A. BOOSTER GOLD

A. 1. Who is Booster Gold

In a nutshell, Booster Gold is a super powered comic book character created by artist Dan Jurgens. The character is owned and published by DC Comics, the same publisher as Superman and Batman, among others. Booster Gold is an anti-hero, or a hero who performs apparently heroic deeds for less than ideal reasons. He is commonly described as vain and self-centered, two characteristics that are rarely associated with heroes. For many, including myself, this flawed character generates the fundamental appeal of the character.

A. 2. Why devote a website to Booster Gold?

I've been a Booster Gold fan since his comics first hit the shelves of my local convenience store over 20 years ago. When I decided to build this website, I couldn't think of a better candidate. Yes, the idea for the site came before the selection of character. (My first love is Batman comic books, especially Detective Comics. But cataloging the appearances of Batman would be much, much more labor intensive than the much younger Booster Gold. Interested parties may wish to note that the first 30 years of the Batman mythos were compiled in The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Vol. 1, Batman, which has recently been re-published.)

return to top

B. COMIC BOOKS

B. 1. What is the criteria for determining whether a comic is included in the site?

It's pretty straightforward: if Booster Gold appears in a comic book, that comic book should be listed here on the site.

B. 2. What is the difference between continuity and non-continuity appearances?

Modern comic books are often like soap operas. Characters evolve based on their actions, and their host of experiences, both positive and negative, follows them around like baggage for years and years. Continuity appearances pay attention to this rich history, and non-continuity appearances ignore it.

I put the two types of appearances into two separate categories in order to differentiate the two. It is useful if continuity appearances are read in order, whereas non-continuity appearances can be read in essentially any order.

B. 3. What is the DC Universe?

The term "DC Universe," commonly abbreivieated "DCU," is the shared worlds of the mainstream DC Comics characters. The DC Universe contains a "multiverse," or several different alternate realities, which contain multiple variations on each character and location that DC Comics publishes.

B. 4. What is an annotation?

Annotation is the process of illuminating the published text to clarify its context and meaning. Annotations should provide the reader with insight into the creator's intentions with the published text.

B. 5. How did you determine what to annotate?

It is clearly the belief of the writers at DC Comics that their characters should have some grounding in physical reality, so I have made every attempt to base my annotations on relating the character of Booster Gold to his surroundings both in the DCU and the real world. In most cases, annotations are limited to information that was significant to Booster Gold or his immediate supporting cast or that could put his adventures into perspective in the much larger DC Universe.

B. 6. Do the annotations contain spoilers?

I HATE spoilers. As I mentioned in the annotation notes on the comics page, I've made every effort to avoid revealing the outcomes of Booster Gold's stories so as to preserve the suspense and suprise for first-time readers of the texts. Ideally, I'd encourage the reader to revisit the original texts in order to fully enjoy them with the added context that my annotations could provide.

B. 7. Where can copies of the original texts be obtained?

Granted, most of Booster Gold's adventures are well out of print, having never been re-published (though this is starting to change with his growing popularity resulting from the success of 52), but most of his comics are easily available from specialty shops. As a fan of comic books, I encourage anyone interested in any aspect or genre of the medium to locate a retailer or reseller to further their hobby.

B. 8. How did you calculate the Near Mint values shown for comic books?

Most values were taken as listed from the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. I do not purchase a new guide every year, so some prices may be slightly outdated.

return to top

C. CHARACTERS

C. 1. How were characters selected for inclusion in the character listings?

Simple: they encounter Booster Gold. Heroes and villains were catalogued if Booster Gold is depicted fighting with or against them. Supporting characters were listed if they played a major role in Booster Gold's adventures, or if Booster Gold encountered them on at least two occasions. Locations were listed along with supporting characters if the locations were significant to Booster Gold's history.

