Toy Fair 2012 was last weekend, and as it turns out, there was some Booster Gold related news. Toy News International reports that the final Justice League Unlimited toys ever will be released at Mattel's MattyCollector.com later this year. Included in the final releases will be a 3-pack of Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and Fire.

This is hardly the first (or even the second) Booster Gold JLU figure, but it seems that it will be the last. If you want your Blue and Gold (and Green Flame!) collection to be complete, keep an eye out for this assortment online this fall.

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More often than not, making a comic book is a team effort. Many artists and editors are generally involved in the process. As a result, what any one artist puts into their work doesn't necessarily make it to publication. Such was the case with 2008's Justice League Unlimited #43.

The issue's story, "Wannabes," was written by Keith Giffen and penciled by Christopher Jones. All Booster Gold fans know who Giffen is, and Jones will be familiar to fans of DC's Cartoon Network-inspired Unlimited Universe comics. Recently, Jones posted his pencils of the last page on his website, gallery.christopherjonesart.com, and the difference between the final product and his rendering is rather remarkable.

The penciled page has considerably more detail on the bulletins around the edges of the panel and a far more engaging design of the main flyer itself, including hand-written tear-off tabs! Though the essence of the panels remains the same, the change to the fonts and layouts make for a less whimsical finish that deprives the page of most of its humor.

In addition to changes on this page, Jones' hand-lettered sound effects throughout the issue have been replaced in the published edition. Why were these changes made? Why would an artist bother to do so much extra lettering if it wasn't to be published? To answer this question, I asked Jones himself:

As I indicated on my blog, I turned in the pencils for this story and then the whole thing was put on hold for a couple of years. Other than hearing that the story was finally being printed, I never got any more information on any behind-the-scenes details on the inking, lettering or the rest of the production.

I like to letter sound effects, logos and things on pages myself, but one thing that can often happen is that the inker won't touch it figuring that it's the purview of the letterer, and then the letterer never sees what I'd indicated with the pencils.

Jones has posted his pencils to the entire story, including a larger version of this page and two other full pages that were part of the original 22-page commission in 2004 but cut from the 20-page final printing in 2008, in his gallery here. If you would like to read more about the behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations of creating comic books, be sure to stop by Jones' blog, blog.christopherjonesart.com, where Jones is very open about sharing his work -- lately on the comic book adventures of Cartoon Network's Young Justice (which is pretty good save for the glaring omission of Booster Gold).

Thanks to Christopher Jones for being so gracious in responding to questions. Also thanks to site-contributor Morgenstern, for calling attention to Jones' penciled artwork.

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Sure, Booster Gold makes a punchline foil for youtube animations, but how about Booster Gold as a vehicle for teaching Christianity? That's what author and evangelist Charles B. French does in his recent blog post about "The Greatest Story Never Told":

What Booster doesn't get is that his job is just as important as Superman's. In fact, it's more important, because the reason Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are putting their lives on the line is to protect the innocent. If Booster doesn't make sure that the people escape before the bad guy obliterates the city, then the heroes are fighting in vain. He's got the most important job.

This is how God thinks.

Booster Gold. Is there anything he's not good for?

That's just a small snippet of French's Christian-perpective review of the Justice League Unlimited episode. No matter what your religion, you have to admit, that's a great television episode. The whole review is posted on his website at charlesbfrench.com.

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DC released this teaser image of Booster Gold yesterday at The Source.

Putting together yesterday's image of the Phillip-ized Booster Gold had me convinced that Booster's new costume was worse than I had previously realized. Fortunately, seeing Booster in a more conventional DC style is something of a soothing balm for my panic. Somewhat.

More curiously, in the full image, Booster is clearly standing near Plastic Man, Hawk, and Frankenstein's Monster. Is the Justice League International the DCnU's equivalent of television's Justice League Unlimited team where every DC hero is a member? I hate to be an optimist, but this could be good.

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Start your week with Skeets! Check out cooltoyreview.com's images of the latest Justice League Unlimited Skeets figure and its accompanying JLU Booster Gold. Released late last year, this figure is a vast improvement over the miscolored original JLU Booster figure.

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