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Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold

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Friday, October 9, 2015

30 Years of Funny Pages

On the very first panel of the very first page of the very first Booster Gold comic, readers were introduced to Blaze Comics. "BC" would go on to produce the Booster Gold comic within the DC Universe, making Booster Gold a comic book character who appeared as a comic book character in a comic book.

Before Booster Gold, the most famous story to include a comic-within-a-comic must "Flash of Two Worlds" (The Flash #123, 1961). That story introduced the multiverse to readers of DC Comics when Barry Allen of Earth-1 read comics about the adventures of his predecessor Jay Garrick of Earth-2.

Because Booster Gold debuted after the multiverse-killing Crisis on Infinite Earths, his comic-within-a-comic must be about his own adventures. If you think about it, this sets up a meta-textural Droste effect, an infinite recursion of Booster Gold comic books including Booster Gold comic books.

(Could Grant Morrison have been inspired by this concept? His Animal Man stories in which superhero Buddy Baker learned he was a comic character wouldn't be published until several years later.)

© DC Comics

What was Dan Jurgens thinking by starting his new comic with the story of the creation of a comic? Was Jurgens revealing the true, behind-the-scenes story of the creation of Booster Gold volume 1? To find out, I asked him.

I took that approach because I thought it was something readers might genuinely enjoy. There was something fun about the idea of a comic within a comic.

In retrospect, I kind of wish I had taken a couple of issues to actually build up to it.

Jurgens must have done something right. Blaze Comics has gone on to appear in both video games and movies in the years since its debut.

© DC Comics

I also asked Jurgens whether Blaze editor Skip Andrews or artists Benny and Marty were intended to be representative of any particular real-world people. Benny and Marty evoke referenes to Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, creators of the bestselling Teen Titans comics. Did Wolfman and Pérez ever return the favor and put Jurgens in one of their comics?

I wouldn't go that far with Benny and Marty, though there may be a hint of truth to it. In a way, they were based more on the idea of team books and their creative teams of that era.

Skip Andrews was more of an amalgam, based on several editors I knew at the time.

As for any Dan Jurgens doppelgänger, that's a story still waiting to be told!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks forward to reading that story.

The True Story of Booster Gold

Thanks to Dan Jurgens for putting pencil to paper and giving us such great comics.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: benny blaze comics dan jurgens flash marty origins skip andrews true story

Thursday, October 8, 2015

What Do You Want To Watch?

Hey! Most of you are about the same age as Booster Gold. Go figure.

Last week's poll question: How old are you? (56 votes)

How old are you?

So Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are going to be in a movie together. But what kind of movie is that going to be?

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: age blue beetle polls

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

New Old Releases: Remember Convergence?

If you've been trade-waiting for Booster Gold's Convergence appearances, your time has come at last.

Today sees the release of both the hardcover collection of the entire Convergence mini-series and the softcover Convergence Zero Hour Book One. The latter is a collection of several two-part Convergence mini-series, including Convergence: Justice League International #2 notable for the inclusion of Booster Gold wishing Blue Beetle a happy birthday.

If that's not enough Booster Gold for you, there's more coming. DC will be releasing Convergence TPBs all month. Both issues of Convergence: Booster Gold will be reprinted in Convergence Infinite Earths Book Two at the end of October.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: convergence justice league international new releases

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Blot's Sketchbook Strikes Back

The Blot had a busy summer. He picked up these fine sketch commissions for his Booster Gold sketchbook at Space City Comic Con:

Norm Rapmund draws Booster Gold for The Blot Says Scott Kolins draws Booster Gold for The Blot Says Sean 'Cheeks' Galloway draws Booster Gold for The Blot Says

From left to right, that's the work of Norm Rapmund, Scot Kolins, and Sean Galloway as the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd drawings in The Blot's Booster Gold sketchbook. You can see them and the other 20 pieces in much larger detail at The Blot Says' Flickr page. Thanks, Blot!

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blot commissions fan art flickr.com norm rapmund scott kolins sean cheeks galloway

Monday, October 5, 2015

Booster Gold Volume 1 Comes to Comixology

Russ Burlingame informs us via ComicBook.com that the first two issues of Booster Gold Volume 1 are now available on Comixology.com. In Full Color!

When they were first released back in 1986, these issues had a cover price of 75¢. Adjusting for inflation, that's $1.63 in 2015 money. So why is Comixology charging $1.99 each when all the hard work was done and paid for 30 years ago? Hopefully the answer is because they want to back up a truckload of royalty payments to creator Dan Jurgens' mailbox.

Of course, $1.99 looks like a great price compared to some speculators, who are asking $50 or more for original printings of that first issue. Most comics readers probably don't want to have to choose between reading more about Booster Gold or eating lunch for a week.

So whether you're a Grumpy Old Man like me or a hip millennial who prefers her comics on the go, a $1.99 comic book is a steal in the year 2015. So head over to Comixology.com and get yourself a digital copy of the classic debut of history's greatest hero. Booster Gold would want you to.

(Thanks to the ever alert Morgenstern for calling this to my attention.)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: comicbook.com comixology.com morgenstern reprints russ burlingame


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