Last Monday, I guessed that Francis Manapul was teasing his cover for the upcoming Action Comics issues featuring Booster Gold. This weekend, he proved me right.

Said Manapul on Instagram: "I'm taking over the variant cover art duties for #ActionComics and I couldn't be more excited! Here's the first cover of my run, #Superman along with time travelling #BoosterGold"

Presumably, that's the alternate cover for Action Comics #993, due December 13. DC has already released an image by Dan Jurgens presumed to be the standard cover. Neil Edwards and Jay Leistin were originally announced as the variant cover artists; I assume at this point that was an error.

(A quick note for new collectors about DC's "variant" covers. Traditionally, "variant" covers have been used as retailer incentives: "for every 2 of cover A, you can purchase 1 cover B," etc. This led to cover B being more expensive than cover A because retailers passed along the cost of acquisition. However, these days DC offers each issue in two covers to be ordered independently by retailers. Since the two covers exist in equal numbers, it's entirely arbitrary which is the "variant" as in practice they are both "regular" covers. So buy the one you like, or both, as neither inherently has more value or is rarer than the other.)

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Over the weekend, Ithildyn recommended that I should check out artist Francis Manapul's Instagram page. That's where I found this:

Manapul has been working for DC Comics for a decade, and in that time he's never drawn Booster Gold for publication. Is this about to change? The instagram post is tagged "#actioncomics", which leads to the implication that this will art is part of a cover for an as-yet unreleased issue.

Although DC hasn't announced that Manapul will be providing any covers for the title after next week's Action Comics #992, we already know that solicitations for issues of the "Booster Shot" story running through Action Comics in December and January misidentified interior artists. (Brett Booth will not be drawing interiors on issue #993 or #994.) It seems increasingly likely they were wrong about at least one cover artist as well.

We'll be keeping an eye out!

Thanks for the help, Ithildyn.

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We learned at New York Comic Con that DC had big plans for the landmark one thousandth issue of Action Comics due in spring 2018.

To celebrate the event, DC will release a hardback collection of past stories plus "all 1000 ACTION covers collected in a new poster." That poster will include Booster Gold, who was featured prominently on John Byrne's cover for Action Comics #594.

So we knew Booster Gold would appear in the celebratory hardcover, but what about appearing in Action Comics #1000 itself? We now know the answer is yes. Kind of.

Bleeding Cool reported yesterday that the hardcover will be titled Action Comics #1000: 80 Years of Superman, meaning that the $6 "oversized edition" comic and the $30 companion hardcover book will both be Action Comics #1000!

That might be confusing for fans, but it's good news for those of us looking for Booster to crash Superman's party. We can now definitively say that our hero will be in Action Comics #1000! Just be sure you pick up the right one when they hit your Local Comic Shop early next year.

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When DC released its December solicitations last month, we learned that Booster would be appearing in Action Comics #993 and 994.

DC released January solicitations earlier this week, and Booster Gold is getting even more Action!

ACTION COMICS #995
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
Cover by DAN JURGENS and TREVOR SCOTT
Variant cover by NEIL EDWARDS and JAY LEISTEN
"BOOSTER SHOT" part three! Time is broken, and Superman and Booster Gold are in over their heads trying to repair it! Meanwhile, Lois Lane confronts her estranged father—and Sam Lane now stands face to face with his grandson Jon for the first time. As Clark struggles to reconcile the truth of his own father, can Lois Lane do the same?
On sale JANUARY 10 • $2.99 US

ACTION COMICS #996
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by WILL CONRAD
Cover by DAN JURGENS and TREVOR SCOTT
Variant cover by NEIL EDWARDS and JAY LEISTEN
"BOOSTER SHOT" part four! Superman and Booster Gold are out of time, and they've found themselves marooned on a strange planet sometime in the future. So why does this planet's infrastructure look...Kryptonian? The answer shakes the Man of Steel to the core as the ruler of this planet reveals himself . . . the son of Zod reigns supreme!
On sale JANUARY 24 • $2.99 US

You may remember that Brett Booth was solicited as the artist for the previous issues, and he denied it on Twitter. Well, Booth confirmed that these January solicitations are correct. (Still no official word from DC on who will be drawing #993 & #994, though.)

In addition to all those, take a look at the solicited cover to Nightwing: The New Order #6:

If you look closely, you'll see a familiar blue star under Nightwing Jr's right arm. Booster isn't in the first two issues in this six-issue out-of-continuity limited series, but might we see him in January's conclusion? The future is looking increasingly golden!

You can read all the original solicitation details on Newsarama.com.

UPDATE: I hear via Shan on Twitter that Booth says "Booster Shot" is going at least 6 issues. So expect more Booster Gold news in February!

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I think the debate over who will be drawing Action Comics #993 is over.

Dan Jurgens writing and drawing Booster Gold again? Now that's something to look forward to!

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