I got Showcase Presents Men of War and Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 2 from Amazon over the weekend, so I know those two made it out this year, the first so far for 2014. It's odd they were both released at the same time. This morning I checked Amazon for an update for the rest of this year and found a few changes from the last update I posted a few months ago.
Showcase Presents: Super Friends Vol. 1
448 pages
May 27, 2014
This new, value priced Showcase Presents collection features tales of TV's Super Friends from the 1970s based on the hit animated TV series "Super Friends." Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and other heroes battle the evil of The Riddler, the Time Trapper and many other DC Universe villains in these kid-friendly stories.
Collects SUPER FRIENDS #1-34.
Showcase Presents: The Great Disaster featuring the Atomic Knights
576 pages
June 24, 2014
In these stories, a variety of heroes including the Atomic Knights, Kamandi, Hercules and many others must face a post-apocalyptic future brought about by the mysterious "Great Disaster."
Collects stories from STRANGE ADVENTURES #117, 120, 123, 126, 129, 132, 135, 138, 141, 144, 147, 150, 153, 156 and 160, 1st ISSUE SPECIAL #1, HERCULES UNBOUND #1-10, KAMANDI #43-46, WEIRD WAR TALES #22, 23, 30, 32, 40, 42-44, 46-49, 51-53, 64, 68, 69 and 123, HOUSE OF MYSTERY #318, SUPERMAN #295, HOUSE OF SECRETS #86, 95 and 97, THE UNEXPECTED #215 and 221, and AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS #12.Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew
672 pages
September 2, 2014
These 1980s tails - sorry, tales - of Captain Carrot and the JLA (Justa Lotta Animals) have never been reprinted before. Featuring pun-filled tails - sorry, again, tales - written by comics legend Roy Thomas, with animated illustrations by Scott Shaw, these stories star Captain Carrot, along with his fellow four-legged heroes including the magical Alley-Kat-Abra, super-strong Pig-Iron, stretchable waterfowl Rubberduck, the super-speedster turtle Fastback, and more. Together, they battle the evil of Brother Hood and A.C.R.O.S.T.I.C., Salamandroid, Feline Faust, the Wuz Wolf, and others, plus DC Universe villains Starro and Grodd. This collection also includes the three-part epic saga The Oz-Wonderland War, in which our heroes are caught between the forces of these two magical realms, each of which are illustrated in the style of classic illustrators John R. Neill, W.W. Denslow and others.
Collects a story from New Teen Titans #16, plus Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew #1-20, and The Oz-Wonderland War #1-3.Showcase Presents Unknown Soldier Vol. 2
560 pages
November 25, 2014
Assuming a wide variety of disguises to battle the Nazis in World War II, the Unknown Soldier plunges deep behind enemy lines in this massive SHOWCASE edition, collecting stories that have not been reprinted since they were first published in the 1970s.
Collects Star Spangled War Stories #191-204, Unknown Soldier #205-216
Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 5
520 pages
December 30, 2014
This latest Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes title collects adventures of the 30th century team originally published in the 1970s. These stories reestablished the Legion's popularity and introduced new heroes including Timber Wolf, Karate Kid and Wildfire. Includes artwork by The Uncanny X-Men co-creator Dave Cockrum and Warlord creator Mike Grell.
Collects SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #193, 195, 197-220 and KARATE KID #1.
Still no Superman, who hasn't had an SP since 2008. Also, like most of these, House of Secrets vol. 3 had been solicited previously and delayed, so I'm disappointed it hasn't shown up again.
Hoy
Replies
Been waiting for The Great Disaster volume for years it seems!
I never really followed SUPER FRIENDS back in the day, so I'm unfamiliar with how it was packaged, but assuming each issue had at least 17 pages of story content (the lowest comics in the 1970s ever sunk, I believe), a page count of 448 is way off for 34 pages. That translates to 12 pages of story + covers. Did these comics have backup features that wouldn't be included in the SP volumes? I'm thinking the page count should be closer to 600 pages if indeed all 34 issues are included.
And yeah, Philip is right about the Great Disaster SP... that thing has been promoted as "coming soon" for several years now. That one would definitely get my ringing endorsement: "Worth checking out from the public library!"
I'm working my way through SP: FLASH vol. 4, and definitely am hoping for a volume 5, since that would effectively complete the Silver Age for Barry-Flash. Unfortunately, the second half of Vol. 4 has Andru & Esposito art, meaning the first half of Vol. 5 would also have A&E stories, and then a handful of Gil Kane stories, before settling in for Irv Novick's long run throughout the 1970s. So it's hard to imagine a Vol. 5 being in high demand... but then again, with so many fantastic Infantino covers to choose from for Vol. 4, DC opted to use an A&E cover, maybe the all-time worst FLASH cover ever (from FLASH # 177), so the logic behind marketing these things seems to be a black art. Take a look and see if you can think of a worse choice than this nightmare to promote the last batch of Broome/Fox & Infantino stories:
DC published the Atomic Knights stories in color in a hardcover a couple of years ago, and I have that, as well as the entire Hercules Unbound series in its original comic book form, but I'll be buying this for all of the other short stories from the many titles listed.
The only Super Friends issues I bought had Plastic Man as backup stories, but I'll buy this collection because I like Ramona Fradon's art.
I haven't decided about Captain Carrot since I have all the issues reprinted in this collection.
Unknown Soldier is my least favorite of DC's war series, but I'm happy to buy any new material in SP format that I haven't read before.
The Legion stories have all been reprinted in Archives format, and I recently bought those at a steep discount, so I'll be passing on that one. I wonder if DC plans to continue this format into 2015?
Hoy
Main thing I remember about Superfriends is the opening narration by Ted Baxter.
Later issues of SUPER FRIENDS had back-up features on individual Global Guardians. I'd hate to see those cut from the SHOWCASE.
Mark S. Ogilvie said:
Apparently, the wrestling tag team the Legion of Doom (more often known as the Road Warriors) took them them from the SuperFriends cartoons. The thought occurred to me because I've heard Road Warrior Animal do a pretty fair imitation of Ted Knight's narration.
The Road Warriors were earlier members of a larger group called "The Legion of Doom." Jake Roberts, King Kong Bundy, Arn Anderson, Matt Borne, the Sheik, the Iron Sheik, and the Spoiler were other members. Paul Ellering managed the whole group. Ellering soon dropped the rest of the group, and the Road Warriors kept the name.
They were the Road Warriors in the AWA and NWA/WCW but called the Legion of Doom in the WWE. I guess that they were more worried about Mel Gibson suing them than Lex Luthor!
They were the only team to win the AWA, NWA and WWF tag team championships!
Later issues of SUPER FRIENDS had back-up features on individual Global Guardians. I'd hate to see those cut from the SHOWCASE.
I did a quick check via the GCD, and only one issue out of the first 34 issues had a backup, and that was during the brief DC Explosion era. All the rest of them had 17 story pages, plus cover, so 18 x 34 = 612 pages, not 448 pages. So either the page count is wrong, or the number of issues being included in SP: SF is wrong.
Also, if you have any faith in the Amazon Best Sellers Rank, SP: JONAH HEX vol 2 seems to be selling quite well right now; its sales are about the same as ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA vol 7, the most recent (and probably last) in the series. I'm also pleased to see that my own book is outselling ESSENTIAL AVENGERS vol. 9 right now!
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