Showcase Presents was a line of black-and-white paperback books published by DC Comics (from 2005 - 2016) at an average rate of two per month. Much like Marvel Comics' Essential Marvel volumes, each book usually included over 500 pages of reprints, primarily from the Silver Age. Like the Essential line, a Showcase Presents volume carried the suggested retail price of US$16.99 (increased to $17.99 in September 2009) and was usually devoted to one character, "reprint[ing] all of their adventures in sequential order via cover date", or occasionally to a specific title rather than individual. The reprint line started in October 2005 with the releases of Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, Vol. 1 and Showcase Presents: Superman, Vol. 1, both offered at the lower introductory retail price of US$9.99. Overview Name The name "Showcase" comes from a 1956–1970 DC anthology series often used to try out new characters. Showcase featured the first appearances of the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and the Atom (Ray Palmer), among other characters. That series was revived briefly in 1977–1978 and its name was used again in 1984–1985 (for New Talent Showcase and Talent Showcase) and 1993–1996 (for 12-issue anthologies, Showcase '93 et al.). The title was also used to reintroduce characters in the Action Comics Weekly series in 1988. Focus and other collections The Showcase Presents line was designed primarily to focus on the Silver Age DC stories, specifically — according to then-collected editions editor Bob Greenberger — "the rich era from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s", which is widely regarded as "one of DC's most fertile and creative periods". Greenberger noted that DC's collections department had already determined when Superman's Silver Age began for the purposes of the Man of Tomorrow Archive editions. Greenberger further clarified that the Showcase Presents volumes were specifically targeted — in the short term, at least — on the Silver Age, writing, "the Golden Age is not currently in ou[r] plans. The Modern is a fuzzier dividing line and again, should the line be wildly successful, we can figure this out". DC's Showcase volumes complemented their Archive Editions, which reprinted in more expensive, color hardback volumes, (primarily) Golden Age comics, although some Archives have presented Silver and Modern Age comics as well. Six months prior to the debut of the Showcase volumes, DC also began to reprint Golden Age stories (initially only for Batman and