Quote:
...if Superman is selling (in the million range!), why shouldn't the Flash or some other superhero (not burdened by Jack Schiff's endless aliens, monsters, batmites, etc. in the Batman titles)?


Bad chronology there. That period of Batman's history didn't get going until '58-'59, when the big Silver Age changes were already working across the whole line.

Yes, I'll certainly grant that the initial setup of how Showcase was supposed to work couldn't have been designed better to delay matters. But if The Flash had been an unambiguous success from the first try, I suggest that the sales of #8 should have been enough to warrant a new title.
There's another factor, too: read those issues. It wasn't until Showcase #14, for my money, that the book really began to settle into its groove. The earlier issues may not have sold as well because they weren't as good.
Who am us, anyway?
--The Firesign Theater