I do not yet own a copy of yesterday's Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last 52: War of the Multiverses #1, not because I couldn't make it to my Local Comic Shop but because they were shorted the issue in their weekly comic shipment. New distributor, same old problems. What a fitting way to end 2020.

Actually, that's not entirely true. (The part about the issue's availability, not 2020 sucking. 2020 objectively sucked.) My LCS did have 1 copy of the issue: the 1:25 variant Gary Frank cover. It looks great, but I'm not going to pay $40 for a comic in which Booster only appears on the cover. (Well, *maybe* if Dan Jurgens drew it....)

Yes, that's right: Booster appears on both the standard and retailer incentive variant covers of the issue without showing up on any pages inside. Has this happened before? I suppose I should be the one to know; According to the Boosterrific.com database, the answer is no. It figures that it would finally happen on a squarebound book with a $8.99 cover price. Another nice twist of the knife from 2020 on the way out the door. At least I still have my health.

While we're on the subject of books that Booster Gold doesn't appear in, I wouldn't be doing my duty as chronicler of all things Booster Gold if I didn't draw your attention to this sequence from pages 12 and 13 of this week's (surprisingly enjoyable) Jinny Hex Special #1:

words by Magdalene Visaggio, art by Gleb Menikov, Luis Guerrero, Gabriela Downie

No respect!

(It was not lost on me that in the story, Jinny "descendant of Jonah" Hex finds herself involved in shenanigans with a foe whose origins lie in the Old West. Booster Gold might have been the right ally to summon after all!)

Here's hoping we *all* have better luck next year, Booster boosters.

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Today marks the negative 422nd birthday of Jon Michael "Booster" Carter, born this day in the year 2442.

Booster Gold cake by Annette Price

Congratulations, Booster! You can celebrate by picking up a copy of Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last 52: War of the Multiverses #1 at your Local Comic Shop. The issue has two covers, and Booster is on both!

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If you like reading about the history of Booster Gold (and since you're reading *this*, I'd say there's a pretty good chance you do), you may be interested in hearing from Pablo Stadelman of Argentina who wrote me last week.

I send you this message because I write a book about the comic industry, called "Cosa de Fans" (fans thing) in my country.

Two years ago I came up with the idea of writing this book with the purpose that people, comic fans or not, know the way the industry works and the stories behind the development of a comic, since its creation from a character to the writing of a story.

For this reason, I interviewed several cartoonists, scriptwriters, inkers and editors of the major publishers, such as Marvel and DC comics, to tell them in the first person how their work is, along with the vicissitudes that happened during the development of a comic.

It also contains stories, many of them unknown, about various specific events of both publishers, both about their characters and their authors.

I had contact with many other friendly people, such as Dan Jurgens and Devin Grayson, as well as people who at first seemed unattainable, such as JM DeMatteis and Kevin Eastman.

I had the pleasure of speaking in the first person with people whom I idolize and follow since I started reading comics, and I was able to appreciate the human quality of each one of them.

I wrote a chapter about Booster Gold and the importance of this character in the DC universe. I talked with Dan Jurgens about the creation of Booster Gold, and he talked about the origin, and the way that he created Booster Gold.

It sounds like a pretty educational read. Pablo tells me Cosa de Fans (ISBN 9789878618272) can be found on Argentinian e-commerce platform Mercado Libre or "in some book shops or comic shops in Argentina." If you're down that way, keep an eye out for it.

Good luck with your book, Pablo!

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This holiday, I give you not the Christmas you asked for but the Christmas you deserve.

Justice League Task Force #37 (1996)

Merry Christmas, everyone. Drink up.

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So begins the first super-team team-up in the career of Booster Gold in 1986.

Sure, he'd fought alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes in Booster Gold #8 and #9, but he wasn't technically going by "Booster Gold" at the time. And he wouldn't join the Justice League International for another half-a-year.

As you can see, Booster had been called in by Magenta as backup for the Teen Titans in their struggle against Brother Blood. The 4-part storyline ran from New Teen Titans #28 through #31, all of which are collected in today's New Teen Titans Volume 12 reprint collection.

Though the stakes were high and many heroes were involved in the fight, Booster played but a small part in only a few panels in the middle two issues, #29 (above) and #30:

And that's that. Booster goes off to defend Washington D.C. and is not seen again for the rest of the story. At least we know he succeeded. Thanks to Booster Gold, Washington D.C. is still around today.

It may not be a glamourous job, but somebody's got to do it.

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