SHOWCASE #103

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a mid-grade copy: visible spine stress lines and minor ticks along the spine, slight corner blunting at top right and bottom left, and some minor surface scuffing/scratches across the art (visible diagonal lines near the right edge). No major creases, tears, or color breaks are apparent, and colors remain bright with no noticeable fading. The book is in a protective sleeve, and interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Showcase #103 arrived near the very end of DC's long-running try-out anthology, which had spent over two decades launching or revisiting concepts before handing them off to their own titles. This issue pairs two established DC properties, Adam Strange and Hawkman (Katar Hol, alongside Hawkwoman), in a science-fiction adventure written by Jack C. Harris, with pencils by Al Milgrom and inks by veteran Hawkman artist Murphy Anderson. The cover is by Joe Kubert, one of the character's defining artists, and the supporting cast draws on the Rann-Thanagar corner of the DC universe, including Alanna Strange, Kanjar Ro, Byth, Hyathis, and a cameo from Hal Jordan. Showcase itself was winding down its Bronze Age revival by this point, with the series concluding shortly after with issue #104.

As a comic, #103 sits in the shadow of Showcase's more celebrated try-out issues from the 1950s and 1960s that introduced the Flash, Green Lantern, and other Silver Age mainstays; this late-run issue did not launch a new ongoing feature and has never carried key-issue status in the collecting hobby. It is valued by the market largely as a piece of the broader Adam Strange and Hawkman back-catalog rather than for any first appearance or landmark event, and the absence of a tracked fair-market value reflects that common, low-demand status. Interest in the issue tends to come from Kubert cover collectors and completists working through the Showcase run or the Adam Strange and Hawkman character histories rather than from speculative buyers.

Copies trade inexpensively in raw form across most grades, consistent with a low-demand back issue that saw a modest print run even for its era and rarely commands attention outside dedicated runs or cover-art collections. High-grade certified copies see a meaningful premium simply because Bronze Age anthology titles like Showcase were not preserved carefully by newsstand buyers, making true near-mint survivors scarce despite the low ceiling on demand. This is a book best suited to readers assembling a complete Showcase set, Hawkman or Adam Strange character collectors, or admirers of Joe Kubert's cover work, rather than a piece expected to draw competitive bidding on its own merits.