Some people take Labor Day off, but not me, not when I've got to tell you about Booster Gold coming to your Local Comic Shop this week!

As you can see in the issue preview at AIPTComics.com, Booster gets a cameo appearance on the very first page of Blue Beetle #1!

I'm pretty sure that's a "Bwah-Ha-Ha" being cut off by the narrative box in that panel.

And if one panel isn't enough homage to Kevin Maguire's famous Justice League #1 cover, remember that there's also a 1:25 Justice League #1-inspired variant cover to this week's Fire and Ice: Welcome to Smallville drawn by... Kevin Maguire:

(For the record, neither Booster Gold nor Fire nor Ice appear on the original cover to Justice League #1, which wouldn't be re-titled Justice League International until issue #7. Booster joined the team in issue #4, and Fire and Ice joined in Justice League International #14. All three are on the updated roster cover of Justice League International #24, which was the very first book to homage the cover to issue #1. It is no coincidence that Issues #1 and #24 also bookend artist Maguire's run on the series.)

Buy one or both of those issues and make Skeets happy!

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: aiptcomics.com blue beetle covers fire ice justice league international kevin maguire new releases previews

I don't see anything on this week's "New Releases" list from DC exclusive Lunar Distribution that indicates we'll be seeing new Booster Gold appearances in Local Comic Shops.

In worse news, the November 2023 DC solicitations are out at GamesRadar.com, and the only sign of our hero is a poke at the Blue and Gold team in the tease for Fire & Ice: welcome to Smallville #4 (shipping in December).

So when will we see Booster Gold back in action? Maybe I should start a betting pool.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: fire gamesradar.com ice lunardistribution.com solicitations

AIPTcomics.com has all of DC's solicitations for September, and oh, boy, they look great.

I've had my eye out for Blue Beetle #1 ever since DC.com revealed back in April that Ted Kord (and the Bug!) would be on the Adrian Gutierrez cover.

I've also been anticipating Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1 for months, and although I don't like incentive variants, I just might be convinced to pony up for this 1:25 Kevin Maguire variant cover.

I hadn't been planning on buying any of the four monthly books written by Tom King, but Julian Totino Tedesco makes riding a kanga look like so much fun on the variant cover for Wonder Woman #1, I just might change my mind. (It wouldn't be the first time I'd've bought a comic just because of a Tedesco cover.)

Ooh! And how about the Chris Samnee variant for Shazam #3? Or the two part Mikel Janin acetate cover for Superman #6? And don't even get me started on the Old Man Red Bee (and Old Man Blackhawk!) appearing on the 1:25 Rahazzah variant for Peacemaker Tries Hard! #5.

Now, if you've read down this far, you might have noticed that I haven't mentioned Booster Gold yet. Well, that's because the solicitation doesn't either. I was trying to soften the blow with all those great covers.

Did it work?

If it helps, DC also announced that the first six issues of The Human Target will be collected (for the second time) in October. Booster will be in that. Come to think if it, it's also got some great covers.

Booster may be hard to find these days, but at least it isn't hurting my eyes to keep looking.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: adrian gutierrez aiptcomics.com blue beetle covers fire ice julian totino tedesco kanga kevin maguire solicitations wonder woman

Ongoing monthly publishing schedules are based on planning for a release every four weeks. So the few months a year where the calendar contrives to have five weeks in a month throws a real wrench into the works.

This fifth week is sometimes called a "skip week" because publishers often release no ongoing books during the week to maintain their regular 4-week release schedules. Rather than just skip a week of potential sales, DC has traditionally solved this "fifth week" problem with mini-events and one-shot standalone issues.

That's why this is the week you'll be seeing the DC Pride 2023 anthology and the Power Girl Special in your Local Comic Shop.

While I don't expect we'll be seeing Booster Gold in either of those issues, they both will be offering Booster Gold fandom-adjacent entertainment. The Boostle crowd will probably find something to love in DC Pride, and Justice League International aficionados will want to read the back-up story in the Power Girl Spcial featuring Fire and Ice, the female "Blue and Gold," if you will.

As DCComics.com made clear last month's press release, Power Girl's Fire and Ice story is laying the groundwork to their own mini-series, Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, coming in September. Again, I have no rational expectation that Booster Gold (and/or Blue Beetle) will be appearing in that series, either. But it would be nice if they did.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: boostle dccomics.com fire ice power girl

Rather than wait for Friday, I might as well tell you about this week's new release today in the hopes that maybe you haven't been to your Local Comic Shop yet. I'll plan on resuming my regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday posting schedule next week, assuming James Gunn can refrain from dropping big Booster Gold news on my off days again.

(That's ok, DC. Whenever you've got something important to say about Booster Gold, you go right ahead. I might be a Grumpy Gus, but I'm always listening.)

It warms my heart to be able to say that Booster Gold makes a cameo appearance in this week's DC's Harley Quinn Romances #1. Technically, the cameo is his dating profile in an app for superhero hook-ups (as viewed by former Justice League International teammates Fire and Ice), but that's close enough, right?

The issue is an anthology with eight different stories. That panel is from "Dating App Disaster," and all Booster boosters will be relieved to know that Booster isn't the titular disaster.

Ten dollars is a bit steep for a single panel Booster Gold cameo, but I'm a sucker for these short-story anthology issues. I can't necessarily recommend it to everyone, but I personally bought this issue and made Skeets happy.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: fire harley quinn ice new releases