Booster Gold is often criticized for his relentless pursuit of the spotlight. But if that's all you know about Booster, you don't really understand him.

While, yes, he does want to be loved, he also really cares about helping people as we can see in the aftermath of Monarch's destruction of Metropolis' S.T.A.R. Labs headquarters building as detailed in these panels from Armageddon 2001 #2...

words by Denny O'Neil; art by Dan Jurgens, Art Thibert, Steve Mitchell, John Costanza, Adrienne Roy

...and this page from Action Comics #670...

words by Roger Stern; art by Bob McLeod, Denis Rodier, Bill Oakley, Glenn Whitmore

...both of which were released 30 years ago today!

Helping those who need help, that's the work of the real heroes. Keep up the good work, Buster!

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This time next week, we should have a copy of Blue and Gold #2 in our hands. (Fingers crossed!) In the meantime, let's take a look back at the earliest adventure of Blue and Gold.

Any wiki site can tell you that the very first time Blue Beetle and Booster Gold both appeared in the same panel (much less in the pages of the same book) was 1987's Justice League #3.

But despite working together as a team for the first time in the following issue, the pair wouldn't really become a pair for a few months more, not until they paid a visit to Paris in Justice League International #8, by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.

(Don't let the "International" in the name fool you. This was a continuation of the same series. "International" was added to the title starting in issue 7, and would remain there until issue 26, when the book returned to it's "America" roots for the duration of its 113 issue run.)

If you're keeping track, this was Booster's second visit to Paris that year. He had already been with Black Canary in the pages of Justice League Annual #1 (as we saw here). Booster didn't have a lot of luck romancing Canary, and his bad luck with women would continue into the International era.

Thus the template was set for Blue and Gold's enduring (and endearing) 34-year-and-counting comedic bromance. Perfect from the beginning!

If you want to impress your friends, take note of the "Bwah-ha-ha" Beetle unleashes in Black Canary's presence (page 14 of the original story). That's the first appearance of what would become the pair's signature laugh!

And that's how comic book legends are made: one panel at a time.

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Congratulations to Blue and Gold artist Ryan Sook for finally giving me reason to sign up for an Instagram account with this very inventive announcement over the weekend on instagram.com/rsookart:

rsookart: So, yeah, this is my own personal gag about supply chain issues. But really, next issue will be there Sept. , 7! Support your LCS, retailers, publishers, and the titles you love during the snafus because even superheroes have set backs from time to time. And Booster and Beetle will be back in action ASAP!! #blueandgold #dccomics #dcuniverse #boostergold #bluebeetle #superheroes #newcomicbookday

Well, that makes it almost worth the delay, Ryan. Thank you. (Additional thanks to Rob Snow for calling this unusual Boosterrific comic strip to our attention.)

Click any of the above images to visit Sook's Instagram to see the comic in its native, one-panel-at-a-time format.

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Two weeks after delaying Blue and Gold #2 with no notice, DC has finally admitted to supply chain issues causing slippage in publication dates. Per Chris Arrant's report at GamesRadar.com/Newsarama:

DC has now revised the release dates for 28 upcoming single issues, along with five collected editions. Although this is the initial list, DC's spokesperson says the company does "expect further shifts in the future. DC will communicate these moves clearly and quickly."

Two of those 28 issues are Blue and Gold. Issue 2 is now scheduled for September 7, and the release of issue 3 has been postponed to September 28. Given the language of DC's notice, I won't be surprised if those dates don't slip as well.

(Not appearing on that list of 28 issues are Infinite Frontier #5 or Teen Titans Academy #6, both of which were originally announced to be available this week but failed to make that date. So are those books slipping for other reasons? Or is the problem already worse than DC wants us to think it is?)

I'm prepared to be tolerant, DC. Just keep us posted, ok? As any marriage counsellor will tell you, communication is key.

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For the second week in a row, I went to my Local Comic Shop to buy books that DC says via their website should be available now only to discover after arriving that they were not actually released. Obviously, I'm making a mistake expecting DCComics.com to give me an accurate assessment of what they are making available each week.

So I'll consider this a lesson learned. From now on, I'll only trust release information reported by the website of DC's sole distributor, lunardistribution.com, (which only reports books shipping a few days in advance) and even then probably only after I have a book in my hand.

What that means for you, loyal Boosterrific.com visitor, is that release dates I have listed for upcoming new releases may not be accurate, even when I have taken that data from DC Comics itself. These sorts of scheduling problems shouldn't be a big surprise to any of you who have been buying comics for any length of time, but it's still worth a reminder.

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