Have you read Batman Beyond #48 yet? If not, that's your assignment this weekend.

If you don't want to go to your Local Comic Shop for some reason — like, maybe you're still bailing out from a tropical storm that reached hundreds of miles inland like I am — you can always buy the digital comic at comixology.com (assuming your power has been restored).

Judging from the response to last week's poll, most of you are cool with that option.

Last week's poll question: Should the Boosterrific database include comics existing only in digital formats? (28 votes)

I have to admit that digital comics do have some unique positives. You certainly don't have to worry about a leaking roof or flooded basement — or, if you're on the left coast, a raging forest fire — damaging your digital comic collection. That's worth considering in 2020 and beyond.

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First things first: if Booster Gold appeared in a new comic today, I remain unaware of it. But Batman Beyond #48 is due next week, so we've got that to look forward to.

Second things second: Jennifer wrote me to note that Booster Gold's cameo from Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #7 is not in the Boosterrific database. She's right. It's not.

I mentioned the cameo here on the blog the week it was released back in June, but I never added it to the database. As a reminder, here's what that cameo looks like:

Superman: Man of Tomorrow #7, words by Dave Wielgosz; art by Miguel Menonca, Yasmine Putri, David Baron

You might ask why I haven't gotten around to adding that yet. It's a good question. Four months is a long time. There have already been ten more issues of Superman: Man of Tomorrow already! How lazy can a guy be? While I can be pretty darn lazy, the exclusion of Superman: Man of Tomorrow #7 has been intentional.

As a matter of tradition, all the books in the Boosterrific database are the printed editions (you know, the old-school kind that you can read without LED screens and batteries). Therefore, I had been waiting for DC to reprint the Digital First Superman: Man of Tomorrow series before adding it to the site. That's what DC did in the past. Until lately, they have combined 2 or more of these digital comics into a single floppy available at your Local Comic Shop.

But 2020 is interesting times, and DC isn't the same company it was at the start of the year. They have yet to announce any printed editions of Superman: Man of Tomorrow. It might come eventually as a trade collection of the whole series, but these days who can tell?

So the question becomes: should I change the way I've done things in the past to start adding individual issues of digital exclusive content? Or should I hold fast to my old fashioned concepts of what a "real" comic book is? What do you think?

This week's poll question: Should the Boosterrific database include comics existing only in digital formats? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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C.M. spotted an omission here on Boosterrific.com that they thought needed to be brought to my attention:

I noticed that for your entry under "Other Media" for Justice League Unlimited "The Greatest Story Never Told", there wasn't a mention of the characters that Booster meets in the story. Particularly Tracy Simmons, as she becomes Booster's date at the end of the episode.

First of all, thanks for noticing! I've put a lot of work into Boosterrific.com, and it's always good to hear that someone has found some value in it.

More importantly, you're right. I didn't mention Tracy in my synopsis of that episode. I omitted that data on purpose, partly because I was interested in avoiding spoilers, and partly because I was interested in strictly limiting the information in the Other Media summaries to just a couple of sentences at most. Maybe I was wrong to make that decision.

Boosterrific.com was created for and remains dedicated to tracking the adventures of Booster Gold that appear in comic books published by DC Comics, in other words, the adventures of Booster Gold in the traditional DC Universe (DCU). I decided to track appearances in other media, like television and video games in an effort to provide a comprehensive guide of the where our hero can be found.

However, I don't always have the same interest in other media as I have for comic books, so I have rarely made the effort to catalog Booster's Other Media appearances as thoroughly as I do comics. That may be a bit of a disservice to Booster and his fans, but I have to draw the line somewhere, and that's where it is.

If you're interested in more information about Booster's participation in the excellent Justice League Unlimited episodes, I recommend the DCAU Wiki (dcau.fandom.com) which has done a great job covering them, including "The Greatest Story Never Told."

So apologies to the highly esteemed S.T.A.R. Labs physicist Dr. Tracy Simmons, who probably always should have been mentioned in my my Other Media post for "The Greatest Story Never Told." Maybe one of these days I'll make it up for it with a spotlight post here on the blog as the only DC-sanctioned outside-of-comics romantic interest for Booster Gold.

Thanks for your constructive criticism, C.M. Together, we'll make Boosterrific.com better!

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For years now — over a decade, in fact — the priority for Wednesday Boosterrific Blog posts has been whatever new comic was released that day that included a Booster Gold appearance. But 2020 is changing everything. Booster Gold isn't appearing in any new DC comic today because there are no new DC comics being released today.

As all comics buyers must know by now, DC Comics is no longer being distributed by Diamond Comics Distributors as of today, July 1. While Diamond mandated the release of comics on Wednesdays (for logistical purposes), DC is rolling back to Tuesdays (as it used to be before Diamond gained dominance in the 90s). I can't say that I really care about this one way or another other than the fact that I'm suddenly unsure when I should post "new release" alerts.

Some of you may recall that for the first 6 years of this blog, I posted 5 days a week. If that were still the case, I'd just move "new releases" from Wednesdays to Tuesdays. But I stopped posting 5-days-a-week because, frankly, there's just not that much new to say about a character DC has rarely chosen to spotlight positively in the New 52 era. I've been very happy posting three days a week and would like to continue that pace, if I can make a schedule work that doesn't alienate readers.

Should I maintain the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule and post about new comics on Monday instead of Wednesday? Or should I change the three days I post to include a Tuesday (probably a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday posting schedule) so that I can keep you informed of day and date releases? Or, should I just keep posting new releases on Wednesday, since that's when Diamond will keep releasing books and you might as well make one trip for everything?

This week's poll question: What day of the week do you want me to tell you that DCEASED: Dead Planet #1 and Harley Quinn #74 have been released? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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In case you missed it this week (and I don't blame you if you did), Newsarama.com has gone to that great comic book news website in the sky.

As you can see from that screenshot, it looks like the remains of Newsarama have become yet another casualty of the Dark Side of the Internet's never-ending hunger for listicles.

Newsarama editor Chris Arrant tweeted that Newsarama's staff survives intact behind the scenes, but as that screenshot shows, "Newsarama" content is only a single landing page for the few comics-adjacent articles on a website dedicated to video games.

Like the once great ComicBookResources before it, all of Newsarama's archives have also been wiped from servers as though they never existed. That means if you come across any Newsarama.com links on this site, such as I tended to provide for DC's monthly solicitations, they now link to the front page of a video game website. Sorry about that. Think of it as rickrolling, 2020-style.

(You young 'uns do know what rickrolling was, right? It was a meme your parents enjoyed. I'd link you to a website explaining it, but most of them have shut down by now.)

So continues the cycle of the commercial niche-interest press. Comic book journalism, such as it is, will survive, I'm sure. What form will it take? Only time-traveling super heroes from the future know for sure, though if I had to guess, I'd say it'll probably look like this.

UPDATE 2020-6-6: And now The Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that DC and Diamond have parted ways. That's a big comic book industry story that may affect where and how you can buy future Booster Gold comics. What's next, 2020?

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