Writes Eskana:

I have a bit of a Booster Christmas present for you... although not technically a Booster sighting. I have a large pile of to-read books, and the next one was Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez. I was just flipping it open when what to my wondr'ing eyes did appear but Booster Gold in the book dedication! The book is a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek fantasy book, no connection to our Corporate Crusader, but it's nice to know that the author is part of our Booster-loving community. Cheers and Merry Christmas!

Eskana kindly sent a screenshot of the page for reference, and when I looked up the book, originally released in 2013, on Amazon.com, I found the exact page included in the Kindle preview:

Cool! Thanks, Eskana. It just goes to show that we never know where our hero will turn up next.

(If you probably saw this post with a December 29 date in the header, no, you're not going crazy. I accidentally doubled up posts for Dec 29. This was supposed to go out later this week, but since I already released it, I've just back-dated this post one day so that Booster's annual birthday post can stand alone. Because you're only negative 417 once!)

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Write Eskana:

I was reading something and didn't see it in your database, although maybe you don't keep these... I found a picture of Booster on a variant cover for Dark Knights of Steel #1, with art by Alan Quah. He's not looking very knightly but I guess he is probably time traveling...

"Don't keep these"? That's exactly what the Boosterrific Database keeps! I just didn't know it existed. For reference, here's the cover, with Booster highlighted:

This was released in November 2021, which raises the question of how did it get past me? The answer appears to be because it's not a regularly solicited cover or cover variant or even a retailer incentive variant. This cover was an exclusive variant available only to shoppers at Midtown Comics. Midtown has stores in New York City, and I don't live there.

Fortunately for me, Midtown also has a website, midtowncomics.com, and they claim to still have some of these in stock. So I hope to soon correct for this oversight.

Thanks to Eskana for helping keep Boosterrific.com more complete than ever.

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Booster booster Eskana has recently found Booster Gold in a very unexpected place: a 1987 issue of the academic Journal of Consumer Research.

The journal article, "Material Values in the Comics: A Content Analysis of Comic Books Featuring Themes of Wealth," as its author Russell W. Belk explains, "seeks to investigate a more detailed agenda of materialistic themes expressed in comic books." To do this, he studied stories from popular series featuring wealthy characters, specifically issues of Fox and Crow, Archie, Uncle Scrooge, and Richie Rich.

Comic book aficionados will not be surprised to learn that the results of this qualitative and quantitative analysis of American pop-culture reveals that American pop-culture generally reflects Protestant Christian values. "In terms of wealth and consumption per se, the message in the stories seems to be that material possessions can be both good and bad."

Booster Gold appears more or less as a footnote following the article's conclusion, wherein the author concedes that the stories of yesteryear may not be indicative of future themes, especially considering the more "fallible and human superheroes" who began appearing in the 1970s and 80s. Particular attention is drawn to — you guessed it — Booster Gold Volume 1. "If Booster Gold is a prototype, it will be extremely interesting to examine the messages about materialism that are delivered to the next generation of comic book readers."

Given that nearly four decades later, Booster continues to be a polarizing figure explicitly because of his unquenchable twin desires for wealth and fame, I'd say not all that much has changed. Thank goodness. (And thanks to Eskana for bringing this article to our attention.)

REFERENCES

Russell W. Belk, Material Values in the Comics: A Content Analysis of Comic Books Featuring Themes of Wealth, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 14, Issue 1, June 1987, Pages 26—42, https://doi.org/10.1086/209090

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Once a week, Brian Cronin asks Twitter for silly superhero suggestions for random artists to draw for his "Line it is Drawn" column at CBR.com. Last week, the topic was

That delightful exchange got the world this drawing, from artist Caanan Grall:

Brilliant! I think this is a masterful expression of everything I want in a comic book.

Thanks to Eskana for pointing this out.

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Booster booster Eskana writes in to say:

Not sure if you saw it, but in your quest to account for every appearance of the Corporate Crusader, I found one out of the ordinary... My comic shop's "Comic Shop News" had a FCBD special with what seems to be original art on the cover, showing Blue and Gold (alongside the Hulk, Black Panther, and Invisible Woman) by Fred Hembeck. Just thought I'd let you know!

Most comic shops that carry Comic Shop News pamphlets give them away for free, especially on Free Comic Book Day, which is next Saturday, May 7.

But if your Local Comic Shop doesn't have any, you may be able to find copies for sale online at ebay.com, which is where I found this image:

sold by comrus1

Thanks, Eskana! Happy hunting, completionists!

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