It was on this day in 1875 that Captain Matthew Webb became the first person recorded to successfully swim the English Channel unaided.

Webb's feat was a carefully crafted bit of public showmanship. That the crossing had never been done and was thought impossible fueled the public's interest. The accomplishment made Webb famous and rich.

Hmm. Bold athletic achievements motivated by gambling? Instant and eternal fame? It sounds like this is just the sort of event that would inspire a certain time-traveling tourist we know.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: english channel matthew webb secret history

Look who says he wants to play Booster Gold!

Fillion wouldn't be my first choice, but probably only because he'll always be Captain Hammer to me.

Footage comes from a Firefly panel at Wizard World Chicago by way of ComicBook.com.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: casting comicbook.com movies nathan fillion television

One hero stands above all others as the metric by which heroism should be judged. Obviously I'm talking about...

No matter what generation you're from, Superman is the paragon of all that is altruistic and moral in the DC Universe. He was raised with a strong code of ethics and strives to use his tremendous power to make the world a better place. He never cheats, yet he always wins. It takes a Man of Steel to live up to his ideals.

It's only natural that a more flawed, human hero, Booster Gold, looks worse standing in Superman's shadow. Booster is jealous of Superman's power and fame, but he also resents the fact that he can't meet the standard that Superman's sets. Comparisons between the two heroes provide a lot of drama throughout Booster Gold Volume 1.

The late 1980s were largely defined by the deconstruction of super-hero mythos. (Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Grant Morrison's Animal Man were contemporaries of the original Booster Gold.) In hindsight, it's natural to ask whether Dan Jurgens was, like his fellow writers at DC Comics, intentionally using anti-hero Booster Gold to tear down what made Superman tick in order to investigate what it meant to be a super man in the DC Universe?

I was aware of it but I don't think I would, at that time, have phrased it that way.

I simply wanted to do something different. Superman was the pinnacle-- the absolute king of heroes. Booster could never aspire to that so he had to take a very different approach. He never wanted to be iconic-- at least not in the way Superman was. He wanted notoriety, but knew he could never have that level of unquestioning trust from the public that Superman enjoyed.

In general, I think handled Superman fairly well. I did, however, write him a little more staid so Booster's differences would stand out.

When Jurgens would get his chance to write for the Man of Tomorrow, he turned in some of the best Superman stories of all time. So I think we can forgive him if his early Superman appearances seem a little stiff.

Thanks to Dan Jurgens for, well, everything.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: dan jurgens origins superman true story

I honestly have no idea what's going on behind the scenes between DC, Warner Brothers, The CW, and SyFy, but it sure seems we should have a Booster Gold mock-reality show by now.

Last week's poll question: Why will we not see Booster Gold in Legends of Tomorrow? (52 votes)

The New 52 is now into it's fourth year, and we still have almost no idea what kind of person the New 52 version of Booster Gold is. Did his career path mirror his predecessor's cheating to climb the corporate ladder, or is he just a made-for-tv pseudo-celebrity like Kim Kardashian?

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: polls television wealth

There are fewer than three weeks remaining in the SnarfQuest Tales Kickstarter campaign.

Since I last told you of this amazing opportunity to support Cellbloc Studios' video game based on the work of Larry Elmore, we've opened reward tiers to international donors! Don't let this pass you by!

Click here to visit SnarfQuest Tales on Kickstater.com.

Thank you for your support!

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: cellblocstudios.com kickstarter.com snarfquest video games