corner box
menu button
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold

Buy Booster Gold

Showing posts 1 - 5 of 53 matching: dccomics.com

Monday, September 18, 2023

A Thing I Do Not Know What To Do With

Late last week, Booster booster J sent me a bunch of new sighting of old ads to update the list of Boosterrific Advertisements. However, one of his finds is this:

© DC Comics

That house advertisement comes from Flashpoint Companion, a collection of promotional material — mostly cover art — supporting the Flashpoint event.

So far as I can determine, Flashpoint Companion was a digital only release originally published online in 2012 at read.dccomics.com. Although DC discontinued that subdomain URL in 2013, you can still read it free online via DC Infinite, Google Play, Apple Books, or Amazon (and probably many others).

Other than this two-page spread — essentially a glorified reading list — the only actual "story" inside the book is a two-page "The Origin of the Flash" written by Scott Beatty (which, according to his blog, scottbeatty.blogspot.com, was originally created as a Converse shoe promotion, probably sometime around 2008-2009, as I believe it was included in the DC Universe: Origins collection of the 2-page origins published in 2010 Never mind. It's not in there).

In fact, it's probably worth mentioning that all the art for this promo was pulled from other sources. The central image of Flash comes from an Andy Kubert drawn house ad at the end of 2010's The Flash Volume 3 #1 (as you can see at Flash fansite speedforce.org). The background behind the Flash (a callback to the sublime wraparound slipcase cover for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover by George Perez and Alex Ross) was taken from Flashpoint #5 (also drawn by Kubert).

The crackle section with Booster and Professor Zoom are the covers of Booster Gold #45 by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, and Hi-Fi Designs and Flashpoint: Reverse Flash #1 by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes.

© DC Comics

I don't find print copies of this thing documented online in any of the usual places, but it's possible it has been overlooked given its slight content. Does anyone know if Flashpoint Companion was ever officially published (i.e., committed to paper)? Perhaps as an in-store giveaway?

As a general rule, I confine mention of digital-only content to here on the Boosterrific Blog and leave it out of the larger tracking Boosterrific Database, in large part because digital content is so ephemeral, even by comic book standards. Should I make an exception here given the ubiquity of the free copies floating around online ten years after its original release? Oh, the headaches of being an obsessive comic book chronicler!

Hearty thanks to J for your ongoing efforts to make Boosterrific better than ever.

UPDATE: J adds via email

A few years ago, DC had booklets advertising various characters, such as Batman 101 and JSA 101, where they'd print a list of essential stories, a some two-page origin stories, and comic covers.... In the "Justice League 201" booklet, they'd reprinted the Origin of Booster Gold from 52 #24. But unfortunately, it seems to no longer be available.

Like the Flashpoint Companion, I believe those also only existed digitally, and my bias against tracking digital media applies. For years, DC made those 2-page origins available for free on their website as part of their character guides; that content seems to have evaporated as well.

And that's why I prefer physical floppies: DC can't take the paper away from me (unless they back a moving truck up to my house).

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: andy kubert dccomics.com flashpoint house ads j scott beatty scottbeatty.blogspot.com speedforce.org

Monday, May 29, 2023

New Release: Power Girl Special

Ongoing monthly publishing schedules are based on planning for a release every four weeks. So the few months a year where the calendar contrives to have five weeks in a month throws a real wrench into the works.

This fifth week is sometimes called a "skip week" because publishers often release no ongoing books during the week to maintain their regular 4-week release schedules. Rather than just skip a week of potential sales, DC has traditionally solved this "fifth week" problem with mini-events and one-shot standalone issues.

That's why this is the week you'll be seeing the DC Pride 2023 anthology and the Power Girl Special in your Local Comic Shop.

While I don't expect we'll be seeing Booster Gold in either of those issues, they both will be offering Booster Gold fandom-adjacent entertainment. The Boostle crowd will probably find something to love in DC Pride, and Justice League International aficionados will want to read the back-up story in the Power Girl Spcial featuring Fire and Ice, the female "Blue and Gold," if you will.

As DCComics.com made clear last month's press release, Power Girl's Fire and Ice story is laying the groundwork to their own mini-series, Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, coming in September. Again, I have no rational expectation that Booster Gold (and/or Blue Beetle) will be appearing in that series, either. But it would be nice if they did.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: boostle dccomics.com fire ice power girl

Monday, August 1, 2022

Coming Soon: Superman Dies. Again.

While Booster boosters were occupied with last week's announcement and pre-sale of the McFarlane Toys Blue and Gold action figure 2-Pack, DC Comics tried to sneak another announcement past us:

© DC Comics

That's the "Gatefold Main Cover" by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding of The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1, coming to a Local Comic Shop near you on November 8. And, as you can see, Booster Gold is on it.

According to the press release at DCComics.com, Jurgens and Breeding are just part of the all-star cast of writers and artists from the original "Death of Superman" reuniting for this special. The issue also brings back Roger Stern and Butch Guice, Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove, and Jerry Ordway and Tom Grummett. Yes, please.

This is obviously a big deal for DC, so obviously there are multiple covers. Nine, in fact, if you count the "Premium Polybag Variant." What you see above is the main cover. That means it'll be the cover you'll find if when you open the polybag to get your updated armband.

(Personal side note: for many, many years, I've worn a black leather jacket modeled after the Tom Grummet cover of The Adventures of Superman #501 with a Superman #75 black arm band. That armband is not a particularly durable fabric [2015 pictures here], and I look forward to replacing it.)

