Set Description:
Synopsis: This is a complete set of all 104 books with a minimum grade of 8.5. Highlights of this set include highest graded copies of eight of the first ten issues and single highest graded copies of 29 of the 104 issues in this set.
Background: Showcase was a comic anthology series, which was first published by DC Comics in March 1956. It is generally regarded as the most successful of such tryout series, having been published continuously for more than 14 years, launching numerous popular titles, while maintaining a considerable readership of its own. The series ran continuously until September 1970, suspending publication with issue #93, and then was revived for eleven issues from August 1977 to September 1978.
Showcase featured characters in either one-shot appearances or brief two or three-issue runs as a way to determine reader interest, without the financial risk of featuring untested characters in their own ongoing titles. The series featured the first appearance of various DC characters, including the Silver Age Flash, the Challengers of the Unknown, Space Ranger, Adam Strange, Rip Hunter, the Silver Age Green Lantern, the Sea Devils, the Silver Age Atom, the Metal Men, the Silver Age Spectre, the Inferior Five, the Creeper, Anthro, Hawk and Dove, Angel and the Ape, and Bat Lash.
In 1962, DC purchased an adaptation of the James Bond novel and film Dr. No, which had been published in British Classics Illustrated, and published it as an issue of Showcase. It was the first American comic book appearance of the character.
Showcase stood out from other tryout series in that it maintained its own readership, as readers who liked a feature would buy the series when it came out, but would often continue buying Showcase as well.
Our Collection: This is to me one of the hardest sets to complete in high grade because it contains so many issues that are highly coveted because they feature the first Silver Age debuts of numerous characters, including Flash, Challengers of the Unknown, Adam Strange, Rip Hunter, Green Lantern, Sea Devils, Atom, Metal Men, Tommy Tomorrow, and the Spectre, among others. As a consequence, many of the issues are very expensive in high grade, while others where the character did not take off are hard to find at all.
While our set has topped the registry for over a decade, we only completed it in 2026. We have actually been collecting many of these books for over 20 years, although it was only in the last five or so that we decided to try to complete the set. To their credit, several other collectors have completed this set before us, but I believe ours has the most registry points of any Showcase set ever presented here. That being said, it would be possible to beat our total with just a single book: the Showcase #4 9.6, which is awarded 600,000 registry points by itself. Again, I really wish CGC would score individual sets taking into account some form of percentage of completion component.
Highlights of our set include:
Issue #9 9.2-single highest graded copy of the first Lois Lane titled Comic
Issue #27 9.6-single highest graded copy of the first Sea Devils
Issue #34 9.6-single highest graded copy of the first Silver Age Atom
Issue #37 9.4-single highest graded copy of the first Metal Men.
In total, 78 of our books in this set are highest graded, with another 19 books second highest graded. There are still lots of upgrades to this set out there, in fact there are few we could grab right now, but they are all very expensive and our current focus is more about finishing other sets. So I don’t think it’s one of our best sets judged by what’s out there in the Census, but I still feel pretty good about finishing this one with as many high-grade examples as we have. It was not easy.
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