If you read Boosterrific.com (which I know you do because you are reading this), you know that Blue and Gold #1 was released last week, 33 years after being first announced. And it's pretty good. You have been rewarded for your patience, Booster boosters!

Of course you probably already bought the standard cover by Ryan Sook. And maybe you picked up the cardstock variant by Dave Johnson. But if you go back to your Local Comic Shop this week, perhaps you'll consider buying *another* copy, the one I'm calling the Kevin Maguire variant:

"That's a picture of the Dave Johnson cover!" you say. And you're right. But what else do you see on there?

That phone case cover isn't Dave Johnson's work. It's Kevin Maguire's. Maguire drew that image in 2014 for a DC Comics print (as confirmed by the artist himself via Twitter.com).

How often do we get comic books where two different artists have drawn Booster Gold on the same cover? Just this once. I think that's pretty Boosterrific.

But if you think that's the last we'll see of Kevin Maguire in Blue and Gold, think again. Here's DC's solicitation for October's issue 4 (from CBR.com):

BLUE & GOLD #4
Writer: DAN JURGENS
Artists: RYAN SOOK, DAN JURGENS and KEVIN MAGUIRE
Cover: RYAN SOOK
$3.99 US ON SALE October 19

Bros over heroes no more!
Booster Gold and Blue Beetle find running a superhero business together more difficult than it looks when these inseparable friends end up on the verge of a breakup! What could be the cause of such a schism? Enter Blackguard, looking to destroy this dysfunctional duo for good!

Three artists? Clearly this series has some surprises in store. Something to look forward to this October.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue and gold cbr.com covers dave johnson kevin maguire solicitations twitter.com

OG Booster booster Shawn Baston notified me that Booster makes a very brief, non-continuity appearance in this week's Teen Titans Academy #4 (thanks, Shawn!). Since I was already in the Boosterrific Database, I decided to take the time to (finally!) update data on some other minor reprint collection appearances I'd been putting off. That's when I noticed something odd.

Justice League Unlimited: Time After Time is a collection of time-travel themed Justice League Unlimited stories. The volume was published last November. (Sorry. Like I said, I got a little behind. I'm blaming the pandemic.) This is its cover:

Usually, these trades reuse cover art from one of the issues they collect, but this one clearly needed something a bit more general for the hodgepodge of volumes within. Instead of an existing cover, art was chosen from an existing interior splash page.

The chosen art comes from Justice League Unlimited #9, credited to penciller Carlo Barberi and inker Walden Wong and reprinted in Time After Time. The issue's story sees the JLU travel back in time to help Shining Knight save Camelot from Morgan Le Fey, and the selected art has some of the DCU's biggest names flying into action alongside King Arthur — swinging on a Batrope! That's an image that will sell some comics!

There's just one problem. To make the existing art fit the desired cover layout, it had to be altered. And I don't just mean that the art was recolored to remove the backgrounds. One hero was edited out of the picture entirely.

Care to guess who that hero was?

Here's the splash page as it originally appeared:

Poor Booster!

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: carlo barberi covers justice league unlimited king arthur shawn baston teen titans academy walden wong

DC chose not to release any comic featuring Booster Gold appearances this week. I like to think that's because they'd rather you spend some time re-reading classic Booster Gold adventures.

May I suggest Justice League Annual #1, released 34 years ago today?

This 48-page issue, essentially a zombie story titled "Germ Warfare," is Booster's first adventure as an accepted member of the Justice League. (And you don't have to take my word for it. The editor's note on page 4 explicitly places the story immediately after Booster's JL audition in Justice League #4 (which also happens to be the single best Booster Gold story ever).

The action unfolds in the traditional Justice League style. To combat a global menace, the team splits in to pairs. Interestingly, Booster Gold's first Justice League partner isn't Blue Beetle but another legacy character with origins in the Golden Age of comics: Black Canary.

With rapport like that, it's no surprise that the "Black and Gold" team didn't outlast Canary's oft-maligned 1980s aerobics instructor-inspired costume.