C. 2. In some books, more characters appear than are included in the issue listings. Why?

Only characters which are seen on panel with Booster Gold, or which are demonstrated to be in communication or cooperation with Booster Gold are listed. Therefore, in such event books as the Infinite Crisis, only the characters that come into contact with Booster Gold are mentioned, even if there are several subplots, locations, encounters, and hundreds of heroes and villains between the pages. This site is about Booster Gold, not the entire DC Universe. (If you are interested in the history of a wider range of characters, I recommend the Unofficial DC Guide to the DC Universe, which is much more comprehensive than this site.)

C. 3. Why is the biographical information for the characters so limited?

Biographical information is provided only to illustrate the characters that Booster Gold comes into contact with during his adventures, not to provide full histories of characters. This is first and foremost a Booster Gold site. Other characters can find life elsewhere.

C. 4. Why are character appearance listings so limited?

As mentioned elsewhere, character entries are only included for issues in which that character encounters Booster Gold. Therefore, checking all listings for, say, Superman, will only return listings in which Superman and Booster Gold meet.

return to top

D. ARTISTS

D. 1. Which artists are listed on this site?

Any artist receiving credit in a comic book containing a Booster Gold appearance is listed here in the site.

D. 2. What roles are included?

Credits were simplified for inclusion so as to keep the site database more manageable. Some credited titles were rearranged slightly in order to enhance presentation. Artists reciving credit as "writer," "script," "dialogue," "breakdowns," "plot," or "story" were designated as "Writers" on this site. Pencillers are anyone receiving credit as "pencils," "art," "drawing," or "illustrations." Inkers are "inkers," "art," and "fill." Colors, Letters, and Editors are pretty much what they say they are. Assistant and associate editors have been simplified to "Assistant Editors" for the sake of consistency.

D. 3. Why is there not more biographical data about each artist?

Mainly because there are simply too many artists. Artists outnumber characters on the site 4 to 1 and growing. DC Comics moves through artists much faster than characters.

return to top

E. BOOSTERIFFIC.COM

E. 1. What does "Boosterrific" mean?

The word "Boosterrific" was Booster Gold's catchphrase. It is meaningless slang derived by combining the words "Booster" and "terrific." It was used frequently in Booster's early appearances but practically fell out of the lexicon when his title was canceled.

E. 2. Why create this website?

Honestly, this website began as an exercise in the practical application of PHP scripting for a MySQL database. Booster Gold was chosen to be the centerpiece of the database because A.) he's a relatively minor character in the DC Comics publishing pantheon who had just been "killed off" when I hatched this idea, and B.) I like him. So this site became a programming test combined with a labor of love for a fallen hero who has since risen from the grave.

E. 3. Where did you get your information?

Most of my information came directly from the DC Comics published source material. Whenever possible, I consulted my own collection for information. I also found several websites helpful, including the Unofficial DC Guide to the DC Universe, the Grand Comic Book Database, and DC Cosmic Teams.

Special thanks are due to Shawn Baston and Michael Foster. Without their assistance and information, this site would not be nearly complete enough.

E. 4. Who owns the material on this site?

Booster Gold and everything in the world he occupies, from the people that he meets to the products that he sells, are the copyright material owned and published by DC Comics. Low resolution images taken directly from comic books published by DC Comics are also the intellectual property of DC Comics, and they are used on this site only in order to illustrate, and in most cases glorify, the texts from which they came. Anything appearing on this website that is not the copyrighted property of DC Comics or is not attributed directly to a third party (such as appear on the "Other Media" page) is the intellectual property of Boosterrific.com.

E. 5. Who are you?

I am an artist and web designer with an affinity for DC comic books. My personal site is wriphe.com. You can find out anything that you care to know about me there.

E. 6. How do I contact you about the site?

Maybe I have an error. Maybe I've missed a book. Maybe you just want to tell me how much you like the site. Send me an email at Webmaster (at) Boosterrific.com.

E. 7. Am I the only person who has any interest in this stuff at all?

Heck, no. In fact, Boosterrific.com seems to appeal to several -- that's right: several -- people who maintain an interest in the great and powerful Booster Gold, the DC Universe, and comic books in general. Boosterrific.com even has it's own awards page showcasing the praise the site has received from other sites of the highest caliber.