Booster booster J dropped me a note late last week to say that Booster Gold had been spotted somewhere I hadn't thought to look: in a young adult graphic novel.

Field Trip Disaster is the fifth entry in the "Secret Hero Society" series from Scholastic Books. All the books in the series were written by Derek Fridolfs, and this one was illustrated in a black and white, breezy style by Dave Bardin. It's been out since 2019, but J's note was the first time I thought to crack the cover.

The plot is mostly about young Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman traveling to the future and meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes. This presents the opportunity for the heroes to meet a lot of lesser-known DC characters, including Etta Candy, Lobo, Space Cabbie, and, of course, Booster Gold (and Skeets!), who is teaching 21st-century history to 31st-century students.

Booster only appears on 6 of 175 pages, but the entire book is cute and funny, and I'm glad to have added it to my collection. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, J.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: books dave bardin derek fridolfs field trip disaster j secret hero society

In case you missed it this week (and I don't blame you if you did), Newsarama.com has gone to that great comic book news website in the sky.

As you can see from that screenshot, it looks like the remains of Newsarama have become yet another casualty of the Dark Side of the Internet's never-ending hunger for listicles.

Newsarama editor Chris Arrant tweeted that Newsarama's staff survives intact behind the scenes, but as that screenshot shows, "Newsarama" content is only a single landing page for the few comics-adjacent articles on a website dedicated to video games.

Like the once great ComicBookResources before it, all of Newsarama's archives have also been wiped from servers as though they never existed. That means if you come across any Newsarama.com links on this site, such as I tended to provide for DC's monthly solicitations, they now link to the front page of a video game website. Sorry about that. Think of it as rickrolling, 2020-style.

(You young 'uns do know what rickrolling was, right? It was a meme your parents enjoyed. I'd link you to a website explaining it, but most of them have shut down by now.)

So continues the cycle of the commercial niche-interest press. Comic book journalism, such as it is, will survive, I'm sure. What form will it take? Only time-traveling super heroes from the future know for sure, though if I had to guess, I'd say it'll probably look like this.

UPDATE 2020-6-6: And now The Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that DC and Diamond have parted ways. That's a big comic book industry story that may affect where and how you can buy future Booster Gold comics. What's next, 2020?

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: news newsarama.com website update

First there was The Blot. Then came Cort and Steven. And now there's Susan!

Check out this Booster Gold commission sketchbook:

Doc Shaner

Alejandro Rosado

Ramona Fradon

Jay Defoy

Elsa Charretier

Those are just a few of what Susan has posted to her Flickr.com account, so I encourage you to click over there for a better look around. (Especially that Ramona Fradon. I'm so happy she's drawn Booster Gold.)

Thank you so much for sharing, Susan. That's some Boosterrific art.

Comments (5) | Add a Comment | Tags: alejandro rosado commissions doc shaner elsa charretier flickr.com jay defoy ramona fradon susan page

Plagues and riots? It feels like the country has been turned on its ear.

This site is devoted to a comic book super hero, a character who tries to do the right thing, to help others and make the world a better place. Most comic book heroes do that by using their unique powers to defend the status quo by force. What happens when the status quo isn't worth defending?

I wish that was a rhetorical question.

I don't have any good answers; I'm just a guy who blogs about comics. All I can say is that I am trying to do the best I can one day at a time, and I hope you are, too.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: current events

Boosterrific Note: the following was sent to me in response to my April 10 post asking for Booster Gold fans to write in and tell us a bit about themselves.

Everyone, meet Jordan.

Thank you so much for this website and for this unique gathering of fandom around our favorite time-traveling hero. I stumbled across your website maybe 5-6 years ago and have regularly visited and enjoyed the updates on Booster appearances (not to mention digging deep into the listings of past Booster appearances for my own collecting purposes). I may not be a regular commenter, but I thoroughly appreciate this website and all you do.

I encountered Booster Gold for the first time at what was, in retrospect, a rather dark moment in the character's history. I began collecting comics around 2003-04, mostly Marvel at first. My initial foray into DC Comics was to check out their big event comic at the time, Identity Crisis. As a monthly murder mystery, I was on the edge of my seat, though in retrospect, it ended up being excessively dark and kicked off an unfortunate dismantling of the Justice League International-era characters. But at the time it did a great job of hooking me with hints of old stories and minor characters and the rich history of the DC Universe.

But it was the follow-up, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, that would help pave the way for me to become a lifelong Booster booster. Being relatively unfamiliar with either him or Blue Beetle, it helped introduce me to both characters and their brilliant friendship. Though it ended in tragedy, I became instantly enamored with the emotional journey of Booster Gold from down on-his-luck minor hero, to his heroic rescue of Ted in the middle chapter and then his sidelining injury before Ted's death. I knew I wanted to know more about this time traveling hero's past adventures hinted at in this issue, as well as how he would respond to the death of his best friend and what would come next.

I began to hunt down issues of Booster Gold's original series as well as the Giffen-DeMatteis-Maguire Justice League while following Booster's trajectory through OMAC Project (his scenes each issue were the primary reason I bought that series), Infinite Crisis and 52. In 52 I was devastated by his death and thrilled by his return and that final issue is still one of my favorite Booster Gold victories. Even better though was the launch of a new Booster Gold series and a new status quo as the Great Hero You've Never Heard Of. His character arc from failure and criminal to time-traveling runaway to self-promoting braggart to comical jokester to washed-up has been and all the way back around to noble and self-sacrificing hero is one of the greatest hero's journeys ever told. I largely check-out of DC with the New 52 relaunch and see relatively little on the shelves today that interests me, but that just means I have more spending money to use tracking down back issues featuring Booster Gold.

My favorite Booster moment would have to be in Vol. 2 #1 as he is invited to join the newly reformed Justice League of America and to his horror sees his membership certificate transform into a death certificate for Hal Jordan. That moment when he pauses you can feel the weight of his decision, but it passes quickly as he pastes a smile on his face and jovially turns down membership and plays the egotist, all for the sake of protecting his friends and fellow heroes. He will never receive a thank you or the accolades he deserves, but that's okay because he knows he is doing the right thing, even if it privately frustrates him, as shown in the very next panel. He is noble and self-sacrificing and willing to do the right thing, even at great personal cost. That may be a departure from his original status quo, but even in those old issues you can see that same heroism shine through as Dan Jurgens developed in Booster as he learned and grew and matured. That to me is what makes Booster Gold one of the best.

Thank you, Jordan.

If anyone else would like to share and/or self-promote, please drop me a line through the Boosterrific.com Contact Portal or directly at walter(at)boosterrific.com.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: fans jordan