Thanks to site commenter Anonymous, we have known for a few months that the Jim Pesl referenced in Booster Gold Volume 2 was a high school friend of Norm Rapmund who now works in a restaurant in Northern California.

Thanks to Russ Burlingame's recent "Panel Discussions" podcast, we now know why Norm Rapmund puts Jim Pesl's name (pronounced "pē-zuhl") in his comics:

It was actually kind of funny that it took until Booster Gold for people to notice because [Rapmund]'s been doing this for years. He started slipping Pesl's name in back when he was doing X-Men [beginning in 2000] and he's put it in ... not every issue he's ever inked but pretty much every title he's inked in one way or another.

The pair of them have been friends for 20-odd years. Back in high school Jim was the only other person besides Norm who read comics. When Norm started working in comics and Jim was still reading, he threw the name in there. They live in the same general area, and [Norm found that] Pesl was very excited about having been referenced in X-Men. So Norm started tossing it in and occasionally bringing free comics to Pesl's restaurant. In exchange, Pesl gives Norm food. So there you have it.

Free food sounds like a pretty good reason to put someone's name in your comics, but maybe higher cosmic forces are at play. As fate would have it, the pair graduated from El Dorado High School. El Dorado is the name of the infamous South American City of Gold.

From El Dorado High School to Booster Gold. And now you know the rest of the story.

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Just in time for the unveiling of the DCnU and the first post-Flashpoint Justice League next week, today DC Comics releases DC Retroactive: Justice League America - the '90s, a look back at the first Justice League of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era. Maybe you can't go home again, but you can pay $4.99 for a new look at your old scrapbooks.

Also on today's docket of nostalgic releases is the hardcover collected edition of DC Universe: Legacies. While DC Universe: Legacies is a blueprint of revisionist history for the 75-year-old DC Universe in 2010, it remains to be seen how much of the continuity it reinvents will be maintained after Flashpoint concludes next week.

Pick up your copies and make Skeets happy.

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Sorry to pull a bait-and-switch on you for Gold Exchange Tuedsay, but it seems that there will be no more "Gold Exchange" columns now that Booster Gold has been canceled. The successor to the "Gold Exchange" will be announced during Russ Burlingame's "Panel Discussions" today on Comics Related. The "Panel Discussions" podcast will also feature Burlingame's call-in interview with Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund that was recorded on Friday. Tune in to Comic Related to hear what Dan and Norm have to say.

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With appearances in Secret Six #36 and Titans #38, Booster Gold has shown up in a couple of series finales other than his own. In both of those issues, Booster's been on his own, his sidekick nowhere to be seen. So where has Skeets been? Having adventures of his own, apparently.

This picture was seen in the final issue of Batgirl #24 as part of a prolonged drug-induced hallucination. Unfortunately there is no evidence that Skeets -- who so rarely gets to leave Booster's shadow -- has actually been traveling through time with the three Batgirls and having grand adventures with the Blackhawks in World War II. But just because we don't have any record of it doesn't mean it didn't really happen. Skeets does have the ability to erase memories, after all.

Issue writer Bryan Q. Miller clarified the page's meaning on his director's cut of the issue posted on the Tumblr blog DC Women Kicking Ass:

PAGE 15 - Steph [Stephanie Brown] never did get to have an adventure with Cass [Cassandra Cain] during the pages of the book - this adventure/vision finds Batgirl Steph and Skeets on an adventure through time to find a wayward Booster, joined by Batgirls Babs [Barbara Gordon] and Cass.

Thanks to Morgenstern in the Boosterrific Forums for pointing out this panel.

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Sadly, Booster Gold has been unavoidably detained, but writer Dan Jurgens and co-artist Norm Rapmund will be available in his stead.

Jurgens has written and drawn more Booster Gold appearances than any other writer or artist. Rapmund has inked far more Booster appearances than any other inker. Combined, the pair have worked on over 177 Booster Gold stories! If you've got Booster Gold questions, these are the guys to ask.

The pair will be interviewed by Comic Related contributor Russ Burlingame and broadcast in the near future as part of Burlingame's Panel Discussions podcast. Burlingame will be recording his call in show at 3PM EDT. If you've got something you'd like to say to Jurgens, Rapmund, or Burlingame but a conflicting schedule, call early and leave them a message at (315) 464-0046.

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