At the beginning of the month, Rob Snow noticed this listing at amazon.com/gp/product/B09D8S3T78/:

As you can see, it is a pre-order for the Kindle-only edition of Russ' compilation of his Gold Exchange interviews with the creators of Booster Gold Volume 2 a decade ago. It's about time Russ collected them for modern readers; the always-entertaining columns originally ran on several different websites, few of which still exist. (The Boosterrific Blog's "Gold Exchange" posts are littered with dead links.)

I've been waiting to advertise that link to other Booster boosters until Russ was ready to announce physical editions of the book. And he finally has. Per an email Russ sent earlier this week to Indiegogo supporters of his Josie and the Pussycats oral history The Best Movie Ever: A Totally Jerkin' Book:

In October, The Gold Exchange will be available to buy as an ebook or a paperback on Amazon. In January, Dispatches From Chicago -- just like The Gold Exchange, but with Savage Dragon interviews -- will be available in the same way. Both of those can currently be bought in very limited quantities in "special edition" hardcovers over at josiebook.com.

Rob pre-ordered his Kindle edition weeks ago, and I've now pre-ordered a special edition copy for myself. I hope you'll join us in supporting Burlingame's decades-long efforts to chronicle the creation of Booster Gold's comic book adventures.

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Watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I'm seeing commercials with Olympic athletes who, according to disclaimers at the bottom of the screen, don't even use the products they're endorsing.

Why do I feel I've seen this all before?

Booster Gold #2 (1986)

In my "Secret Origin of Booster Gold" interview with Dan Jurgens, Booster's creator describes his inspiration this way:

Much of Booster was inspired by the '84 Olympics when I saw an athlete described as having an endorsement contract without ever having won a medal. Many of the BG ideas were already in place but that sort of galvanized it.

The years might roll by, but Booster Gold and the forces of commercial opportunism and social insecurity that drive him and his misadventures are as relevant as ever.

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In promotion of Blue and Gold #1, DC Comics has posted a primer on the history of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold on their blog at DCComics.com.

Most of what they have to say won't come as news to Boosterrific.com readers, but that's not necessarily true of what Dan Jurgens tells Liam McGuire in the interview now available at ScreenRant.com:

Screen Rant: Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have a very different relationship with the big players on DC's Justice League. Does that difference get explored in this book?

Dan Jurgens: Very much so. Booster is a rather insecure person. He craves acceptance from the other heroes. He's desperate to be regarded as an "A-Lister".

Ted would like that as well, but it's not an obsession for him. Booster, on the other hand, is desperate for it.

It's always great to have insight on how Booster's creator views his creation. "Insecure" may be an unusual word to apply to a DC superhero, but it accurately describes Booster's personality and what has motivated him into so many of his misadventures.

But hold on, here's another interesting bit:

Screen Rant: What can you tell us about working with Ryan Sook on this project?

Dan Jurgens: Ryan and I have worked together on FUTURES END, ACTION COMICS and BATMAN BEYOND. Every time I work with him, I am amazed by the quality of work and depth of thought that shows up on each and every page.

He's very much into the spirit of this project and exploring the nature of these two characters. It's a delight to see his work come in as we're working Marvel style, and it's really giving him the opportunity to add his magic touch.

If you aren't familiar with the "Marvel style," it's a "plot-first" process pioneered by Stan Lee and his artists in the 1960s where bare-bones plots where provided to pencillers so they have the most flexibility to work engaging layouts. In this method, scripting dialogue is done last.

(Stan Lee once wrote a book called How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way that focused entirely on what panels should look like in a Marvel comic, not how the artist and writer might work together. Ironically, the process is better explained by Denny O'Neil in The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics.)

Over the past four decades, Jurgens has pencilled most of his own Booster Gold scripts, so it's interesting to see how he writes Booster for other artists. Is this how he worked with Aaron Lopresti on Justice League International or Corin Howell for Bat-Mite?

I hope Jurgens doesn't tire of talking Booster Gold anytime soon. There's always more to learn.

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Dan Jurgens' latest interview about his forthcoming project, Blue and Gold — perhaps you've heard of it? — is online at DymanicForces.com.

Interviewer Byron Brewer was unable to coerce the famously tight-lipped Jurgens into revealing much that we didn't already know, but he did get these fun tidbits:

BB: Tell us a little bit about the overall storyline of this limited series.

Dan Jurgens: After going off on their own for a couple of years, Booster and the Beetle have reunited with the idea of forming a true partnership that gives them the chance to help people. Not as heroes for hire, but as heroes whose mission is supported by crowdfunding, as they seek to help those who don't have access to Superman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the heroic pantheon.

BB: Please tell me Skeets is in this one!

Dan Jurgens: Absolutely! And we may even have an all-new addition of—oh, wait. I can't mention that yet.

Obviously, Jurgens was playing coy. We've already seen the solicitation for Blue and Gold #3.

Dynamic Forces specializes in artist-signed limited edition comics. If you're thinking about getting your hands on a Jurgens-signed Blue and Gold #1, know that dynamicforces.com is already selling its "Elite Gold Signature" edition for $89.99. It'd be a deal at twice the price!

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I would like to thank all the Booster boosters who pointed me to Monday's Nerdist.com interview with the writer of the upcoming Blue and Gold mini-series by some guy named Dan Jurgens.

It is a pretty interesting read, and not just because it has an exclusive 5-page preview of the first issue. For example,

[I]n the wake of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the heroes of the DC Universe remember all previous continuities. So will remembering all this trauma play into Blue and Gold?

Turns out, not so much. According to Jurgens, "Booster is aware of it, of course, while Ted doesn't want to address it. He knows of it but also buries it."

Jurgens elaborated further, saying, "From a creative standpoint, I don't want to dwell on it. We did it in the 2007 Booster Gold series and I'm hesitant to dive into something that is now 15 plus years old. I think we're far better off simply driving right into current stories. That's what seems most fair to readers, as anything else ends up with multiple pages of explanation."

It's been 15 years since volume 2? Thanks for making me feel old, Dan.

All kidding aside, one of Jurgens' greatest strengths as a writer has always been an ability to blend the old and new so that new readers don't feel excluded while still winking at longtime fans. While that can occasionally be frustrating — no, seriously, *who* is the Black Beetle? — we have to recognize that's how comics worked throughout their heyday, and if a publisher isn't attracting new readers, they might as well go ahead and close up shop.

On a personal note, I should mention that Jurgens' "big tent" approach to comic book universe continuity has also made building this site so much fun. It's easy to imagine that all of Booster Gold's adventures have happened to a single character in a dynamic universe when the artist shepherding that character's growth has been so careful not to infringe upon the creations of the many other artists contributing to the ever-expanding multiversal tapestry. Jurgens knows that the first principle of good collaborative storytelling is learning to say "Yes, and...."

I strongly recommend that if you haven't already, you drop by Nerdist.com to read Eric Diaz's article. As I said above, it's got pictures. You *definitely* want to see the pictures of Ryan Sook's art.

And I suppose it probably goes without saying that you also *definitely* want to buy Blue and Gold when it comes out in three weeks.

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