My favorite try-out book was probably also Showcase. My one favorite issue would have to be the first Hawk and Dove. When I was eight or nine years old, though, I also loved Anthro, Dolphin, and especially Manhunter 2070.

Really though, was there ever a better one-shot try-out than the first Spider-Man?

With honorable mentions to the first Deadman run in Strange Adventures, and Warlock again (Starlin's, this time) in Strange Tales.

When his brother concentrated on the phantom image of his brother (in the glasses) he was able to let his brother out of the phantom dimension and into ours.

HERE are some pages with the info and a body illo of 3D MAN.

http://www.marvel.com/universe/3-D_Man

http://www.geocities.com/ratmmjess/3dman.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Man

http://www.comicvine.com/3-d-man/43653/costumes/&c=6827

~P~
P-TOR

Kurt Busiek's Avengers character, Triathlon, was partially based on 3-D Man.

Showcase. Bat Lash.

Though the Dr Strange revival in Marvel Premiere was stunning (well, it was at the beginning and the end - the middle was a mess). And, in a shout out for the Little Company That Tried Once In A While But Not That Often, Charlton Premiere was great fun, with the Shape, Spookman (officially: insane) and Children of Doom.

I have read comics published since 1976, but I try not to talk about that.

Shocking.

...I can actually remember seeing the book when it came out. I was eight or so, and picked it up excitedly, thinking that it was Johnny Quest, not Jason's Quest. I realized my mistake and put it back down immediately, so maybe that's why the book never got the green light, and because of me he's out there riding through limbo, waiting, waiting, waiting...

Guess he's out there still...

In London, Jason found a picture of his sister but failed to recognize her in a chance encounter. She was wearing a black wig and calling herself GeeGee.

Shame they didn't go the same way as in Terry Laban's Vertigo mini 'The Unseen Hand' and have the separated brother and sister hook up (unknowingly) during in a drug fueled orgy (in the name of religion), and then have neither seem too weirded out when they realize.

"In 1969, thanks to his successful revamp of WONDER WOMAN, Mike Sekowsky was a hot commodity at DC and he was given a free hand to develop new features for SHOWCASE. Thus was born "Jason's Quest", described as "the unusual story of a boy ... his bike ... his search."

SHOWCASE #88 set up the situation: Late in 1969, Jason Davis' father was mortally wounded in a shooting. Summoned to his deathbed, the blonde young man listened to a stunning series of revelations. His real name was Jason Grant, Jr. and his natural father had been murdered when he was an infant. The killer was a mobster named Tuborg, who sought the elder Grant's latest invention. As Tuborg's killers combed the house for witnesses, Grant's servant, Davis, rushed to the nursery, commanding the housekeeper to take Jason's twin sister into hiding while he did the same with young Jason. Over the next nineteen years, Davis moved himself and Jason constantly, always trying to stay one step ahead of Tuborg.

In preparation for the day Jason would take over the fight, Davis drilled commando training into the boy's head. With his final breath, he gasped, "Your sister ... somehow your father secreted on her person evidence that will end Tuborg and his evil empire. In the fireplace at home ... the box your father gave me -- it has your papers ... money ... and -- and ... I'm ... I'm ... sor --"

Unknown to Jason, Tuborg had planted a bug in the hospital room and heard every word. Finding Jason's sister was now their number one priority. What followed was a race between Jason and Tuborg to get to her first. In London, Jason found a picture of his sister but failed to recognize her in a chance encounter. She was wearing a black wig and calling herself GeeGee.

After evading Tuborg's assassins for days, armed with nothing but his wits and his motorcycle, Jason crossed paths with GeeGee again in #90. This time he recognized her. Unfortunately, Tuborg's men were everwhere and Jason was forced to flee -- dragging his sister along. Constantly on his guard, Jason never had a moment to explain to GeeGee just why he was so desperate to talk to her. They were finally forced to split up but Jason asked her to meet him at a prearranged location the next day.

Watching him ride away to safety, she commented that "if he expects me to meet him tomorrow -- he's off his chump! If I EVER see that crazy man again -- I'll take off in the OPPOSITE direction as FAST as I can go! Goodbye -- and good riddance!"

And that's as far as "Jason's Quest" ever got. In the mid-1980s, long before he was a bankable name, Kurt Busiek cited the series as a dream project in a COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE interview. Wonder if he's still interested."

I want to know more about Jason Quest, never heard of him before.
What's the deal there?

And I'd love to see a Showcase/Essential volume like that. One that collected various short-lived DC series of the '70s would be cool, too ("Showcase Presents Joe Simon Telling Today's Youth What's Wrong With Them," containing Brother Power and Prez, maybe?).