Just a few hours after Monday's blog post went live, Rob Snow wrote in to say

In a bit of sweet delicious irony, given todays blog post, I have a bit of Booster news. A new DC character guide dropped today. Booster has his own entry. Lol.

It turns out that the book Rob is talking about is exactly what he says it is: DC Ultimate Character Guide New Edition from DK and published by Penguin Random House. The "New Edition" part is important, because DK first released this book in 2011, then again in 2019. So technically this is the third edition (but who's counting?).

I note that the solicitation text on the publisher's page I linked to above calls this "The definitive encyclopedia to DC Comics characters." However, DK also publishes a book they explicitly title The DC Comics Encyclopedia (also in multiple editions), and that book really does a much better job of in-depth coverage of the DCU. By comparison, the Ultimate Character Guide is really a primer meant to familiarize younger audiences with the awesome DCU characters. No complaints about that; I'm just nitpicking hyperbolic sales jargon because I'm a grumpy old man.

Booster is featured in both of the previous editions of the DC Ultimate Character Guide as well as the newest new edition. The sales text also promises "Updated character profiles," though since I don't have all three books in front of me, I cannot tell you what that means for Booster's page. Not a lot, I'm guessing. Booster's big change in the past five years is the establishment of Blue & Gold Restoration in Blue and Gold. That's great, but if you have to boil down Booster's whole life story to just one page, it's really worth only a footnote of the "what he's up to now" variety.

I imagine that if you've got one of those previous releases, you probably don't need this. But need is kind of a funny word for us obsessive collector types, so do what you've gotta do, and I promise not to judge.

Thanks, Rob.

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Not so long ago, Rob Snow wrote in to let us know that the book, Strange and Unsung All-Stars of the DC Universe by Stephanie Williams "has a whole section for Skeets."

I still haven't managed to get my hands on a copy to confirm this, but I trust Rob.

What's strangest about this is how it seems that Skeets wouldn't seem to qualify. I mean, good for Skeets; even Booster rarely gives him the credit he deserves. But the little fella seems an odd choice for a book of "all-stars" given that he has had, like, zero solo adventures in four decades.

Other than that time he was possessed by a villain (and the occasional hint that he and Rip Hunter hang out off panel), Skeets has only been depicted having adventures apart from Booster Gold in the Extreme-era JLA when he and Oberon befriended Firestorm.

If Skeets is finally ready to spread his winglets and fly out of Booster's shadow to become a standalone hero in his own right, I'm all for it. Every hero's gotta start somewhere: maybe he should consider giving the Titans a call.

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Posts have been light this week in large part because work has kept me so busy. That hasn't changed.

So today, as we head into the weekend, all I can offer is a couple of Booster sightings passed along to me this week by longtime Booster booster Rob Snow:

Booster sighting. New book called DC Periodic table. Booster, Ted and Rip all have profiles. No Skeets.

Officially, the book is called The Periodic Table of DC, and it comes to us by way of DK Publishing.

While DK thrives primarily on being the print equivalent of a CBR listicle, I cannot fault their presentations, which are always top notch. So although I have not yet seen this book myself, I suggest you hustle to pick one up at your local book store before all their copies argon. (Har, har.)

Later in the week, Rob wrote in again.

Nuther Booster sighting. Scott Kolins facebook page has killer Booster sketch.

Facebook and I no longer have a functional relationship, so I cannot see Kolins' post myself. Thankfully, Rob very kindly passed along a screenshot, which looks like this.

If you get along with Facebook better than I do, maybe you can track down a better look.

Thanks a bunch, Rob.

UPDATE: D'oh! As Cort Carpenter points out in the comments, that Scott Kolins sketch was one of his commissions. In fact, I even posted it here on Boosterrific.com back in May 2020! You can see it at this link.

If I wasn't so wrapped up in work, I might have noticed that, but obviously I didn't. Oops. I usually make some effort search my own back catalog in order to bring you only the freshest Booster Gold news. There's probably some sort of lesson in here about life in general... but I'm too busy to figure out what that might be. In this case, at least the sketch is totally worth seeing a second time, as are most of Cort's commissions, which you can see at this link.

Thanks again to Cort for sharing his sketchbook with us, and, heck, for commissioning so many cool Booster Gold sketches that we can't even keep track of all of them!

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Argentinian comic book fan Pablo Stadelman, author of Cosa De Fans and Cosa De Fans 2, has written yet another book about comics, Decisiones Heroicas.

My Spanish is... well, very bad. So I had Google Translate translate the book jacket for me.

Heroic Decisions: history of the creation of the most important comics industries.

This book contains the beginning of the most significant editorial contest in the world of comics, of two of its most important exponents, such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

Through an extensive investigation, the period between 1960 and 1970 is analyzed, and it is shown how both publishers made decisions of different kinds to carry out their growth and achieve their well-deserved recognition.

It is a tribute to the actions of the different cartoonists, writers, inkers, and editors of both publishers, who had the difficult task of making the right decisions to be able to implement the stories of the characters most loved by readers.

This book is dedicated to all comic book lovers, as well as to all those who want to know the beginning of one of the most important events in the publishing industry.

Booster Gold wasn't around in the 60s or 70s, but he has always been a student of historical heroes. He's also a time traveler, a walking anachronism. Maybe that's why he's on the cover.

Or maybe he just couldn't resist the opportunity to be seen alongside so many members of both the Justice League and the Avengers. Our hero never could resist a good photo opportunity.

Good luck with the book, Pablo.

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The Internet's premier Booster Gold reporter, Russ Burlingame, is writing another book, this time an oral history of DC's Legends of Tomorrow television show.

Now, I've always been a little ambivalent about Legends. I watched a few episodes the first season because it had a "Rip Hunter" in it, but when I discovered Legends' take on characters in the pages of DC Comics (especially "Rip Hunter") was a bad match for my headcanon, I lost interest quickly.

That said, Booster Gold did appear in the series' final episode, and any oral history of the television show will have to cover how Booster was introduced just in time for the show to get canceled. I could definitely read more about how all involved felt about that.

I asked Russ what else Booster Gold fans should expect, and he said:

I already talked to Dan Park (who wrote the BG backup comic [Earth-Prime: Legends of Tomorrow #3]) and to some folks about the direct influence of Time Masters: Vanishing Point and Booster Gold #5 (which seems to have clearly been the emphasis for the episode "The Fixed Point"). So while Booster isn't a huge presence in the book, he's definitely a bigger presence than you would expect from a Legends book.

That's good enough for me.

If you'd like to join me in helping Russ, you can pre-order a copy of his book at Kickstarter.com.

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