Anyway, while not every cover has been revealed yet, DC's announcement does include the "Funeral for a Friend" variant cover by Ivan Reis and Danny Miki. Like the Dan Jurgens variant for Justice League #75 a few months back that homaged "Funeral for a Friend," this cover also pays tribute to the Superman #75 poster, also with Booster Gold:

© DC Comics

(Yes, that *is* Blue Beetle behind Booster on that cover. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that Beetle was not present for Superman's funeral because Doomsday put him in a coma. But if I'm going to nitpick, I probably should say something about Martian Manhunter/Bloodwynd. And let's just not go there.)

So if you're counting, that's at least *two* copies of The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 you're going to need to keep your Booster Gold comic collection complete.

I'll let you know if that number goes up.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: brett breeding covers dan jurgens danny miki dccomics.com death ivan reis solicitations superman

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Beggars and Choosers

In response to one of my tweets earlier this week, @Space_Lt_Josh commented that there is a "real Boosterenaissance beginning to unfold right now". I couldn't agree more (except for the fact that I would spell "Boosterrenaissance" the Boosterrific-endorsed way: with two "r"s!).

Our hero has come off his own Blue and Gold mini-series to play a role in Dark Crisis, DC Vs. Vampires, and Human Target. While I have grave reservations about how he is being portrayed in some of those series, I certainly think it is for the best that the character is in position to be seen by larger audiences.

Booster booster Joe Carlo informs me that at least someone at DC Comics' parent company, DC Entertainment (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery!) is also aware of Booster's rising visibility. He knows because he got a promotional email putting Booster in the "character spotlight."

© DC Comics

The email directs readers to the DCComics.com character page for Booster Gold (www.dccomics.com/characters/booster-gold).

It gives Booster a glowing write-up, though I have to wonder why the article's accompanying headshot is this:

© DC Comics

Aw, come on, guys. Couldn't you find a picture where Booster hasn't spent a year trapped in an alternate timeline hell of his own making? Oh, well. I guess you can't have everything.

Viva la Boosterrevolution!

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: dccomics.com joe carlo space_lt_josh twitter.com

Friday, March 4, 2022

People Are Talking, Talking About People

Whether or not I'm a fan of CW's programming, I have to admit that Donald Faison's portrayal of Booster Gold on DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 7 finale has certainly raised the profile of the character and introduced him to a whole bunch of people who have never actually set their hands on a DC comic. That's an objectively good thing.

So it is a worthwhile experience to read how the show's executive producer Phil Klemmer finally got around to adding Booster to his long-running show.

Here he speaks to Chancellor Agard for ew.com:

EW: Arrowverse boss Greg Berlanti has reportedly been working on a Booster Gold movie for years. How did the character wind up on Legends?

Klemmer: As you might expect, through the side door you'd least expect it [to]. I just remember [co-showrunner Keto Shimizu] and I were on a call with Kim Roberto at DC, and we were just talking about fun characters. I think somebody threw it out there, of course never [imagining] in a million years would we get Booster Gold. And then it felt like 15 minutes later, DC called us back and was just like, "Hey, Booster's yours." And just you have a moment of being like, "Okay, this is clearly a prank of some sort, because..." We were all giddy and in disbelief and then it just became a quest of finding an actor who was worthy of the character.

EW: Why was Booster Gold on your mind to begin with? Were you just looking for a DC character to bring in at the end of the season? How did Booster end up fitting the needs of the story?

Klemmer: It's always the tonal fit and just knowing, I don't know, there's just something so lovable and unexpected. You just knew that he was going to work as kind of a bit of the merry prankster, a bit of a BS artist.

Klemmer was also quizzed by Joshua Lapin-Bertone at DCComics.com:

DC: How familiar were you with Booster before this?

Klemmer: I just knew about him from the early days of Legends, when I would hear of various projects, whether they were TV shows or movies, in the same halls where I was working. And obviously dealing with Rip Hunter in early seasons as well. I just assumed that he was going to have his own project. I never imagined that he would come into our world.

DC: For building this version of Booster, did you draw upon any particular stories? Or did you build him from the ground up?

Klemmer: The creation of a character really takes place over the course of that first season, and then seasons to come. It's going to really be a correspondence between us as writers and Donald as a performer. We definitely wanted someone who is a little off center, and like, a little bit mischievous. But we also just wanted a charisma bomb.

And we round out our media tour with Klemmer's conversation with Damian Holbrook of TVInsider.com:

TV: Is the plan to keep Donald on the board?

Klemmer: For sure. We're not gonna let Booster get away. I'm really excited to write him—he's the kind of character you wish you could be. You could get away with murder and be so charming that you never really have to suffer the consequences. He's the antithesis of a writer. Writers are deeply neurotic and self-loathing self-doubting, etcetera. I think that's why we writers are drawn to those characters—because those are our secret alter egos.

Season 8 has not yet been announced. Will there be another season of Legends of Tomorrow? If I were a betting man, I'd bet yes (especially if Michael "Booster" Carter is on the field). Legends of Tomorrow is one of the few CW shows that has improved its ratings season-over-season, so I think we should prepare to see more of Klemmer and Faison's Gold come fall.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: chancellor agard damian holbrook dccomics.com donald faison ew.com greg berlanti interviews joshua lapin-bertone legends of tomorrow phil klemmer tvinsider.com


There have been 2841 blog entries since January 2010.

VIEW LIST OF 2983 KEYWORDS

FIND NEWS BY DATE


JUMP TO PAGE



SITE SEARCH


return to top

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