In promotion of Blue and Gold #1, DC Comics has posted a primer on the history of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold on their blog at DCComics.com.

Most of what they have to say won't come as news to Boosterrific.com readers, but that's not necessarily true of what Dan Jurgens tells Liam McGuire in the interview now available at ScreenRant.com:

Screen Rant: Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have a very different relationship with the big players on DC's Justice League. Does that difference get explored in this book?

Dan Jurgens: Very much so. Booster is a rather insecure person. He craves acceptance from the other heroes. He's desperate to be regarded as an "A-Lister".

Ted would like that as well, but it's not an obsession for him. Booster, on the other hand, is desperate for it.

It's always great to have insight on how Booster's creator views his creation. "Insecure" may be an unusual word to apply to a DC superhero, but it accurately describes Booster's personality and what has motivated him into so many of his misadventures.

But hold on, here's another interesting bit:

Screen Rant: What can you tell us about working with Ryan Sook on this project?

Dan Jurgens: Ryan and I have worked together on FUTURES END, ACTION COMICS and BATMAN BEYOND. Every time I work with him, I am amazed by the quality of work and depth of thought that shows up on each and every page.

He's very much into the spirit of this project and exploring the nature of these two characters. It's a delight to see his work come in as we're working Marvel style, and it's really giving him the opportunity to add his magic touch.

If you aren't familiar with the "Marvel style," it's a "plot-first" process pioneered by Stan Lee and his artists in the 1960s where bare-bones plots where provided to pencillers so they have the most flexibility to work engaging layouts. In this method, scripting dialogue is done last.

(Stan Lee once wrote a book called How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way that focused entirely on what panels should look like in a Marvel comic, not how the artist and writer might work together. Ironically, the process is better explained by Denny O'Neil in The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics.)

Over the past four decades, Jurgens has pencilled most of his own Booster Gold scripts, so it's interesting to see how he writes Booster for other artists. Is this how he worked with Aaron Lopresti on Justice League International or Corin Howell for Bat-Mite?

I hope Jurgens doesn't tire of talking Booster Gold anytime soon. There's always more to learn.

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I first re-published the following image from Ross Pearsall's incomparable Super-Team Family Presents... blog back in 2017, but it's even more appropriate today.

Lee has oft been accused of seeking the limelight at the expense of others, a personality flaw that should be painfully familiar to Booster Gold fans. Whatever faults he might have had, Lee was a master storyteller and promoter, and I shudder to think of what American superhero comics might now be if not for his contributions to the medium. Thanks, Stan.

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Everyone knows that Booster Gold cannot travel back in time into the Marvel Universe. But what this cover presupposes is... maybe he can?

This is another genius mash-up cover from the mind of Ross Pearsall of Super-Team Family Presents.... In fact, this cover image is Ross' 2,500th. Congratulations!

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