With the final issue of Booster Gold due tomorrow, perhaps it's time to refresh your memory about the last issue with Russ Burlingame's most recent "Gold Exchange" column at ComicRelated.com. (My apologies for not linking sooner. First Comic-Con got in the way, and well, now here we are. Sorry, Russ.)

GX: The other side of that, of course, is that she's different from The Parasite (and, for that matter, Rogue) in that she doesn't seem to harm the people from whom she takes the power, right?

DJ: You're right-- she's different from the Parasite. But I think it's important to note that there's a great deal we don't know about her-- and she may not know about herself.

GX: Also: Booster's powers are not natural; she can apparently "borrow" power from inanimate objects, too?

DJ: Yes. It doesn't have to be a biologically based super power.

GX: If Alex is copying Booster's powers, why are her blasts green? Much has been made of the green-ness of it among fans who are speculating who or what she might represent in the Flashpoint Universe.

DJ: Once again, there is a lot about her that has not been revealed, as well as the notion that she, herself, doesn't have a complete understanding of what she is, what she can do and what actually happens as part of the process.

Jurgens does a find job of not explaining that, doesn't he? This probably means that he plans on addressing this in the future. With only one issue of Booster Gold remaining, here's hoping he acts fast. (Or will we be seeing Alexandria in the future?)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: comicrelated.com dan jurgens gold exchange russ burlingame

DC has announced that Dan Jurgens will be joining Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Eddie Berganza, JT Krul, Eric Wallace, Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Philip Tan, and moderator Bob Wayne on the "Justice League" panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 22. It's just possible that some real news will come from this star-studded panel, but don't expect to discover who the mysterious disappearing woman on the cover of Justice League International #1 is. Some secrets man wasn't meant to know.

For a complete list of the DC panels at this year's Comic-Con International, visit The Source.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: 2011 brian buccellato comic-con dan jurgens dcu.blog.dccomics.com eddie berganza eric wallace francis manapul geoff johns jim lee jt krul philip tan san diego

[EDIT 4:09 PM EDT: Sorry, sorry. I worked a 12 hour day yesterday, started early this morning, and in between I just plain forgot to upload today's blog post. Please forgive me.]

Erin beat me to this news over in the forums, but Dan Jurgens took his turn in the DC reboot hype machine yesterday at The Source. Jurgens will be drawing Green Arrow and writing Justice League International, both titles that Jurgens has worked on in the past.

How and why are you shaking up the series' status quo?

In GREEN ARROW, we're getting back to the basics of what makes Oliver Queen work. He's accumulated a lot of baggage over the years and it's time for some of that to go.

In JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, we're really dealing with an entirely new DC Universe. For Booster, Guy Gardner, Rocket Red and the rest this is a new adventure...

Will we see new character designs?

Green Arrow will absolutely have a new look, though he'll still be wearing green— naturally!

In JLI, several of the characters have cool, new looks!

This interview form-letter has been repeated over and over again at The Source for the new DC titles, and the questions say more about DC's approach to this mess than any of the artists have about their individual books. How do you have a "status quo" to "shake up" if you are starting from scratch in a new universe of stories? Why ask why the titles are being shaken up when the company mandated a number one relaunch for all series? Why ask about new character designs when the company has already widely promoted Jim Lee's redesigns? DC, I just don't understand you sometimes.

The full interview (and many other similar interviews) are available on DC's The Source blog here. If you have something to say about this interview or either of these two series (I won't insult you by asking which one you are most excited about -- it's the one with Booster in it, of course), consider dropping in on Erin's thread in the Boosterrific Forum here.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: dan jurgens dcu.blog.dccomics.com reboot

Today is the birthday of the one-and-only Dan Jurgens, creator of Booster Gold and soon-to-be writer of the first-ever Justice League International #1. This year, Jurgens turns the magic number at DC: 52! Let there be cake!

