Dan Jurgens created the character of Booster Gold and has written and drawn most of Booster's adventures since 1985. However, Dan wasn't the only artist working on Booster's first appearance.

I would suggest that the most significant early artistic collaborator was Booster's original inker, Mike DeCarlo, who has drawn, inked, and/or colored hundreds of books for DC (and elsewhere) since the early 80s.

For those of us who have been with Booster since the beginning, DeCarlo's Booster certainly has a place in our heart. That's why I was so happy to see Cameron Lentz's commission of DeCarlo's distinctive take on young Booster Gold recently show up at ComicArtFans.com:

Yep, that's our Booster!

If you'd like to admire more of DeCarlo's Booster Gold inks, ComicArtFans.com also has the first appearance of the post-Crisis Superman from Booster Gold #6 story page 7, as well as Booster's origin story on pages 17, 18, 19, and 20 of that same issue.

With art like that, it's no wonder that we consider the issue to be one of the 12 Best Booster Gold Stories Ever!

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As anyone who saw Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy knows, a comic book inker is really just a tracer. But if you look at Showcase Presents Booster Gold, you can see how different "tracers" can influence the final product.

Booster Gold inked by Mike DeCarlo, Arne Starr, Ty Templeton, Robert Campanella

In addition to creating Booster Gold, Dan Jurgens drew every issue of Booster Gold volume 1. But he worked with many different inkers. Mike DeCarlo inked the book for the first year with several others, including Ty Templeton, finishing the run. This resulted in a variety of different looks for the character.

I wondered how much credit these inkers deserve for honing the visual identity of the character, so I put the question to Jurgens himself.

Booster's overall appearance, starting with the design of his costume, his general look, body language, expressiveness, etc.-- all those thing go into creating a definitive look. Far more so than the particulars of inking. For me, once I had the design I wanted, I think 90% of it was locked in.

Not to take anything away from Mike, who did a fine job, but I was doing fairly detailed pencils. Ty brought a sense of smoothness to the overall look of the book while Mike really gave the metallic portions of the uniform the look it needed. I really think that, like many things in life, each of the guys brought something good and different to the series.

Again-- that isn't to take anything away from anyone who worked on the book-- just a way of saying that far more goes into it than a simple question of who inked which issues.

It takes a village to raise a child, especially a troublesome child like Booster Gold.

Thanks to Dan Jurgens for providing so many nice images for others to trace, and thinks to Mike DeCarlo, Ty Templeton, and others to for turning Jurgens' images into our favorite comics.

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I'm suffering from a string of migraine headaches that are making it very difficult to sit in front of a computer monitor. So for the time being, all you're getting is this panel from Booster Gold, Volume 1, #13.

Nice bedside manner, Nurse Ratched.

I've always loved inker Gary Martin's nearly minimalist approach with this issue. His style has always felt appropriate for the very 1980s adventures of a very 1980s hero, and turned Dan Jurgens' traditional action-adventure layouts into a noir motion picture, especially as we finally get Booster's sad-sack take on his own twisted origin story. You can find some of Gary Martin's work in his gallery on DeviantArt.com.

Booster had to travel to the future for a cure to his illness. Hopefully, some caffeine and aspirin will take care of mine. (It's hard to type without looking at what you're doing.)

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