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.