Form more information about Jurgens and his upcoming plans for the JLI, check out his 3-part interview with John Babos over at insidepulse.com: part 1 (JLI & DC), part 2 (Green Arrow), part 3 (Booster Gold).

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: dan jurgens insidepulse.com john babos justice league

After reading an interview in 1988's Direct Currents #8 with Dan Jurgens and searching through the letter columns in early-1990s Justice League America comics (part 1 and part 2 of this series, respectively), I decided that it was time to go straight to the original source and ask Dan Jurgens about the fate of The Blue and the Gold series that he was once so excited about.

BOOSTERRIFIC: Looking back, I came across a copy of DC's DIRECT CURRENTS promotional flier which featured an interview with you in it's "People at Work" segment (DIRECT CURRENTS #8, August 1988). In that interview -- interviewer unknown, though Paul Kupperberg gets writing credit -- largely promoting your work on FLASH GORDON), you mentioned an upcoming project:

"And, of course, the one project I'm really excited about is something that DC's still got in the planning stages, called THE BLUE AND THE GOLD, a new series starring Booster Gold with the Blue Beetle. They've gotten real popular as buddies in Justice League International, so I think a book co-starring the two of them is a natural. It's going to have that unique JLI flavor to it."

Clearly that book never materialized. Do you remember anything about this planned series, such as how far into development it might have gotten or what finally prevented its publication?

DAN JURGENS: Yes, that was definitely on the board a couple of different times. There were, I think, three different times when we were just about to start working on it and then something would come up that prevented us from doing so. Generally, I think it was my overall workload, or an idea to hold it off for another event or something like that. I think there were even some points where we were going to try to tie in with a specific JL event, and then I got too busy to do so.

It's odd, because it was everyone's intention-- DC included, to actually get it done.

BOOSTERRIFIC: You state that the delays may have been cause by your workload. Was this book -- presumably an ongoing -- your idea, or did an editor at DC assign you this project? Did DC never consider handing the project off to another writer/artist?

DAN JURGENS: It's impossible for me to answer the question of what DC might have considered, but I don't remember any discussions of another creative team. We did play around with the idea of someone else writing the book-- Mike Carlin-- for awhile, which would have been a lot of fun. We probably thought of it more as a mini-series because that was a good way to introduce a book at the time.

But I was really, really busy with a lot of stuff-- and any window I had to fit it in seemed to open and close in a hurry.

BOOSTERRIFIC: During the several years where there was a possibility this thing would go to market, was any actual work -- scripts or art -- done, or did it never make it out of the planning stages?

DAN JURGENS: No scripts or art were ever done. Lots of conversations and ideas and we got as close as thinking we'd be starting in the next three or four weeks, but something always came up. I couldn't tell you what each of those events might have been, however.

Comics were like that then. In terms of planning, things were a bit more loose than they are now. We'd often have those, "let's do this!" types of conversations that would sometimes become a reality, other times not. There have been several times when I was part of a project that I truly thought would happen, but for whatever reason didn't. Or would kind of morph into something else.

BOOSTERRIFIC: I was surprised to see you mention this project in 1988. For awhile it was promoted in the letter column of the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI. You may not remember, but I would be interested to know at what point you recall this project being finally cancelled (or at least so far on the back burner that no one discussed it anymore)? Was the window of opportunity closed for this project by the time you took over as JLI scribe in 1992 (at which point you wrote/drew Booster and Beetle monthly)?

DAN JURGENS: The project wasn't ever cancelled, so much as it simply didn't happen. If there's no true, official start, you can't cancel it after all. We had the best of intentions but it just didn't materialize.

I do think that by the time I took on JLA that we sort of saw that as a Blue and Gold vehicle, especially since it was such a good opportunity to tie the book into the "Death of Superman" story.

So that's that; the story of The Blue and Gold series that almost was. Boosterrific.com offers a hearty thank you to Dan Jurgens for his time and generosity in indulging us with an interview about a comic book he never worked on.

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue and gold dan jurgens interviews