You may recall that at the start of the year, I was gifted an unexpected Booster Gold sketch by Dan Jurgens.

Well, surprise, surprise. This past weekend, it happened again. My friend James has given me a sketch he commissioned for me from Booster Gold's original inker, Mike DeCarlo!

Isn't that swell?

This is the second time that James has gifted me a surprise commission. (See: Jeff Butler in 2022.) It sure is Boosterrific to have such a generous friend. Thanks, buddy.

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Get ready to loosen those purse strings this summer!

Booster Gold was one of several DC action figures revealed at the McFarlane Toys presentation at Phoenix Fan Fusion 2024, as we can see in the above image from In Pursuit of Toys on Instagram. You can watch the whole presentation on YouTube.com.

I sure do like that high collar.

Thanks to Rob Snow and Mike Foster for keeping us informed.

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Over the weekend, The Blot wrote me to say

McFarlane Toys announced at WonderCon there’s a new Booster Gold 7” DC Multiverse action figure coming next year!!!

Cool, I thought. But then I looked at the email's attachment and saw this:

Disclaimer: this isn't The Blot's photo but the image I found at Toyark.com when I googled to confirm this wasn't an early April Fools.

A New 52 Booster Gold? An overly-complicated design that looked bad in 2D comics and looks even worse on a small 3D action figure? Who wants that? I certainly don't, and if you tell me that you do I'm going to give you a classic Gary Coleman side-eye gif.

McFarlane gave us the Blue and Gold set with Booster's modern Mark I.v2 costume back in 2022, and a Waverider Booster in 2023. While I'd love more Booster Gold figures, why can't we get the classic Mark I high-collar costume? Or, if you want to get obscure, how about a figure with the Conglomerate leather jacket? (Please!)

The Blot followed up with this message:

A quick update. Turns out the dates in the picture are wrong. The new Booster Gold figure is coming out in 2024!

That would be great news... if I wanted a New 52 Booster Gold figure. I don't. But if your name is Jim Lee and you're eager to get your hands on a New 52 Booster Gold action figure, 2024 is your year!

Thanks for the news, Blot.

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My friend Michael likes attending DragonCon more than I like anything. He's finally recovered enough from his annual week of whatever it is one does at Dragon Con for a week to send me this pic of the only Booster Gold cosplayer he spotted this year:

I love the little Skeets on her shoulder, like a 25th-century parrot.

Thanks, Mike! (And thanks, cosplayer, whoever you are!)

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I had little choice but to order a copy of the San Diego Comic Con exclusive "Silver Screen Edition" reprint of Booster Gold Volume 1 #1 from eBay, making it the most I've ever paid for a single comic book.

But somehow no one told me it was polybagged.

I had to order another just to open one of them up (just like Superman #75 all those years ago). So now I've paid the most I've ever paid for two single comic books! And they're both reprints! Living in the future is expensive.

As you can see from the first-page indicia above, these shouldn't be called "Silver Screen Edition Booster Gold #1" because they are officially Booster Gold 1 (SDCC 2023 Facsimile Edition). "Facsimile Edition" is how DC has been labeling all of their recent single-issue reprints of classic comics. Could there be a non-foil Booster Gold #1 Facsimile Edition coming to comic shop near you in the near future?

To its credit, other than the foil wraparound cover, this Facsimile Edition is a very faithful reproduction of the original material, including commercial ads (for the likes of M.A.S.K. and Voltron) and house ads (for 'Mazing Man and the 1986 DC Wall Calendar), with only some small deviations.

• The book is 3 millimeters taller and 2 millimeters wider than the original, identical to modern DC Comics proportions.
• The price and bar code box have been removed from the original cover (reproduced on traditional cover stock) underneath the outer foil.
• The interior paper is much better quality than the original newsprint.
• The story pages use the remastered and recolored art used to produce 2019's The Big Fall.
• Unlike The Big Fall, which removed all ads and condensed the page count, all pages here are laid out on the left and right as originally presented except for the "continued on 2nd/3rd page following" editorial boxes, which have been removed from the bottom of story pages 4, 8, 16, and 20.
• Many, if not all, the full-page ads have been blown up to cover the entire page, minimizing and sometimes removing their original borders. (In the original printing, story pages and ads had the same border spacing on each page.)

Speaking of the ads, I'm not sure I enjoyed being reminded that we're exactly half way in between Halley's Comet visits. (And some friendly time-traveler might want to go back and warn the Red Cross about making that endorsement deal.)

Expense aside, I'm otherwise very happy to have this issue in my hands. It's gorgeous. I just wish I could touch it without getting fingerprints on the foil.

Considering that my very first, newsstand-purchased floppy Booster Gold #1 has long been what might politely be called a "reader's copy," I'd love for DC to release yet another "facsimile edition," preferably without the foil and priced at a more reasonable $5 ("reasonable" being a very relative term). If they do, I promise to buy another one. Two, if they come polybagged.

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