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Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold

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Frequently Asked Questions

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If you have other questions, click on section headers below to find more answers.

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 in 1985. The character is owned and published by DC Comics, which also publishs Superman and Batman among many 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, how these flaws manifest themselves in the traditional superhero culture of the DC Comics shared universe comprisese 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 many 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 was Batman comic books, especially Detective Comics. The key advantage in choosing Booster over Batman lay in the younger character's more publishing history. Cataloging the many, many appearances of Batman would be much, much more labor intensive than the considerably younger Booster Gold. (Interested parties may wish to note that a comprehensive comependium of the first 30 years of the Batman mythos were compiled in The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Vol. 1, Batman, originally published in 1967 and re-released in 2007.)

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B. Comic Books

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

Selection criteria is pretty straightforward: if Booster Gold appears in a comic book, that comic book should be listed here on the site. Boosterrific.com does not index comics where Booster Gold is referenced via dialogue only, though such cases often appear in blog entries.

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 the effect of their 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 them. It is useful if continuity appearances are read in order, whereas non-continuity appearances can be read in essentially any order so long as you can determine approximately where they take place in a character's overall development (e.g. young Booster versus old Booster).

B. 3. What is the DC Universe?

The term "DC Universe," commonly abbreviated "DCU" — or, since 2011, "DCnU" to indicate the revised "New 52" Universe — is the shared, common environment in which the mainstream DC Comics character adventure. The DC Universe contains a "multiverse," — or several, simultaneously existing "alternate" realities — which contain multiple variations on every character that DC Comics publishes.

B. 4. What is an annotation?

Annotation is the process of making notes to a published text in order to clarify its context and meaning.

Please note that the annotations here at Boosterrific.com rarely include much in the way of critical analysis. Instead, the annotations here simply educate the causal reader and remind the more dedicated of context surrounding the culture and eras of Booster Gold's adventures. Generally speaking, interpretations of the meanings and morals of the stories are left to individual reviewers and commenters unless an explanation is critical to the understanding of an issue or event.

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 the events of the "real world" shared with their readers, 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 in real life. 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. Why are the annotations accompanied by so few pictures?

It is intended that the annotations should be read alongside the original published material that they reference. Primarily because all of Booster Gold's published appearances are copyrighted and owned by DC Comics, Boosterrific.com reproduces no more than a few panels from original publication for illustration purposes as allowed by the doctrine of fair use under US copyright law. It is intended that the content at Boosterrific.com only supplement DC's intellectual property, not reproduce or replace it.

B. 8. Where can copies of the original texts be obtained?

When Boosterrific.com debuted in 2007, most of Booster Gold's adventures were well out of print, and back issues were only available via comics specality shops. However, in years since, with the rise in Booster's profile and the growing popularity of digital comics, most have now been reprinted or released in digital formats. Physical reprint collections are included in the Boosterrific database as unique entries.

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

Most values have been taken as listed from the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, for years the industry standard in valuing back issue prices. I do not purchase a new guide every year, so some prices may be outdated.

In the case of "hot" books, such as the case for Booster Gold, Volume 1, #1 when it was announced the character was being considered for a television series or movie, I have updated in accordance with online resources such as mycomicshop.com and comicspriceguide.com.

B. 10. How do you determine your ratings for comic books?

Ratings are my personal opinion. Of course, I think my opinion is pretty educated, as I've read a lot of comic books over the past several decades, and certainly every Booster Gold comic book EVER. My scale is simple, from 1 star being the worst rating (just a terrible read, Booster Gold or no) and 5 stars being the best (5-star books must include integral participation by Booster; that's one of my few concrete criteria).

If you disagree with me, you're wrong, but I still invite you to have your say by providing your own rating and review for every book that I have rated.

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C. Characters

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

This should be straightforward: they encounter Booster Gold. Heroes and villains are catalogued if Booster Gold is depicted on panel fighting with or against them. Supporting characters are occasionally listed if they played a notable role in Booster Gold's adventures, even if behind the scenes. Unnamed characters, such as waiters and firemen, are never cataloged.

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

Except in very few cases, 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 far 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 cross paths.

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D. Artists

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

With few exceptions, any artist receiving published credit in a comic book containing a Booster Gold appearance is listed at Boosterrific.com. In cases of publications including the participation of multiple artists, when the art duties are broken down by individual stories or pages, only the artists contributing to stories or pages containing Booster Gold will be listed. In some cases, errors and omissions in publications have been supplemented by other resources.

D. 2. What roles are included?

Artists receiving publised credit as "writer," "script," "dialogue," "breakdowns," "plot," or "story" are designated as Writers on this site. Pencillers are anyone receiving credit as "pencils," "art," "drawing," or "illustrations." Inkers are "inkers," "art," and "fill." Colorists, Letterers, and Editors are pretty much what they say they are, though "Assistant editors" and "associate editors" have been simplified to one title, ,"Assistant Editors,". Cover Artists, the celebrities of the comic art world, are their own group no matter what their contribution to the finished product.

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

Boosterrific.com's focus is the character of Booster Gold and his artifical world. I leave it to other resources to track the careers of individual artists, all of whom have worked on more than just comics about Booster Gold.

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E. Boosterrific.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 fell out of the character's 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. My background is in design and Flash applications, as you may be able to gather from the Booster Gold Flash ads that appear on the homepage. (Now that Flash is really and truly a dead Internet language, all ads have been replaced by old-fashioned gifs.)

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 is in many ways integrally connected to the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe and had just been "killed off" when I hatched this idea, and B: I like him. So this site, started as a programming test, became a labor of love for a fallen hero who has since risen from the grave to new heights of stardom.

E. 3. Where did you get your information?

Most of my information came directly from the source material published by DC Comics. Whenever possible, I consulted my own collection for information. I also found several websites helpful, specifically including the following sites, in no particular order:

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. Images taken directly from comic books and related materials published by DC Comics are also the intellectual property of DC Comics, and they are used on this site under the Fair Use doctrine in order to illustrate, and in most cases glorify, the materials 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, writer, web and video game designer/programmer 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 (or how much you like me). Use the site contact form or send me an email at Walter (at) Boosterrific.com.

E. 7. Am I the only person who has any interest in the minutia of Booster Gold comics and continuity?

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. Many of them contribute to Boosterrific regularly, often through blog comments and emails.

E. 8. What happens to information I contribute to Boosterrific.com?

Opinions and content posted on Boosterrific.com, either in the form of blog comments, issue reviews, or forum posts are contributed freely and voluntarily by their contributor. Any personal information that may be volunteered by the commenters or forum users for Boosterrific.com is used by Boosterrific.com solely for the purpose of identifying that user in the case of abusive or disrespectful behavior. No information gathered by Boosterrific.com is ever sold or disclosed to any third parties.

For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

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SPOILER WARNING: The content at Boosterrific.com may contain story spoilers for DC Comics publications.