of talk, but can't clearly remember what was official from DC and what was just fannish speculation and wish-listing.  Speaking of such things, post still upcoming on that other SHOWCASE PRESENTS books we could/should have seen.  Feel free to suggest, keep it from material published by DC from 1954 to 1976.