Today marks the negative 419th birthday of Jon Michael "Booster" Carter, born this day in the year 2442.

For most of the past decade, I've been accompanying my annual Booster Gold birthday wishes with the same pic of a Booster Gold cake based on the opening splash page from Booster Gold volume 1, #3.

That image first appeared on the the Internet sometime about 2008 and, according to The Oklahoman, is the work of Annette Price, co-owner (then and now) of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, OK.

As you might expect, the Internet has come a long way since 2008. Back in the day, photos had to be small to fit easily through all the tubes. One terabyte hard drives were only just becoming commercially available in 2008. But tubes and storage space are much, much bigger now — The Cloud! — so we can use bigger pictures on our giant monitors. Isn't living in the future great?

All of which means that it is finally time to retire my tiny cake picture and replace it with...

...

...

... a large cake picture!

Yes, that's the same photo, now embiggened through the use of modern "artificial intelligence" algorithms and ready for re-use for many more birthdays to come.

Congratulations, Booster!

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Cort Carpenter sent me an email full of his best holiday wishes, and even better, he attached his latest addition to his Booster Gold Sketchbook:

Even if it wasn't signed, that piece is pretty obviously by John McCrea, co-creator of DC's Hitman.

Cort usually requests his commissions include Booster Gold's fabulous high collar, but this time McCrea even included the original hollow star and the bulbs on the end of Skeets' fins. Boosterrific!

Thanks, Cort!

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Yeah, yeah, DC's 'Twas the Mite Before Christmas has finally given us a Booster Gold in a full Santa suit.

But for my money, the best (and most extreme) Booster Gold Christmas panel is still this one:

Justice League Task Force #37 (1996)

What can I say? I just prefer a classic Christmas.

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Comics publishers are always looking for new (cheaper) artists. In 1988, DC had the bright idea of testing new talent with "Bonus Books," full stories inserted inside established titles.

One of those Bonus Books, the story "Raising the Roof," appeared in Justice League International #18. While the writing and art might feel a little off DC's usual model, the story still contains my favorite page in the entire issue:

Batman "executes" his master house plan? That's a pretty good punchline.

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It shouldn't be a surprise that Booster Gold is in this week's Batman/Superman: World's Finest #22. After all, he was on the last page of last month's issue.

So you might expect to see him sooner in this issue. And we do.

This time, he's on the next to last page.

That's three issues of Batman/Superman: World's Finest in a row with very, very brief Booster Gold cameo appearances. How long can they keep this streak going? I guess we'll find out next month.

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