As I type this, the #1 New Release on Amazon.com in the category of Comics & Graphic Novels Literary Criticism is

If you don't remember the original "Gold Exchange" columns, Russ explains their history in the introduction to the book:

It started at Comic Related, and moved to Blog@Newsarama when I did. Just as I was beginning my time at ComicBook.com, the site where I still work, Booster Gold vol. 2 ended, and with it, The Gold Exchange. There were occasional returns to the story of Booster Gold, and I usually took the opportunity to discuss them with Dan, but as a recurring feature, the column effectively ended with Flashpoint, like so many other things at DC.

With Comic Related now defunct and Blog@Newsarama several facelifts (and owners) on from my short time there, none of this material is online in its original form anymore. Back in 2008, I was assured by both outlets that I owned all the content I created there, so while the more recent content is owned by ViacomCBS (the parent company of ComicBook), the contents of this book represent an updated, formatted, and edited version of a PDF I put together in 2011, with the intent of offering it at the ComicBook booth when I tabled at New York Comic Con.

For that reason, while some introductions and notes reflect that this book is releasing in 2021, the "real-time" commentary element of the interviews is retained as much as possible. This is, to an extent, preserving a moment in Booster's history, and comics history, in amber. Appreciate it for what it is, and enjoy the many, many times I tried to get Dan to tell me a spoiler, only to have him say "Stay tuned."

I read those columns in their native locations, and I'm still tuned. (When will we get to find out who the Black Beetle is, Dan?!)

Russ was kind enough to share a preview copy of the book with me, and I can heartily recommend it to any Booster Gold (or comic book) fan who wants to know a little more about how the sausage is made, so to speak.

Support comics journalism and get your own Kindle copy (paperback coming soon, maybe even by the end of the week!) at amazon.com.

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Those of you who had pre-ordered a Kindle version of Russ Burlingame's "Gold Exchange" columns from Amazon.com may have gotten some unpleasant news earlier this week when the listing was withdrawn and pre-order payments were refunded.

I reached out to Burlingame, and he explained that he was still working on completing the book but unexpected delays had been caused by family health issues.

I tried to push the release date to November 17, but Amazon never processed that and I received word that preorders had been cancelled when I missed my prepub date on Sunday. Unless something else happens I should still have it ready for readers between now and 11/17, but unfortunately because I missed my initial deadline they will not reinstate the preorders, and it won't be available to buy until I have uploaded the files.

While that is a setback, it is good to know the book is still in the works. I've worked with Amazon a bit myself (plug, plug), and I know how it can be.

We can be patient, Russ. If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything.

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The cover of Blue and Gold #3 teases "the million-dollar debut of Buggles," but the real guest of honor in this issue is...

It has been too long, girl! For those who don't remember, Trixie was Booster's first secretary at Goldstar, Inc. (as seen in the immortal Booster Gold #1 in 1985). Trixie was also the first to wear the Goldstar uniform. She and Booster made a great team back in the day.

When Booster joined the JLI full time, he and Trixie drifted apart. In fact, we haven't seen her since Chase #4 (in 1998!) while she was landlord to the Teen Titans. As you might expect from two former friends who couldn't make the time to maintain their relationship, their relationship was a bit frosty at the time.

It's good to see they've both grown past that.

In one of his long-lost-to-the-web "Gold Exchange" columns — presumably one that will be reprinted in his upcoming book — Russ Burlingame once reported that Dan Jurgens had plans to revisit Trixie in Booster Gold Volume 2, but the title was canceled before it ever happened. Thanks to DC for giving Jurgens another opportunity to bring Trixie back.

For more about Booster Gold's original secretary (and second sidekick), see my Character Spotlight on Trixie Collins.

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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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You may recall that this time last week, I asked whether the "Linearverse" introduced in Generations Shattered and Generations Forged should count as continuity. That question got answered (in a roundabout way) when earlier this week Russ Burlingame took a break from writing books about movies to interview Generations writers Dan Jurgens, Robert Venditti, and Andy Schmidt in a spiritual successor to his old "Gold Exchange" column for ComicBook.com.

ComicBook: The idea that realities have always been there, just out of sight, rather than actually being destroyed, is a revelation to the characters here -- but is that how you view the worlds that are destroyed in each subsequent Crisis event? Certainly it's how The CW explicitly dealt with their post-Crisis multiverse.

Dan Jurgens: I hadn't thought about it that way, but I certainly see your point!

For me, on a personal level, I find it harder to accept the notion of entire planes of reality being destroyed, only to be recreated again. "Hiding" them or making them inaccessible actually seems much more believable. The amount of energy required to destroy and recreate universes is tremendous, after all.

Plus, we weren't going to change anything. The Linearverse was meant to stay much the way it had been, which is a place that is belt around DC's published history.

Robert Venditti: To steal from Dan a bit, I hadn't really thought of that. I don't know if it's important to me that definitive explanations are made. Mostly, I want to leave toys in the sandbox for other creative teams to play with. I think we've done that.

Andy Schmidt: One of the things that I generally want to shy away from as a creator is writing over someone else's work or saying that it never happened. Because it happened for the reader and for the creators who put those stories together. They're real and they're important to someone.

Most of the comics I grew up reading that got me into comics in the first place have been retconned so they never happened, but they're still what made me fans of those characters in the first place. So, for me, it's just kind of a respect thing for fans and creators both. If it's real to you — I should treat it as such. Generations Shattered and Forged gave us a platform to re-validate those "hidden" stories as you called them. To let readers and creators know we remember, and we still love those stories, while also crafting something new to introduce those takes on characters to new fans. It's challenging and it's fun and I think it's upbeat in the approach and hopefully in its execution.

I like the "it is what you want it to be" approach to the DC Universe — which in the past has made such titles as Formerly Known As The Justice League possible — so I'll choose to consider the story canon. Thanks, guys! I think I'm going to like this Linearverse.

Elsewhere in the interview, the creators also talk about why they chose the characters they chose to include in the story, as well as the long shadow Zero Hour cast on Generations. I recommend you read the whole article yourself at ComicBook.com.

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