As might be expected of such a new member, Booster plays a relatively minor role in the issue's resolution. And though it may come as a surprise to modern audiences, neither does Batman. The honors go to the Martian Manhunter, a true hero who will go on to teach many an up-and-comer a thing or two about the relationship between great power and great responsibility.

As I said, if you're looking for something to read today, you could do much worse than the first Justice League Annual.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: annual black canary covers justice league martian manhunter

Over the weekend @preyofbirdsdc tweeted what may be David Marquez's cover for September's Justice League #68. Whether that is true or not — we'll probably find out for sure when DC releases September solicitations in 2 weeks — the important part is who's pictured in it.

You see them there? No, not Fire and Ice there in the middle. (Hi, Fire! Hi, Ice!) Over to the side, just over smirking Batman's shoulder: it's Blue and Gold!

Such clowns!

If it turns out this *is* the cover for Justice League #68, I guess that means I'll be buying at least one Justice League comic this September.

(Special thanks to @dailybluegold for highlighting our heroes in this art.)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle covers dailybluegold david marquez fan art preyofbirdsdc twitter.com

I'll let you in on a little secret: I wasn't always a huge Booster Gold fan.

Which is not to say that I didn't consider myself fortunate to have first met Booster Gold in 1985, when I found his debut appearance in Booster Gold Volume 1 #1 sitting on the magazine rack at my local convenience store.

Even at a young age, I had seen enough Super Friends episodes to recognize that Booster Gold was lampooning traditional superhero ethos and consumer culture in a way I immediately found equally engaging and endearing. At the same time, I was still impressionable enough that if anyone had sold Flakies cereal, I would have begged my parents to buy a box.

I was devastated when his comics were canceled, but it would take another twenty years before I would call Booster Gold my favorite comic book character. The truth is that my first love in comics was Captain Carrot, the cosmic carrot-chewing leader of DC Comics' Amazing Zoo Crew.

The Zoo Crew's adventures were overloaded with smile-inducing puns, and the pop culture references read like a long-form Mad Magazine segments. I read and re-read each issue until its cover fell off. I spent years rebuilding my collection with better copies. I think I currently own the entire series in triplicate.

It's entirely possible that Captain Carrot would still be my favorite comic book character if DC hadn’t canceled the Zoo Crew in 1983. Even then it took years before I was willing to let another character take his place at the top of my personal pantheon. After reading a lot of books from a lot of companies, I decided that my second love in comics was a key member appearing in Justice League International. However, that wasn't Booster Gold but Batman.

Specifically, I loved the Batman still more driven detective than deified super hero. I spent summers watching syndicated reruns of Batman's 1960s television series, and I grew up respecting his innate ability to solve riddles and escape deathtraps with nothing more than his honed mind.

As the 80s and 90s progressed, I bought every Batman comic I could afford. I watched Batman grow increasingly grimdark as he relied evermore on his wealth at the expense of his wits. Ironically, this made him more popular than ever with the reading public. Like any jealous lover, I did not appreciate my hero growing away from me. (And yes, I'm aware that my emotional, nostalgic bias for "the Batman I first met" is its own set of problems, but are ex-lovers ever rational?) Which brings us back to Booster.

About the time that I decided that Batman and I should just be friends, Booster Gold was returning to the limelight with a tragic turn in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Despite never being my favorite hero, I'd been following Booster's adventures for years, even through the wasteland of Extreme Justice and the lean years that followed.

Booster's subsequent rise from the ashes in 52 finally made me realize how truly unique he was. I couldn't name another character who had survived such a long journey from origin to the triumph of saving a multiverse. With that realization, Boosterrific.com was born.

I now gladly call Booster Gold my favorite character, and I'm grateful he was willing to wait for me to come around. I assume that eventually, everyone will eventually realize Michael Jon Carter's greatness. Time has always been on Booster Gold's side.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: batman captain carrot covers favorites