If you didn't buy any DC Comics this week, you might not have seen Kevin Maguire's tribute to the late Keith Giffen surrounded by his creations (in the style of the immortal Justice League #1 cover) that appeared in each of DC's monthly titles.

As you can see, the famously irascible Giffen is in the center position originally occupied by the famously irascible Guy Gardner. Very fitting.

Also fitting, Giffen wearing a t-shirt with Booster and Beetle laughing. That image isn't new; it comes from a print that Maguire created for DC in 2014. Giffen didn't create either character, but he and his writing partner J.M. DeMatteis did create "Bwa-ha-ha" and build Blue and Gold into comicdom's greatest bromance.

The second page of the two-page tribute is quotes of Giffen's friends and co-creators. You can read them online at dc.com/rememberingkeithgiffen.

Thanks for the laughs, Keith.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: keith giffen kevin maguire

A few weeks ago, while discussing my favorite page of Justice League International #14, I said that Steve Leialoha's loose style was a bad match for Keith Giffen's layouts. I've been looking at a lot of Giffen's layout art since his recent passing, and I've changed my mind. I now think the problem with Leialoha's art in JLI #14 and #15 is that Leialoha's finishes are probably too loyal to Giffen's layout style.

In any event, the art in Justice League International #15, while still not up to the standard set by regular series artist Kevin Maguire, is at least more consistent from panel to panel and page to page than the previous issue managed.

Thanks to J.M. DeMatteis's dialogue, there are several pages competing to be my favorite of the issue, including Booster Gold flying into action in page 10, Booster Gold saving the day on page 15, and Batman's punchline on page 22. But since this will always be the first meeting between Blue and Gold and Fire and Ice, page 6 steals the show:

I can't say the four of them really get along any better these days, but they'll always be family.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle favorite pages fire ice j.m. dematteis keith giffen steve leialoha

I was sad to hear late yesterday that Keith Giffen has died.

In addition to many other significant accomplishment, Giffen, as all Booster boosters should know, is second only to Dan Jurgens in total number of Booster Gold adventures written. He's a big reason many of us love the character, and it's sad to think that he won't be creating any more.

Thanks for all the good times, Keith.

UPDATE 2023-11-28: DC has published a two-page tribute to Giffen in all books released today. Booster Gold appears in Kevin Maguire's art. You can see the image on the Boosterrific Comic Book House Ads page, and the whole tribute is online at dc.com/rememberingkeithgiffen.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: dc.com keith giffen kevin maguire

Just last week, my chronological collection of favorite pages touched on Justice League International #11. That book was published on November 10, 1987. The following week, Booster appears (mutely) in exactly two panels of the frame story on page 2 of Blue Beetle #22. Two weeks after that, he is in just one panel of a previous issue recap in Action Comics #598. A week later, Booster is depicted in five panels across the 22 pages of Justice League International #12 — three of those in flashbacks!

Which finally brings us to Justice League International #13... which has Booster in exactly 6 panels. Why am I giving you a favorite page from this book and not those others? Although he is rarely seen or heard, Booster's role here is larger than a simple drop-in, drop-out cameo. He's present with his Justice League teammates as the action rises steadily towards the adventure's climax that will play out in Suicide Squad #13, and Booster has a more sizeable part in that melee. So even though Booster's role in Justice League International #13 is limited, it's not insignificant.

But it's not significant enough to make my favorite page.

That's page 8, and it really illustrates what I like best about Keith Giffen's very stylized art (ably aided by Al Gordon's confident inks and Gene D'Angelo's strong color) comprised almost entirely of close-ups and heavy shadows. Maybe Watchmen made me a sucker for the rigid 9-panel layout, but I especially love how Giffen uses it to create three horizontal triptychs — Rule of Three raised to the third power! — to ratchet up both the comedy and the drama. Very well done.

Tune in next time to finally see a Booster Gold panel in Suicide Squad #13!

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: favorite pages justice league international keith giffen

You know, for someone who says I don't like Tom King's work, I somehow dedicate a lot of space on this blog to him. What can I say? The guy's just kind of hard to ignore, especially when he tweets things like this:

That's the book cover under the dust jacket of the Human Target Volume 1 hardcover coming our way September 27. Yeah, we've seen that art before — it was created by Greg Smallwood for the interior of Human Target #1. But it's still Boosterrific no matter how many times we see it.

While I'm on the topic, this would seem to be a great time to mention that Russ Burlingame has an exclusive interview with Tom King in The Gold Exchange: The Boosterrific Deluxe Edition. With Russ's permission, I'm quoting starting from page 594 here:

Burlingame: You said earlier that you write Booster "wrong." That feels like a healthy way of internalizing audience feedback, just to crack the joke and say "I know 30% of everyone reading this are going to bitch, and that's fine."

King: I mean, I say "right" and "wrong," but I wouldn't change the way that I write. I just wrote Booster for Human Target, and I loved how those pages turned out. Yeah, my Booster's a little goofier and a little sillier, and I know it's not going to please everyone, but it's my job to make the best product I can, and that's the best product I see.

If I'm just trying to write the way everyone wants me to write, then I'll write crappy. I know it's going to turn out worse if I try to do it the other way.

My general opinion is that there are a lot of superheroes who are super-competent and super good in the DC Universe, and it's nice to have one who's not that way. It's what makes him interesting and funny. It's nice to have a guy who can make jokes, and that when you read him, it can make you laugh. That's what I like about Booster; he's not like all the other superheroes.

To me, it's the difference between what Iron Man was up until Robert Downey, Jr. and what he is now. He was just a generic, boring guy, and yeah, he had alcoholism, but that was basically it. And then Robert Downey, Jr. came along, and it was like, "What if we made this guy so arrogant it was funny?" And then we're like, "Oh, yeah. Now he's a [effing] great character."

Burlingame: In Human Target, it isn't just Booster, but the entire Justice League International. Do you approach Booster a little differently as part of that unit?

King: I knew I was taking the Keith Giffen/JLI version as opposed to the Dan Jurgens, more heroic version. I wanted to make sure I had it down, so I talked to Dan about it and he was like, "Well, Booster is a guy who doesn't mind making money off being a superhero," so I wanted to make a thing where he was making money off being a superhero, so I put Booster's Bagels in there.

I just started to put captions back in my writing. I haven't used captions since The Vision, so that's like seven years without captions. The whole point of Human Target is, he goes through each JLI member and kind of cuts to the core of them at some point and says why they're awesome, or what's at their heart. So it gave me a chance, using Chance's voice, to say what I love about the character.

So Booster is Booster. And "Yeah, Booster's a joke, but aren't they all? At least this one's funny" is I think his great Booster line.

We can agree on that, at least. Booster Gold *is* funny.

Thanks for the interview (and the book), Russ!

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: dan jurgens gold exchange human target interviews justice league international keith giffen russ burlingame tom king twitter.com