Thursday, September 16, 2010
Booster Gold Versus Psycho Pirate
Don't panic:
It would appear that after a brief up-tick of curiosity seekers interested in Giffen's & DeMatteis' take on Booster Gold starting with issue 32, the series has resumed it's steady reader attrition. This shouldn't necessarily be considered a bad thing, however, as reader attrition is a normal cycle for comic books as readers move on to newer things. Note that the slope of decline is nearly the same pre- and post-G/D. Since sales got a boost for G/D's arrival, this means that the series sales numbers are ahead of where we should expect them to be at this point if Jurgens hadn't left the book. (Nothing against Jurgens. As I said, this is pretty natural.) But lest this graph fool you, let's change scale a bit and take a look at sales over the past year:
When you look at it that way, the line looks much better, yes? Sure, sales have been declining relatively steadily, but not as bad as the the steep slope of the first graph would have you believe. The aberration driving the change in scale is of course the Blackest Night DC ring promotion. So, as I said, don't panic.
(FYI: The reason that these charts look different from past charts is because these charts have been created dynamically against the Boosterrific.com database. I wrote this script for better information processing, but haven't figured a good way to include it dynamically on the site just yet.)
Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: graph sales
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Even Tin Cans Make Me Cry
Skeets' second death (the little guy "died" in both Countdown to Infinite Crisis and 52) made number #3 on the list of Cultural Kalocin's personal top ten emotional moments in comics. No surprise: they're mostly deaths. While I might be able to laugh at someone who gets misty-eyed over Solomon Grundy's change of heart in Justice League Unlimited cartoons, I find his attachment to Skeets entirely emotionally healthy.
Of course, this made me wonder why Skeets' demise late in the series carried more emotional impact that Booster's own apparent death in issue #15. Was Booster's death too early in the series? Or have we as an audience become so bored by the revolving door of hero deaths that we're only affected when minor and supporting heroes die? Despite Skeets' multiple fatalities, those are the deaths that usually "stick," and are therefore more meaningful and resonant. (And, yes, I'm looking at you, Ted Kord.)
You can read Cultural Kalocin's list here.
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Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Booster Gold, the Minion
"In addition, the network has released a brief video of Erica Durance (Lois Lane) answering viewer questions about the season, which sees the return of familiar faces like Arthur Curry (Alan Ritchson), Kara (Laura Vandervoort), Pa Kent (John Schneider) and Hawkman (Michael Shanks), and the introduction of such characters as Darkseid and his minions, Hawkgirl, Deadshot, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle."
Wait, Blue & Gold will be minions of Darkseid? I sure hope that's just bad grammar.
The above sentence is from Spinoff, the television/movie arm of ComicBookResources. You can read the whole blurb and see the CS Smallville season 10 trailers -- none of them include Booster Gold, but Dr. Fate gets a shout out -- here.
Comments (6) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle cbr.com comicbookresources.com smallville spinoff
Monday, September 13, 2010
Welcome to Football Season
Starting this past weekend, both the college and professional football seasons are underway. Millions of Americans are gambling millions of dollars on these sports. Hopefully, this does not include any star quarterbacks who may become publicly disgraced, forcing them to steal museum exhibits and travel back in time to find a new path to public acceptance. That would be a tragedy.
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Friday, September 10, 2010
I Am Living Proof. Beefcake!
Since SallyP scooped me by including Booster Gold's topless exercise routine from Booster Gold, Vol. 1, #18 in her beefcake roll call yesterday, for Boosterrific's final installment in her Green Lantern's Butt Forever's Beefcake Week, I give you not Booster Gold but Supernova:
Booster Gold's ancestor Daniel Carter shows his future wife, Rose, the goods. Panel from Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #3, 2007. Art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund.
Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: beefcake daniel carter green lantern's butt forever rose levin
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