After a good run, it looks like Booster will be taking June off. He is almost nowhere to be found in DC's June solicitations.

I say "almost" because:

SUPERMAN BLUE VOL. 1 TP
Written by DAN JURGENS, KARL KESEL, DAVID MICHELINIE and LOUISE SIMONSON
Art by RON FRENZ, SCOT EATON, STUART IMMONEN, JON BOGDANOVE, TOM GRUMMETT, SEAN CHEN and others
Cover by DAN JURGENS and JOE RUBINSTEIN

When the sun temporarily goes out, Superman temporarily loses his powers...but when they return, they are not what the Man of Steel expects! Clark Kent is suddenly transformed into a being of crackling blue energy, complete with new abilities and a totally new look! And before long, the villainous Cyborg Superman splits the Man of Steel into two beings: Superman Red and Superman Blue! Will Metropolis have two protectors?

Includes stories from SUPERMAN #122-125, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #545-547, ACTION COMICS #732-734, SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #67-69 and SUPERMAN ANNUAL #9.
On sale JULY 11 • 376 pg, $24.99 US

You'll see that trade collection is scheduled to include a reprint of Superman #124, which all Booster boosters will recognize as the last appearance of Booster's very briefly worn Mark X power suit, and the first appearance of Booster's slightly less briefly worn asymmetrical Mark XI power suit!

Words by Dan Jurgens; Art by Frenz, Rubenstein, et al

I'm sure you all have that one in your collections already, so you'll be able to pick up a backup reprint when this trade is released in July.

You can see all of DC's June solicitations at Newsarama.com.

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For the better part of the past decade, someone identified as "Industrial Toy Werks" has been selling a series of custom action figures as though they were foreign bootlegs of the popular but long-discontinued Kenner Super Power Collection. Included in this line of figures was a Booster Gold, and one of those showed up on eBay.com this past week.

Photos from eBay.com auction by primetime_njd

ITW has become known as a pretty high quality bootleg, especially considering the detailing put into the custom blister card packaging. The Booster Gold card is no exception, reusing art from the DC Heroes role-playing game to make a card that you'd expect to find on a legitimate Super Powers Collection product.

If you Google this figure (or look at the back of the card), you'll see other ITW Booster Gold figures painted with gold paint. That color scheme was probably influenced by the Justice League Unlimited figure released in 2004. This custom is a more comic-accurate yellow, like the second Booster Gold JLU figure released in 2009. How many of these did ITW make?

Eagle-eyed critics might also notice that the figure's gloves are blue and his bracelets are gold. Booster's classic, high-collar costume had gold gloves and blue bracelets. The colors were inverted in Booster's 2007 collarless redesign. Even I'll admit that complaining about that sort of detail about a custom figure is simply nitpicking.

The auction is closed now, but the seller was asking $269.99 (+ $9.95 shipping)! That's about the going rate for original Super Powers figures still on their original card. That's a lot of money. If Booster Gold were here, no doubt he'd want his cut.

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Over the weekend, ObservationDeck.io9 asked its readers "What's Your Secret Comic Collection Shame?" I mention that post here mainly because the author, Wenchette, credited a Booster Gold fan for the idea. We all know Booster Gold fans have no shame!

Although the mid-90s weren't a good time for anybody.

(Some may feel it's shameful, but I've always been up front about my inexplicable affinity for Extreme Justice. If I have any regrets, it's the comics I traded away long ago. I think I'd like to have all my early 80s Marvel G.I. Joes back now, please.)

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If you're paying attention, you may soon start seeing Eaglemoss' "white pawn" Booster Gold (and accompanying magazine) appearing in your Local Comic Shop.

Booster is figure 61 in the set. (Pieces 1 through 32 were a complete Batman-themed chess set.) He's been available for a few months internationally, but he'll be arriving in American stores any day now, if not already. (You can already find it for under $20 on eBay.com.)

This New 52 Booster should make a nice companion to the classic Booster Eaglemoss released a few years ago. How long do we have to wait for an Eaglemoss Skeets?

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There's no avoiding it: the DCnU Justice League International suffers from a bit of decompression, making reading each new issue an exercise in patience. Fortunately for those of us with a need for immediate gratification (e.g., Americans), today DC releases the first six issues of the series in a single, collected trade paperback, Justice League International, Vol 1: The Signal Masters.

The volume is advertised at $14.99, a savings of 50¢ off cover price -- per issue! Better, DC advertises this trade at 144 pages. Each of the first 6 issues is 21-pages long (including covers) for a total of 126 published pages. What's making up the 18-page difference, hmm?

Skeets is beginning to think that with deals like this, only suckers should buy individual issues anymore. Buy this collection and prove Skeets right.

(UPDATE 05/09/12 7:49PM: these bonus pages are mostly unfinished pencils and uncolored inks from the covers and a few character sketches. There are a few character design sketches for Fire, Ice, and Vixen. Nothing previously unseen featuring Booster Gold.)

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