Firefighters, anyone?
How about Manhunters, Frogmen or Kings of the Wild? No?
Well, the comic book readers of the 1950s largely agreed with you. Those were early prosaic misfires from the DC Comics tryout title Showcase, which began in 1956.
But never mind. Beginning with its more daring and colorful fourth issue, Showcase spawned an almost uninterrupted string of popular comic book series for the next six years.
Eleven long-running cover features used Showcase as their springboard — The Flash (246 issues); The Challengers of the Unknown (87 issues); Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane (137 issues); Space Ranger (42 issues in Tales of the Unexpected and nine issues of Mystery in Space); Adam Strange (48 issues of Mystery in Space); Rip Hunter Time Master (29 issues); Green Lantern (205 issues); Sea Devils (35 issues); Aquaman (63 issues); The Atom (45 issues) and Metal Men (56 issues).
It wasn’t until DC tried a book-length version of the venerable back-page feature Tommy Tomorrow with issue 41 (Nov.-Dec. 1962) that the title’s luck started to run out. From then on, successful titles introduced in Showcase would be the exception rather than the rule.
“Throughout the war years of the 1940s, super-heroes were the bread and butter of the comic book industry, the fuel that ran the four color engine known as the Golden Age of Comics,” recalled Paul Kupperberg. “But by the turn of the new decade, the comics’ reliance on the costumed hero had given way to one resting on cowboys, monsters and funny animals. Except for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a handful of lesser luminaries, the first half of the 1950s belonged to virtually any genre but superheroes.
“And then along came Showcase. Conceived in 1956 as a vehicle to showcase new concepts and characters prior to a risky and costly debuts in their own titles, Showcase served as the starting point for a new era in comics, the so-called Silver Age that brought superheroes back into the limelight and popularity.”
The Showcase concept worked well enough that in 1959, DC’s title The Brave and the Bold shifted its focus from ancient swashbucklers to become a sort of second Showcase, premiering such notable features as The Justice League of America and Hawkman.
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