If you're a Kindle reader looking for a way to kill some time this Thanksgiving, I've got a present for you.

Until November 26, you can download digital copies of my second and third books for free from Amazon.com.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Black Friday, everybody.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: a quest before dying holidays prince thorgils war thanksgiving the wizards of ranaloy

Monday, Kieran Shiach of ComicsAlliance.com recapped Booster Gold's first appearance. His article is very good and mostly accurate. His only mistake is saying that Booster Gold #1 was first released on November 2, 1986. It wasn't.

For the record, Booster Gold #1 was released to comics specialty shops (the emerging "direct market") on October 29, 1985. We know it's true because Dan Jurgens says so.

But that one little nitpick aside, it's great to see Comics Alliance celebrating our hero. Just one more things to give thanks for this week.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: comicsalliance.com dan jurgens kieren shiach true story

This is the official week to be thankful, and chief on my list of things to be thankful for right now is this fantastic bit of fan art by professional illustrator Sean Von Gorman.

You can find more of Gorman's work on the cover of Kiss #1 from Dynamite Comics, as well as DeviantArt.com and Twitter (as @VonGormanArt).

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle deviantart.com fan art sean van gorman skeets

Things have been changing in America lately, and not necessarily for the better. Not so many years ago, many DC Comics super hero bloggers and I participated in semi-regular crossover events. Now very few of us are still posting.

Both FirestormFan.com and AquamanShrine.net have stopped blogging to focus their efforts on podcasting (fireandwaterpodcast.com). The Martian Manhunter blog, The Idol-Head of Diabolu, has likewise gone silent as its creator also seems to be concentrating on podcasts for his other blogs (DC Bloodlines and Wonder Woman: Diana Prince). So too, Splitting Atoms is now more podcast than blog. Others that have fallen completely silent (like Tower of Fate and Being Carter Hall). Some stalwarts soldier on, including SpeedForce.org and Kord Industres. We seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Once again, this has made me return to a question I've asked myself from time to time since Booster Gold disappeared from the pages of DC Comics: Has the time for websites dedicated to super hero blogging passed us by? Would comics fans rather listen to a podcast than read a website? Is the problem the characters or the bloggers or just shifting demographics?

Like so many of those now-defunct sites, Boosterrific.com is first and foremost a hobby. I started working on it nine years ago, and I keep it running because I want to. Personally, I have no interest in phone apps, wikis, or podcasting. If that's the future of Booster Gold fandom, I'll leave it to someone else. (The Silver and Gold podcast — now a whole network — seems to be doing just fine without me.)

Don't worry, this post isn't a lead up to the retirement of Boosterrific.com. I'm only committing my rambling grumpy old man thoughts to electronic paper. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. It's just that I'm starting to feel kind of lonely out here all by myself. I sure would like some new Booster Gold comics to keep me company.

Comments (7) | Add a Comment | Tags: aquamanshrine.com beingcarterhall.blogspot.com dcbloodlines.blogspot.com firestormfan.com idol-head.blogspot.com kord industries new-wonder-woman.blogspot.com podcasts silver and gold sngpod.wordpress.com speedforce.org website update

Not too long ago, I shared a bunch of images of a Smallville-style Booster Gold jacket and pointed out that they were all badly altered versions of the same cosplayer.

I finally found a picture of another Eric Martsolf jacket. This one belongs to cosplayer Michael Boruff.

Boruff doesn't just have a jacket; he has a Skeets! Boruff indicates on his DeviantArt page that he's put a speaker inside Skeets so that it will talk. Now that's Boosterrific!

Great job, Michael.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: cosplay costumes deviantart.com eric martsolf michael boruff skeets