The B&W pages here look great! That's always my worry with Showcase Presents and Essential volumes — you can never tell if they're readable without color until you've bought the book. (For example, good luck trying to decipher Jim Lee's pencils in some of the later Essential X-Men volumes!)

I think I mentioned before that I was torn between this volume and Welcome to Paradise; if I had to pick one at this point I think I'd pick the Showcase Presents, but honestly I think I'll get them both…this one for the "completist" in me and the other to see some of the stories in color and to read some later issues.

I hear ya. And yeah, good luck keeping up the pace of a review a day once you get into the Showcases! You'll need it…either that, or drugs to keep you awake 24/7.

I actually think DC's art style actually stayed "cleaner" a lot longer than Marvel's did though, so I don't think you'll run into too many problems. And there are a lot less 1970s Showcases than there are 1970s Essentials (although some of Marvel's 1970s horror books actually do look really good in black and white). It's mostly the 1980s and '90s Marvel comics that look awful in B&W, and there aren't too many Showcases like that. The only ones I can think of are Booster Gold and Batman & The Outsiders, both of which look pretty damn good.

I have the first Essential Moon Knight trade and the art in it looks great, although I haven't read the whole thing yet. Part of that, I think, is because a bunch of the stories in the middle were originally published in Hulk! Magazine, which was black and white.

I have the first two Ghost Rider volumes as well, and while they're readable, there are definitely points when you can tell that color would enhance the story.