I recently saw this piece for sale at a very decent price and decided that I had to own it.

As you can see, that's page 9 of Booster Gold Volume 2 #33, with pencils by Chris Batista and inks by Rich Perotta and Prentis Rollins. Which of the two inked this page? Did one do foregrounds and the other backgrounds? I don't know.

What I do know is why I chose this page as my first ever piece of original comic book art. As Rip Hunter can tell you, it's all about the collar.

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If you didn't read BleedingCool.com over the weekend, you may have missed the notification that the original art for the cover of Formerly Known as the Justice League #6 (2004), featuring Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, is up for auction today at Heritage Auctions (HA.com).

Now, if you're the sort with an attention to detail and a good memory, you might have noticed a few small differences between this unpublished art and the final printed cover which has Booster much more front and center. As much as I love the original piece, I do think that the published cover sells the gag better.

As you can see at the top of the art itself, the piece was drawn by Kevin Maguire, who is responsible for drawing more Booster Gold comics than any artist other than Dan Jurgens, and Joe Rubenstien, who is credited with inking more Booster Gold comics than any artist other than Norm Rapmund. Jurgens and Rapmund, of course, worked on most issues of Booster Gold Volume 2, in case you didn't know.

By the way, this is hardly the only time that Maguire's art would fail to make a final cover on a Booster Gold project. This was the originally solicited art for the cover of Booster Gold Volume 2 #37 (2010) that never made it to press:

I'm rarely one to complain about Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway art, but in that instance, I do think the solicited art is more eye catching than what's actually on the cover. (Though, to be fair, I place most of that blame on the colorist's choice of unsavory yellow tints. Oh, well. To each his own.)

In any event, more Booster Gold art is always better than less, wouldn't you agree? (Thanks to J for making sure I saw this.)

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Let's make a whole week out of Dan Jurgens' Twitter feed! I wouldn't normally do that, but Dan has shared some pretty good Booster Gold-related stuff lately, like this tease of the original, unused art from Booster Gold #6 (1986).

A bit of background: Booster Gold #6 was the first telling of Booster's origin story, which was originally tied more closely to the Silver Age Superman mythos. For example, the Space Museum was originally intended to be the Superman Museum, and Booster's Flight Ring was going to be the ring that the Legion of Super-Heroes gave to Superboy. (See my 2010 interview with Jurgens for more details.)

The pages seen in that tweet are very likely the original story, before Jurgens had to change it to work with the new origin that John Byrne was giving Superman in the pages of The Man of Steel. It's super-cool that Jurgens still has them. Maybe one day, he'll let us see the whole thing. (In a Booster Gold Omnibus, maybe?)

And before we sign off for the weekend, here's one more tweet from Jurgens, a Booster Gold sketch commission.

See? Twitter *is* useful for more than just rants and bullying. Thanks, Dan!

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I'm on record as saying I'm no fan of what Tom King has done to Booster Gold in issues of Batman and Heroes in Crisis. However, I cannot deny that my dissatisfaction has been softened considerably by some pretty fine art by King's collaborators.

Artist Tony Daniel is selling his original inks from Batman #45 on ComicArtFans.com. I'm not nuts about the story, but doesn't Daniel's Booster Gold look dashing as he crashes through that window? It can be yours for $700!

Also on ComicArtFans.com is the single greatest page in Heroes in Crisis #4. This Clay Mann piece isn't for sale, but it is definitely Boosterrific. "Bros before heroes" forever!

Keep up the good work, everyone.

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Earlier this week, the original art for the splash page of Justice League International #9 (1987) went up for sale. It's free to look, but if you want to own this beauty by Kevin Maguire and Al Gordon, you'll need $4,500!

If you've got the cash, you'll find a "Buy It Now" button on ComicArtFans.com.

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