Late last week, Booster booster J sent me a bunch of new sighting of old ads to update the list of Boosterrific Advertisements. However, one of his finds is this:

That house advertisement comes from Flashpoint Companion, a collection of promotional material — mostly cover art — supporting the Flashpoint event.

So far as I can determine, Flashpoint Companion was a digital only release originally published online in 2012 at read.dccomics.com. Although DC discontinued that subdomain URL in 2013, you can still read it free online via DC Infinite, Google Play, Apple Books, or Amazon (and probably many others).

Other than this two-page spread — essentially a glorified reading list — the only actual "story" inside the book is a two-page "The Origin of the Flash" written by Scott Beatty (which, according to his blog, scottbeatty.blogspot.com, was originally created as a Converse shoe promotion, probably sometime around 2008-2009, as I believe it was included in the DC Universe: Origins collection of the 2-page origins published in 2010 Never mind. It's not in there).

In fact, it's probably worth mentioning that all the art for this promo was pulled from other sources. The central image of Flash comes from an Andy Kubert drawn house ad at the end of 2010's The Flash Volume 3 #1 (as you can see at Flash fansite speedforce.org). The background behind the Flash (a callback to the sublime wraparound slipcase cover for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover by George Perez and Alex Ross) was taken from Flashpoint #5 (also drawn by Kubert).

The crackle section with Booster and Professor Zoom are the covers of Booster Gold #45 by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, and Hi-Fi Designs and Flashpoint: Reverse Flash #1 by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes.

I don't find print copies of this thing documented online in any of the usual places, but it's possible it has been overlooked given its slight content. Does anyone know if Flashpoint Companion was ever officially published (i.e., committed to paper)? Perhaps as an in-store giveaway?

As a general rule, I confine mention of digital-only content to here on the Boosterrific Blog and leave it out of the larger tracking Boosterrific Database, in large part because digital content is so ephemeral, even by comic book standards. Should I make an exception here given the ubiquity of the free copies floating around online ten years after its original release? Oh, the headaches of being an obsessive comic book chronicler!

Hearty thanks to J for your ongoing efforts to make Boosterrific better than ever.

UPDATE: J adds via email

A few years ago, DC had booklets advertising various characters, such as Batman 101 and JSA 101, where they'd print a list of essential stories, a some two-page origin stories, and comic covers.... In the "Justice League 201" booklet, they'd reprinted the Origin of Booster Gold from 52 #24. But unfortunately, it seems to no longer be available.

Like the Flashpoint Companion, I believe those also only existed digitally, and my bias against tracking digital media applies. For years, DC made those 2-page origins available for free on their website as part of their character guides; that content seems to have evaporated as well.

And that's why I prefer physical floppies: DC can't take the paper away from me (unless they back a moving truck up to my house).

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: andy kubert dccomics.com flashpoint house ads j scott beatty scottbeatty.blogspot.com speedforce.org

Posts have been light this week in large part because work has kept me so busy. That hasn't changed.

So today, as we head into the weekend, all I can offer is a couple of Booster sightings passed along to me this week by longtime Booster booster Rob Snow:

Booster sighting. New book called DC Periodic table. Booster, Ted and Rip all have profiles. No Skeets.

Officially, the book is called The Periodic Table of DC, and it comes to us by way of DK Publishing.

While DK thrives primarily on being the print equivalent of a CBR listicle, I cannot fault their presentations, which are always top notch. So although I have not yet seen this book myself, I suggest you hustle to pick one up at your local book store before all their copies argon. (Har, har.)

Later in the week, Rob wrote in again.

Nuther Booster sighting. Scott Kolins facebook page has killer Booster sketch.

Facebook and I no longer have a functional relationship, so I cannot see Kolins' post myself. Thankfully, Rob very kindly passed along a screenshot, which looks like this.

If you get along with Facebook better than I do, maybe you can track down a better look.

Thanks a bunch, Rob.

UPDATE: D'oh! As Cort Carpenter points out in the comments, that Scott Kolins sketch was one of his commissions. In fact, I even posted it here on Boosterrific.com back in May 2020! You can see it at this link.

If I wasn't so wrapped up in work, I might have noticed that, but obviously I didn't. Oops. I usually make some effort search my own back catalog in order to bring you only the freshest Booster Gold news. There's probably some sort of lesson in here about life in general... but I'm too busy to figure out what that might be. In this case, at least the sketch is totally worth seeing a second time, as are most of Cort's commissions, which you can see at this link.

Thanks again to Cort for sharing his sketchbook with us, and, heck, for commissioning so many cool Booster Gold sketches that we can't even keep track of all of them!

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: books commissions cort carpenter dk periodic table rob snow scott kolins

My friend Michael likes attending DragonCon more than I like anything. He's finally recovered enough from his annual week of whatever it is one does at Dragon Con for a week to send me this pic of the only Booster Gold cosplayer he spotted this year:

I love the little Skeets on her shoulder, like a 25th-century parrot.

Thanks, Mike! (And thanks, cosplayer, whoever you are!)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: 2023 conventions cosplay costumes dragoncon michael foster

So far as I can tell, time traveler Booster Gold has never appeared in a comic book released on the 11th day of September.

Coincidence? I think not.

"If Only," 9-11 - The World's Finest Comic Book Writers & Artists Tell Stories to Remember, 2002
by Dan Jurgens, Alan Davis, Robin Riggs, Mike Collins, Mark Farmer, Todd Klein, Lee Loughridge

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: 911 alan davis dan jurgens justice league lee loughridge mark farmer mike collins robin riggs todd klein world trade center

As I promised last week, Suicide Squad #13 has Booster Gold's biggest on-panel presence in months as the Justice League International goes toe-to-toe with a badly overmatched Suicide Squad, as you can already see on page 3:

After weeks on the sideline, Booster Gold comes off as something of a beast in this issue as literally no one on the Suicide Squad's roster can touch him (thanks to his force field). For what it's worth, Booster Gold is ultimately paired off against Javelin because somebody's gotta fight him (that's how these sorts of stories work). Were they paired just because they dress alike?

If you're a fan of the Green Lantern/Booster Gold running gag introduced in the 2004 Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told," you'll appreciate that Javelin debuted as a Green Lantern villain (in 1984's Green Lantern #173) who gave the Lantern considerably more trouble than he gives Booster Gold here.

Fip whang whiii, indeed.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: favorite pages javelin suicide squad