Tomorrow, Booster Gold is promised to return to the DCnU in All-Star Western #28. This will end the Booster Gold drought at 244 days. To put that in perspective: the 3 longest stretches without Booster Gold appearing in a DCU-continuity book:

1. 336 days between Superman #124 and Chase #4 (Apr. 1997 to Mar. 1998)
2. 302 days between Martian Manhunter #24 and JLA: Our Worlds At War (Sept. 2000 to July 2001)
3. 244 days between All Star Western #21 and All Star Western #28 (June 2013 to February 2014)

Where will Booster appear next? Who knows. The counter resets tomorrow, but we really need to get our hero in books more often than once a year!

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Boosterphile Chris Aguinaldo was the first to tell me that All-Star Western writer Jimmy Palmiotti spilled the big news about his planned guest star in "Palmiotti Brings Superman to 'All-Star Western'."

CBR News: Although Superman's the character featured alongside Jonah on the cover, perhaps the bigger event was Gina bringing Jonah to the museum exhibiting his body. What was your process for designing the exhibit? The faux comic book covers were an especially nice touch.

Palmiotti: We thought it would be cool for Jonah to see the impact he made in his life -- good or bad, real or not, and have him process [the information]. The items in the exhibit are specific, and the actual stuffed Jonah is from a story originally told in the classic "Jonah Hex Spectacular," where we theoretically witness the end of Jonah's life. We have scrutinized that issue and plan on coming back to it later once the story moves from the current location. And, yes, Booster Gold will be in Issue 28 for those that love the character. Things will be moving quickly.

So, to recap: BOOSTER GOLD WILL BE IN ALL-STAR WESTERN #28!

The book will be released on February 26. You can read more about what to expect in the issue in Steve Sunu's full interview at ComicBookResources.com.

Thanks to Chris for spreading the good word.

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Given the drought of Booster Gold appearances in 2013, there really couldn't be anything else here in first place for most viewed posts for 2013. From April 15, 2013:

At the time that DC released this cover, we had no idea that this story would be Booster's only appearance in the DCnU in 2013. Here's hoping we get more Booster Gold in 2014!

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In Smallville: Season 11, Booster Gold acted like a heroic criminal. In All-Star Western, Booster Gold acted like a heroic imbecile. Neither was ideal for Booster fans, but at least Smallville had Skeets!

Last week's poll question: Were you more satisfied with Booster Gold's 3-issue appearance in All-Star Western or Smallville Season 11? (41 votes)

Summertime means Comic Con. Comic Con means big news. What are the chances that some of that big news will be about Booster Gold?

This week's poll question: Do you expect to hear big Booster Gold news out of Comic Con 2013?

[UPDATE 2013-07-21: This poll has been closed early to coincide with the end of Comic-Con International.]

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Now that the story is over and the numbers are in, I thought it would be fun to look at whether or not choosing to add Booster Gold to All-Star Western did anything to help its anemic sales. In short, the answer is "not really."

I've included the six months of sales prior to Booster's arrival (issues #13 through #18) in the graph for reference. It seems that Booster's arrival in issue #19 may have slowed the defection of readers briefly, but they resumed their flight from the title as the story wore on. If All-Star Western lives or dies based on sales numbers (and not Dan DiDio's favor), Booster's appearance might have bought the title one more issue.

Granted, the numbers in this chart are for print issues only and fail to account for any digital sales. Maybe the book sells like gangbusters online, although since All-Star Western appears in 407th place of ComiXology's "Top Titles" list, that seems unlikely.

Looking at the slope of sales decline, an unexceptional issue #19 should probably have been expected to sell about 16,400 copies. Instead, with Booster's help it sold 16,838 copies. Does that mean that adding Booster to a book boosts sales by 400 copies? If the sales of Smallville are any indication, we should probably assume that it was the "WTF" gatefold cover, not Booster's appearance, that drove up sales for the issue.

Booster's appearance in issue #13 didn't seem to move the sales needle. Sales continued on pace. Although these graphs show decreasing sales, remember that as a general rule, comic sales decrease in a gentle curve from month to month for every title everywhere. That's natural sales entropy, and it's why titles are constantly started over with number 1 issues; it moves the title back to the top of the ladder to start the slide over again.

Did Booster fail to make any mark on Smallville: Season 11's sales because Smallville takes place outside of continuity (whatever that word means in the New 52 Universe)? Was it because Smallville: Season 11 is sold in weekly installments online? Or was it because the people who would buy Smallville are buying anyway, and don't care who the guest star of the week is? Who knows. But whatever you do, don't blame it on Skeets!

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