Seems to me if someone is (now suddenly because of a movie appearance) an early Aquaman "key" collector, the books to have are Adventure 260 and BB 28. Despite all the requisite ebay mis-information and carnival barking Showcase 30 is not an important book (from a substantive point of view) and is superfluous.
-J.
I would not characterize Showcase 30 as superfluous. It is certainly a key because DC is testing out the Aquaman character in his own full-length book for the first time ever. I think it's fair to assume that a lot of kids in 1959 didn't get around to reading the back-up feature in Adventure 260 where Aquaman's origin was tinkered with, so Showcase 30 on those spinner racks targeted and won over a lot of readers. In addition, Showcase 30 is published about a year after the launch of the revamped Green Lantern, one month before the launch of the revamped Hawkman, and a few months before the launch of the revamped Atom. Historically speaking, the book comes at a critical point in time during DC's superhero rebirth.
I would buy into this logic a little more if BB 28 and his and the JLA's other multiple appearances in the BB run hadn't preceded it, and by such a significant amount of time. And the mere fact that it's part of the "Showcase" run is not, in and of itself, enough to make it a "key". Cool book, cool cover, yes. But Showcase 30 is not a key IMO.
-J.
Sure it is.