Review by Win Wiacek

In almost every conceivable way, DC’s original try-out title Showcase created and dictated the form of 1950s American comics and is responsible for the multi-billion-dollar industry and art form we all enjoy today.

The principle was sound and graphically depicted in the very first issue: the DC editors were apparently bombarded with reader suggestions for new titles and concepts. The only possible way to feasibly prove which would be popular was to offer test runs and assess fan reactions – for which read Sales! Firmly ensconced in the age of genre thrillers and human adventurers, this magnificent, monolithic monochrome tome covers the first 21 issues spanning 1956 to 1959, starting the ball rolling with the first and last appearances of Fireman Farrell in a proposed series dubbed ‘Fire Fighters’. Jack Schiff’s concept might have never caught fire, but is drawn by the superb John Prentice.

In 1956 superheroes were largely forgotten, so although the series is responsible for re-introducing the Flash and kick-starting the revival, a broad range of genres are covered. Before Flash is seen there’s Robert Kanigher’s ‘Kings of the Wild’, three imaginatively related tales of animal valour drawn respectively by Joe Kubert, Ross Andru and Russ Heath, and then Kanigher’s Frogmen. That’s undersea adventure drawn by Heath. The feature returned in Kanigher’s war titles, making it the first successful graduate.

Then the new Fastest Man Alive arrives, but despite an imaginative new origin and sleek new design from Carmine Infantino, DC hardly rushed him into his own series. The contents of another three tryout issues are reprinted here, Kanigher and Kubert giving way to John Broome and Infantino as primary creators who build up Flash’s rogues gallery.

The last concept in years not to actually develop into an ongoing series, was the three crime yarns comprising supplied as ‘Manhunters’, but Jack Kirby’s adventurers Challengers of the Unknown were the first feature to win two issues in a row, and another two in row are seen later in the collection. Hit after hit follows, even if the next, Lois Lane, had been DC longest serving supporting character. However, while nostalgic fun, there’s no denying patronising, patriarchally misogynistic attitudes underpin so many of the stories. They’re typified by Otto Binder and Wayne Boring’s ‘The Jilting of Superman’ wherein the Man of Tomorrow almost falls for Lois pretending to marry another man to make the Kryptonian clod realise what she means to him.

Space Ranger and Adam Strange provide two different versions of space adventure, Gardner Fox and Bob Brown’s adventurer operating in the far future, while Strange was an Earthman catapulted to a magnificent futuristic planet in a twist on pulp fantasy series John Carter. Fox writes that as well, with Mike Sekowsky art.

The next hit is Rip Hunter, Time Master by Jack Miller and Ruben Moreira, then Sekwosky art. Rip is a daredevil physicist, and with his dauntless crew travels back through time. He first stops off in the Mezozoic era, then searches for Atlantis, along the way meeting Alexander the Great and Circe.

These stories from a uniquely influential comic determined the course of the entire American strip culture and for that alone they should be cherished, but they’re largely timeless, accessible and entertaining graphic adventures. This is a gift that should be celebrated by every fan and casual reader.