Things have been changing in America lately, and not necessarily for the better. Not so many years ago, many DC Comics super hero bloggers and I participated in semi-regular crossover events. Now very few of us are still posting.

Both FirestormFan.com and AquamanShrine.net have stopped blogging to focus their efforts on podcasting (fireandwaterpodcast.com). The Martian Manhunter blog, The Idol-Head of Diabolu, has likewise gone silent as its creator also seems to be concentrating on podcasts for his other blogs (DC Bloodlines and Wonder Woman: Diana Prince). So too, Splitting Atoms is now more podcast than blog. Others that have fallen completely silent (like Tower of Fate and Being Carter Hall). Some stalwarts soldier on, including SpeedForce.org and Kord Industres. We seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Once again, this has made me return to a question I've asked myself from time to time since Booster Gold disappeared from the pages of DC Comics: Has the time for websites dedicated to super hero blogging passed us by? Would comics fans rather listen to a podcast than read a website? Is the problem the characters or the bloggers or just shifting demographics?

Like so many of those now-defunct sites, Boosterrific.com is first and foremost a hobby. I started working on it nine years ago, and I keep it running because I want to. Personally, I have no interest in phone apps, wikis, or podcasting. If that's the future of Booster Gold fandom, I'll leave it to someone else. (The Silver and Gold podcast — now a whole network — seems to be doing just fine without me.)

Don't worry, this post isn't a lead up to the retirement of Boosterrific.com. I'm only committing my rambling grumpy old man thoughts to electronic paper. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. It's just that I'm starting to feel kind of lonely out here all by myself. I sure would like some new Booster Gold comics to keep me company.

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Pal Shag! of FirestormFan.com called our attention to this Booster Gold cosplayer on Twitter earlier this week.

This is a cosplayer we've seen before. He's attended conventions dressed as Booster Gold for the past three years! He wore this costume to last year's HeroesCon and he wore the collared variant to DragonCon 2013. I love the persistence.

For the record, this pic was posted by @TrekkerTalk. Big thanks to both Trekker Talk and Shag! And unknown cosplayer, whoever you are, keep up the good work!

UPDATE 2015-06-23: The cosplayer has been identified Jay Tallsquall. Thanks to Pyynk for the identification.

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So here's how this comic book character blogging thing works:

Earlier this week, I paid a visit to The Irredeemable Shag's FirestormFan.com, which just happened to be running a post on the "Great Heroes" DC trading cards from 1987. They were trading cards printed on backing boards included with 3-pack comic books in the late 1980s. I'd never heard of these before. Could there be a Booster Gold?

For more information, I followed Shag's link to CosmicTeams.com, where, thanks to the assistance of Michael Kooiman, I can now show you this, the first Booster Gold trading card, copyright 1989:

The card was just one of 8 on its original board. You can see a picture of the whole board at Kooiman's slideshow of the entire set at ComicTeams.com.

This card has been added to the Boosterrific.com archive of Other Media appearances. But while Michael was giving me the pic for the card above, he graciously forwarded a great scan of the one and only Booster Gold pog from SkyBox in 1993!

My thanks to Michael (and Shag!) for helping make Boosterrific.com more complete than ever.

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I'm not typically a podcast guy (I can't listen at work, and I have more than enough to listen to otherwise), but that doesn't mean that I don't recognize talent when I hear it. (Well, actually, people tell me I have a tin ear. But never mind that now.)

Shag of FirestormFan.com and Siskoid of Siskoid's Blog of Geekery have teamed-up to present a new podcast about role-playing games. Their first installment is about the Mayfair Games DC Heroes Role-Playing Game. Booster Gold fans should recognize that as the first game to feature Booster Gold as a playable character — in the mid 1980s!

DC Heroes Role-Playing Game featured stats for both Booster Gold and Skeets, as well as a Booster Gold-themed module, "All That Glitters," that included Goldstar and Jack Soo.

You can find previous Boosterrific Blog posts about Booster's role in the game here. Boosterrific.com also hosts a single-player Flash version of the board game from the "All That Glitters" DCHRPG module here.

So if you're the sort who likes to listen to people talk about long-discontinued role-playing games, give the Fire and Water podcast a try. You might be glad you did.

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It looks like gamers are soon to be getting a double dose of Booster Gold.

As noted last week by the Irredeemable Shag! at FirestormFan.com, Booster will be included in the New 52-inspired Justice League Chess Set being produced a piece at a time by Eaglemoss. Booster will be a pawn in the set, but so will be Captain Marvel Shazam, Supergirl, and Power Girl, so at least he has some pretty good company. Eaglemoss has already given us one awesome Booster Gold figure, so there is a firm foundation to expect a great Booster Gold chess piece whenever it is released.

The other place we'll be seeing Booster Gold is as a playing card in the Heroes Unite expansion for the DC Comics Deck-Building Game. ICv2.com has details about the game itself, and BleedingCool.com speculates that this was the project that the R.B. Silva Instagram pictures were teasing back in January. Whether that is true or not, odds are that this, too, will feature Booster in his New 52 togs.

No dates or pics yet for either product, but hopefully both will be available before the end of the year, so plan ahead and start saving now, Boosterphiles!

(Thanks to Shag and Morgenstern for pointing these out.)

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