My friends Mike and Keith are big fans of "The Dresden Files" books by Jim Butcher, and they were eager to tell me that Booster Gold is name-checked in the latest book, Battle Ground, as you can see below.

That page makes no sense to me, but I suppose jumping into any novel on page 153 would be confusing.

Despite my friends' urging, I have not read any of "The Dresden Files" books. I bought the first one, Storm Front, but only got through the first chapter before loaning it to my father, who was looking for something new to read in the hospital. I haven't seen it since (though Dad has now read the first 16 in the series).

Apparently, fans of the series know what I didn't, that protagonist wizard Harry Dresden — as Wikipedia tells us:

Harry prefers to drive his Volkswagen Beetle because the simple technology powering it makes it less likely to be adversely affected by his magic, and it can be fixed easily. He refers to it as the "Blue Beetle" due to its original color, though damage by supernatural creatures has forced him to replace several pieces of the bodywork in different colors.

Despite Harry's objection, comic book fans will agree that "Booster Gold" is the prefect callsign for someone associated with the Blue Beetle.

For the record, Battle Ground, the 17th "Dresden" book, was released in September. It can now be found in fine bookstores everywhere (and I'm sure it will make a good gift for my father this Christmas).

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Okay, so Batman Beyond #48 is finally out, and let me say... it was totally worth the wait.

CBR.com has a preview.

Do yourself and Skeets a favor and buy this issue to make you happy.

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I was having a particularly bad week — which makes me no different than 90% of the global population this unendurable 2020 — when I received a pleasantly unexpected email from Cort Carpenter with a new batch of Boosterrific sketches from his Booster Gold sketchbook.

Reilly Brown

Adam Gorham

Steve Lieber

Mike Norton

Dave Stokes

... and another by Dave Stokes

And one by Cort himself!

Good timing, Cort. It's hard to feel down while looking at that many smiling faces.

You can see these and many, many more at Cort's online Booster Gold sketchbook on imgur.com.

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Because Booster Gold is a comic book character, Boosterrific.com is usually pretty much alone in its field reporting on his copious public appearances. If Booster was a real person, there would be, like, hundreds of sites stumbling over one another to repost paparazzi photos of him eating a burrito while headed to the gym wearing sweatpants in a desperate ploy to seduce your valuable click.

I might be a niche site, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to use those other sites' playbook! I'm the Internet, too, guys.

On October 4, former Justice League International artist Kevin Maguire tweeted an image promoting social distancing that he created in an intentional homage to his own 1987 cover to Justice League #1.

On October 7, former comics news website that now specializes in clickbait listicles, CBR.com, reposted the image with only the bare details necessary to inform the uninitiated of its visual significance without adding any significant commentary. (Shame on me. That was snarky. CBR doesn't deserve to be made fun of like that. To be fair, there must be plenty of people encountering the image for the first time who are unaware of the JL cover. "CBR: the best comics website for people who don't read comics!")

On October 8, the comics gossip tabloid that Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens recently called "disreputable," BleedingCool.com, also reposted the image. They went a step further than their click competitor and added a gallery of other images Maguire has drawn that also homage the aforementioned Justice League #1 cover. Reputable or not, that seems like at least some value added in return for your click.

Now, on October 9, I will repost the same image because, like the other sites, I don't really have anything better to post. And I'm adding nothing of value other than the unenlightening observation that my doing the same thing as everyone else does nothing to advance the human condition in any meaningful way. And heck, I'm not even getting paid. (#nihilismnow!)

Hopefully, if you saw the following image on Twitter or CBR or Bleeding Cool, you'll still enjoy seeing it again as much as I do. Personally, I never get tired of Maguire's art.

No, sir, Mr. Gardner.

Footnote: I'm a little surprised I haven't yet seen Maguire's image posted at the former Newsarama, but it seems they've been too busy posting bigger news to resort to reposting social media pics. Check out their latest "feature" piece, "Marvel characters who have wielded Captain America's shield." (Double shame on me. There's always the weekend.)

UPDATE 2020-10-09: ComicBook.com is getting in on the action! Hi, Russ!

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This is not new. It was created waaay back in 2013, and I found it while looking for art to use for my Blue and Gold #ConnectedTogether Social Distance PSA. I haven't run it before, and I like it. I think maybe you'll like it, too.

The lines are by RB Silva and the color is by Mat Lopez, who posted it to his account on DeviantArt.com.

I like to imagine that Booster is telling Beetle a joke to cheer him up, but it's equally likely the boys are celebrating the destruction of that annoying office printer that always jams. (You know the one!) With these two, you can never tell.

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