Not so long ago, Rob Snow wrote in to let us know that the book, Strange and Unsung All-Stars of the DC Universe by Stephanie Williams "has a whole section for Skeets."

I still haven't managed to get my hands on a copy to confirm this, but I trust Rob.

What's strangest about this is how it seems that Skeets wouldn't seem to qualify. I mean, good for Skeets; even Booster rarely gives him the credit he deserves. But the little fella seems an odd choice for a book of "all-stars" given that he has had, like, zero solo adventures in four decades.

Other than that time he was possessed by a villain (and the occasional hint that he and Rip Hunter hang out off panel), Skeets has only been depicted having adventures apart from Booster Gold in the Extreme-era JLA when he and Oberon befriended Firestorm.

If Skeets is finally ready to spread his winglets and fly out of Booster's shadow to become a standalone hero in his own right, I'm all for it. Every hero's gotta start somewhere: maybe he should consider giving the Titans a call.

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Posts have been light this week in large part because work has kept me so busy. That hasn't changed.

So today, as we head into the weekend, all I can offer is a couple of Booster sightings passed along to me this week by longtime Booster booster Rob Snow:

Booster sighting. New book called DC Periodic table. Booster, Ted and Rip all have profiles. No Skeets.

Officially, the book is called The Periodic Table of DC, and it comes to us by way of DK Publishing.

While DK thrives primarily on being the print equivalent of a CBR listicle, I cannot fault their presentations, which are always top notch. So although I have not yet seen this book myself, I suggest you hustle to pick one up at your local book store before all their copies argon. (Har, har.)

Later in the week, Rob wrote in again.

Nuther Booster sighting. Scott Kolins facebook page has killer Booster sketch.

Facebook and I no longer have a functional relationship, so I cannot see Kolins' post myself. Thankfully, Rob very kindly passed along a screenshot, which looks like this.

If you get along with Facebook better than I do, maybe you can track down a better look.

Thanks a bunch, Rob.

UPDATE: D'oh! As Cort Carpenter points out in the comments, that Scott Kolins sketch was one of his commissions. In fact, I even posted it here on Boosterrific.com back in May 2020! You can see it at this link.

If I wasn't so wrapped up in work, I might have noticed that, but obviously I didn't. Oops. I usually make some effort search my own back catalog in order to bring you only the freshest Booster Gold news. There's probably some sort of lesson in here about life in general... but I'm too busy to figure out what that might be. In this case, at least the sketch is totally worth seeing a second time, as are most of Cort's commissions, which you can see at this link.

Thanks again to Cort for sharing his sketchbook with us, and, heck, for commissioning so many cool Booster Gold sketches that we can't even keep track of all of them!

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So far as I can tell, time traveler Booster Gold has never appeared in a comic book released on the 11th day of September.

Coincidence? I think not.

"If Only," 9-11 - The World's Finest Comic Book Writers & Artists Tell Stories to Remember, 2002
by Dan Jurgens, Alan Davis, Robin Riggs, Mike Collins, Mark Farmer, Todd Klein, Lee Loughridge

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Nothing.

Specifically, I mean, we learned nothing about upcoming Booster Gold appearances and/or projects.

DC's slate of announcements were heavily biased towards Batman and Superman. That was to be expected, especially in the vacuum created by the simultaneous writers and actors guilds strikes that derailed any potential discussion of whatever James Gunn might be planning for his announced Booster Gold television show.

Considering that DC produced that shiny Booster Gold reprint that I just won't stop talking about (currently selling for about $75 on eBay), I'm sure they haven't entirely forgotten about our hero. Dan Jurgens will definitely be working on some Superman books in the near future. (Yet *another* 30th anniversary Death of Superman retrospective? That last one must have sold great! DCs going to keep killing Superman *forever*.) Maybe Booster Gold will pop up then.

Here's looking to the future.

UPDATE: Might as well append here that Booster Gold appears in no new comics in DC's October 2023 solicitations (as seen at AIPTComics.com). So... that's not encouraging. Thanks to Rob Snow for that news.

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And so at last we reach the end of Booster Gold Volume 1. It is, without a doubt, the ugliest of all 25 original issues.

Robert Campanella's inks are not a good fit for Dan Jurgens' pencils, and even most of Jurgens' layouts are subpar. Either this issue was rushed through editorial to fit the aggressive Millennium publishing schedule, or all the visual artists involved were in a hurry to move on to greener pastures. Maybe both.

(In my opinion, this issue is the only one in volume one that I think looks definitively superior in the often careless recolored digital reprints over the original newsprint publication.)

It's really a shame about the art, because the Dan Jurgens' script deserves better. It hits all the right notes as it forces Booster to face the down-side of publicity (in an American fast food restaurant) with a Communist providing outside perspective.

It also cleverly draws in the Justice League characters Booster is closest to while setting our hero up for a triumphant come-back in the future. Both of those latter elements factor into my favorite page of Booster Gold #25 (especially Beetle's lecture in panel 2):

Yeah! What Beetle said!

That's what I like so much about Booster Gold. His path meanders, but he always gets to the right place in the end.

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