Booster booster Eskana has recently found Booster Gold in a very unexpected place: a 1987 issue of the academic Journal of Consumer Research.

The journal article, "Material Values in the Comics: A Content Analysis of Comic Books Featuring Themes of Wealth," as its author Russell W. Belk explains, "seeks to investigate a more detailed agenda of materialistic themes expressed in comic books." To do this, he studied stories from popular series featuring wealthy characters, specifically issues of Fox and Crow, Archie, Uncle Scrooge, and Richie Rich.

Comic book aficionados will not be surprised to learn that the results of this qualitative and quantitative analysis of American pop-culture reveals that American pop-culture generally reflects Protestant Christian values. "In terms of wealth and consumption per se, the message in the stories seems to be that material possessions can be both good and bad."

Booster Gold appears more or less as a footnote following the article's conclusion, wherein the author concedes that the stories of yesteryear may not be indicative of future themes, especially considering the more "fallible and human superheroes" who began appearing in the 1970s and 80s. Particular attention is drawn to — you guessed it — Booster Gold Volume 1. "If Booster Gold is a prototype, it will be extremely interesting to examine the messages about materialism that are delivered to the next generation of comic book readers."

Given that nearly four decades later, Booster continues to be a polarizing figure explicitly because of his unquenchable twin desires for wealth and fame, I'd say not all that much has changed. Thank goodness. (And thanks to Eskana for bringing this article to our attention.)

REFERENCES

Russell W. Belk, Material Values in the Comics: A Content Analysis of Comic Books Featuring Themes of Wealth, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 14, Issue 1, June 1987, Pages 26—42, https://doi.org/10.1086/209090

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Don't expect to see Booster Gold in any of this week's books. Don't expect to see him in any book in August, either.

DC released their August solicitations last week with nary a Booster in sight. Nor even a Dan Jurgens credit, which is important because Jurgens has historically been the one to sneak Booster back into the spotlight.

To be fair, most of the August books tie-in to the Knight Terrors event, and I can't say I'm sad that Booster looks to be missing out on that. (Perhaps he'll show up as a cameo appearance in someone else's nightmare?)

August does have a one-shot G'nort's Illustrated Swimsuit special. Could we see Booster in that? G'nort was Booster's Justice League International teammate for a while, and no hero in the DCU looks better in a swimsuit than our hero, as demonstrated in 2020's DC Cybernetic Summer!

And even if we don't have new comics coming, we've still got plenty of old comics to read. Comics like 2014's Scribblenauts Unmasked: A Crisis of Imagination #7. I didn't know about that one until J told me last week. Thanks, J.

Keep your eyes peeled, Booster boosters. You never know where you'll find Booster Gold next!

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Last week's featured book, Booster Gold #23, was just one of three comics with significant Booster Gold content released on September 15, 1987.

The second is Millennium #1, the first entry in a months-long event that would span the entire DC Universe. If you are familiar with Millennium, you are probably aware that it is... not especially beloved, largely because of the editorial mandate that each series being published had to tie-in, often in the most ham-fisted ways possible.

Especially in relation to Booster Gold.

But that's not the topic at hand. Even misguided comics can have fun pages. A highlight of events like these is always seeing all the heroes milling around as though they were regular partygoers at a costume party, like this crowd scene from page 14.

It's actually kind of difficult to make these overcrowded group shots work as anything other than a class photo, but here artist Joe Staton and letterer Bob Lappan manage to give the scene some life as the dialog trickles back and forth down the page. Each snippet of conversation gives the impression that we're eavesdropping on natural dialog just as the camera comes to focus on the talker (or thinker, as the case may be).

Most importantly, Booster boosters are guaranteed to enjoy a callback to the running joke of people calling our hero "Buster." It's a classic!

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My power is out. We're on hour 5 and counting. Again. (It went out for a long stretch back in late March, but you probably didn't know that since I made an effort not to let it interrupt April Fool's Day.)

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a tirade about the disappointing state of my local powergrid. The point here is that I didn't have anything pre-loaded in the blogging pipeline, so this is all the blog content you're going to get today.

Enjoy the hiatus. Consider this a good opportunity to get off the Internet. Go smell some roses or something.

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Don't let that headline mislead you; I'm not expecting to see Booster Gold in this week's The Flash #799. But as the issue preview now available at AIPTComics.com demonstrates, we will definitely be seeing Gold Beetle:

As I said a few weeks ago, I'm expecting we'll see Gold Beetle again on June 6 in The Flash's "extra-sized" final issue #800. (Don't worry, DC is restarting Flash with a whole new number one in September... because, um, the number one is cooler.)

What I was NOT expecting, and what I learned from reading the Flash #800 preview also already online at AIPTComics.com, is that the issue will feature an appearance by Booster Gold's long-lost second foe, Mindancer!

I can't wait to find out what she's been up to for the last 37 years!

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