u/Ok_Reading_9999

One thing about excluding any supplemental material from these books, it's not really clear that the first three stories are proto-Rock before his debut in OAAW #83. At least the back of the Showcase Presents mentioned "prototype" version. I don't object to including the story, especially since it places Kanigher and Kubert up front rather than in the three spot.

Also, Bob Haney #2 on the cover credits? For four stories? C'mon, let's at least bump Kubert up, maybe toss in Heath...

With a good idea of the first two years planned for the DC Finest line (55 books published, 80 scheduled by the end of 2026, if they keep the same rate up close to 120 by the end of 2027), I thought I might compare it to previous DC brands of line wide reprints.

The Archives ran from 1989 to 2014, 25 years, publishing around 209 books. However some of those were licenced books (Spirit, Elfquest) with different trade dress. If you just count the reprints of DC or companies they acquired characters from outright (Quality, Fawcett, All-American, Charlton) that's about 168 books. But those averaged 250 pages, so by the end of the year there'll be more pages in a DC Finest library.

Showcase Presents ran from 2005 to 2016, just over 10 years, with 124 book (one of them licenced). Their page count was close to DC Finest (with a few slimmer books), so those two lines will be close by the end of 2027.

The 1999 MYSTERY IN SPACE book was billed as being part of the "Pulp Fiction Library". Second loneliest library in the world, there was never another acquisition...

The 2009-2010 DC Comics Classics Library was resounding success in comparison, with nine whole books in a year and a half.

Which narrowly edges out the DC Essential Edition line from 2018-2019, which got out 8 books in under a year and was never heard from again.

The Chronicles line managed 32 books in 8 years from 2005 to 2013. Never got beyond the five core JLA members, was all repurposed stuff from prior reprints.

The [metallic] Age Omnibus series is still going on, with a number of books coming this year. Looks like there have been 67 in 13 years since 2013, and generally thicker than the average DC Finest, but will fall behind early in 2027.

And the softcover The [metallic] Age series I guess we can consider done, with nothing since 2021. Lasted five years and 42 books from 2016 to 2021, almost all material repurposed from the hardcover line (I think Swamp Thing had some additional stuff). And all slimmer books, so the DC Finest passed them in page count a while back.

I think that's everything you'd consider a branded reprint line from DC since they started publishing books. So in under a year and a half DC Finest probably ranks #4, will be #2 by this time next year, and DC's most successful reprint line by the end of 2027.

Will the Shining Knight keep his promise? Have we kept the planet clean and green?