Late last week, Booster booster J sent me a bunch of new sighting of old ads to update the list of Boosterrific Advertisements. However, one of his finds is this:

That house advertisement comes from Flashpoint Companion, a collection of promotional material — mostly cover art — supporting the Flashpoint event.

So far as I can determine, Flashpoint Companion was a digital only release originally published online in 2012 at read.dccomics.com. Although DC discontinued that subdomain URL in 2013, you can still read it free online via DC Infinite, Google Play, Apple Books, or Amazon (and probably many others).

Other than this two-page spread — essentially a glorified reading list — the only actual "story" inside the book is a two-page "The Origin of the Flash" written by Scott Beatty (which, according to his blog, scottbeatty.blogspot.com, was originally created as a Converse shoe promotion, probably sometime around 2008-2009, as I believe it was included in the DC Universe: Origins collection of the 2-page origins published in 2010 Never mind. It's not in there).

In fact, it's probably worth mentioning that all the art for this promo was pulled from other sources. The central image of Flash comes from an Andy Kubert drawn house ad at the end of 2010's The Flash Volume 3 #1 (as you can see at Flash fansite speedforce.org). The background behind the Flash (a callback to the sublime wraparound slipcase cover for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover by George Perez and Alex Ross) was taken from Flashpoint #5 (also drawn by Kubert).

The crackle section with Booster and Professor Zoom are the covers of Booster Gold #45 by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, and Hi-Fi Designs and Flashpoint: Reverse Flash #1 by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes.

I don't find print copies of this thing documented online in any of the usual places, but it's possible it has been overlooked given its slight content. Does anyone know if Flashpoint Companion was ever officially published (i.e., committed to paper)? Perhaps as an in-store giveaway?

As a general rule, I confine mention of digital-only content to here on the Boosterrific Blog and leave it out of the larger tracking Boosterrific Database, in large part because digital content is so ephemeral, even by comic book standards. Should I make an exception here given the ubiquity of the free copies floating around online ten years after its original release? Oh, the headaches of being an obsessive comic book chronicler!

Hearty thanks to J for your ongoing efforts to make Boosterrific better than ever.

UPDATE: J adds via email

A few years ago, DC had booklets advertising various characters, such as Batman 101 and JSA 101, where they'd print a list of essential stories, a some two-page origin stories, and comic covers.... In the "Justice League 201" booklet, they'd reprinted the Origin of Booster Gold from 52 #24. But unfortunately, it seems to no longer be available.

Like the Flashpoint Companion, I believe those also only existed digitally, and my bias against tracking digital media applies. For years, DC made those 2-page origins available for free on their website as part of their character guides; that content seems to have evaporated as well.

And that's why I prefer physical floppies: DC can't take the paper away from me (unless they back a moving truck up to my house).

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If you buy a new DC Comic this week, congratulations! You've struck Gold!

...Because Booster appears twice(!) in the line-wide house ad for the final chapters of the "game-changing two-month epic" Lazarus Planet series.

I expect we'll find out just how much Lazarus Planet changes the game for Booster Gold when Lazarus Planet Omega arrives at Local Comic Shops on February 21.

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Free copies of DC Nation #3 arrived in your Local Comic Shop (and on Comixology) last week. There were several pages promoting Heroes in Crisis, but very little previously undisclosed information was delivered. However, we did get this house ad for DC Nation #4:

Hmm. What can we glean from this illustration?

At last month's Comic-Con, Dan DiDio and Tom King teased that one of the two much discussed "deaths" of Heroes in Crisis will be a Flash, who is conspicuously absent from this ad. Is the other doomed hero one of these characters? I still hope it's not Booster!

I'd be remiss in my duties as unofficial chronicler of Booster's official chronicles if I didn't make note that the art for this piece — a future Heroes in Crisis cover? — was drawn by Brad Walker and inked by Andrew Hennessy. So far as I'm aware, this is the first time either has illustrated Booster Gold. Comparatively, colorist Jason Wright is an old hand, having colored Booster appearances twice before!

Perhaps DC will be willing to spill some more details in the next issue. They'll have time. DC Nation #4 is scheduled for a September 5 release, whereas Heroes In Crisis #1 won't be available until September 26.

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Now I've gon ad-crazy. In addition to the Booster Gold Volume 1 ads I mentioned last Friday, I'm now also looking for ads from May 1991 for Armageddon 2001 and August 2007 for Booster Gold Volume 2. If anyone of you out there reading this were to come across any issues with any of these ads, please let me know. Again, you will receive proper credit for any instances that you turn up that are not already in the database. Thanks for the help.

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I've decided I need to add all issues from 1985-1986 containing DC house advertisements for the original Booster Gold series to the database here at Boosterrific. (It was an early decision not to include them, and I'm just now reversing myself.) I know that the ad was a DC house ad that ran in books cover-dated February 1986. However, I don't know if it ran in every book that month. For example, the DC house ad on page 12 of Booster Gold #1 that month was for 'Mazing Man. Therefore, I need to put my hands on every book released that month and confirm its presence. The following books have been confirmed to carry the house ad:

• Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer #1
• Batman #392
• Batman and the Outsiders, Vol. 1, #30
• Crisis on Infinite Earths #11
• DC Challenge #4
• Detective Comics #559

If anyone of you out there reading this were to come across any other issues, please let me know. You will, of course, receive proper credit for any instances that you turn up that are not already in the database. Thanks for the help.

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