I am a life-long fan of comic books. In the late 1990s, I discovered the Marvel Essential line. Each book was 500 pages of black & white reprints of classic Marvel stories priced at $15. I was instantly hooked by the concept. Six years later, DC Comics rolled out their version, titled Showcase Presents, and I dove into those books as well.

This blog will review the various Essentials and Showcases in my collection. Some truly are essential to read; others, not so much. Hopefully, I can provide you some insight to help you decide to pick up one of these collected  editions. Most of all, I want to have fun.

While I own copies of these books, I do not own the characters, titles or other related components of these books. Those ownership rights are fully controlled by Marvel Comics and DC Entertainment. Hopefully, that will keep the lawyers happy for now.

FAQs

What do you have against color? You know, I happen to really love color. Color is a daily part of my life. HOWEVER, I just really enjoy reading these collections in black and white. I find it forces me to focus more on the art. A lot of the old Silver Age comics had coloring issues, anyway. Trust me, the last thing you ever want to see is the Incredible Hulk wearing pink pants.

Why haven’t you reviewed this book? Trust me, there are a lot of reasons why I have not reviewed the book.

• Maybe I haven’t had a chance to right the review yet. By my rough count, there are more than 160 Essentials and Showcases on my shelves. As much as I may want to spend my days and nights writing reviews, I do like spending time with my family, and I do have to go to work from time to time. Trust me, as soon as I win the lottery, I will have a lot more free time to prepare the reviews!
• Maybe I haven’t read it yet. At any given time, I usually have a dozen unread Essentials or Showcases in the To-Be-Read stack. And at 500-600 pages, these are not quick reads.
• Maybe I don’t own it. But if you want to buy me one, I will be glad to provide you my Amazon wish list!
• Maybe I don’t want to read it. We all have our likes or dislikes. I really like the superhero genre. I do not read a lot of horror comics, war comics, or western comics.