This is not an April Fools joke. Boosterrific.com really has gotten a facelift for 2018!

Arg! Change is bad! Why did I do it? The last significant site redesign was nearly a decade ago, and people don't use the Internet in the same way in 2018 as they did in 2010. (For one thing, no one capitalizes the word "Internet" anymore.)

While I was beginning to feel that the site was looking a little stale, the chief purpose of this overhaul was twofold:

1. to allow smartphone users greater access to the site. Previously, mobile devices only had access to a specially designed portal. Now every page should render in the narrower smartphone viewport, including the individual comic pages.

2. to prepare for future changes. As I mentioned two weeks ago, Google's announcement of big changes to how they intend to police and present the web to its customers has me contemplating the best path forward. I don't know exactly what Google's changes are going to do to site traffic, but I do know that I wanted this aging site to be nimble enough to survive whatever hunger games Google sets off.

As always, thank you for your patience as I work through this site overhaul. There are definitely still some bugs to work out and some site functionality has yet to be fully restored (like the next/last issue buttons for the comics details pages). If you stumble across something that doesn't seem to be working to your satisfaction, please drop me a line. The contact form is working fine, and you can always send an email to webmaster at Boosterrific.com.

Thank you to everyone who has ever visited. You have all contributed to making Boosterrific.com the Internet's greatest Booster Gold archive.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: website update

Behind the scenes, Boosterrific.com is undergoing a long-delayed server upgrade.

For me, that means a lot of work migrating flies and databases from one server to another. I'll also start the process of cleaning out some of the dead links and other cobwebs around the house.

For you, that means that there is the possibility of disruptions in site performance in the next few days/weeks as I rearrange and try to prepare the site for the modern, mobile web. (I also have to decide what I want to do — if anything — about Google's requirement that all websites have SSL certification. I'm not made of money, Google!)

Please be patient with me during this overhaul.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: website update

I received two emails over the weekend pointing out potential holes in the Boosterrific.com database. Thank you both so much for trying to make this website better.

Logan's email pointed me to Superman/Batman Secret Files 2003. I checked my back issues, and sure enough, there was Booster. Now the Boosterrific database is more complete than ever!

The other issue isn't quite so clear. Here's the original email from José:

Hi, I would like to ask if costumes count as appearances, like number 12 of JL 3001, where there is no appearance of Booster, but the costume does. Now, if they do, I would like to add Guy Gardner #18-21, appearing a prototype of the Booster costume.

José is talking about the power armor that Guy Gardner wore for the brief time in 1994 between the loss of his Qwardian power ring and the development of his Vuldarian shape-changing powers. That armor was designed by Ted Kord with the intention of using it to replace the power suit that Booster Gold lost to Doomsday.

Guy Gardner: Warrior #18 by Chuck Dixon, Mitch Byrd, Dan Davis, Stuart Chaifetz, Albert DeGuzman

While I certainly can see where José is coming from, I'm not sure I should be tracking these. As a rule, I always track Booster Gold appearances when he is seen on panel in a comic. Those include comics that clearly show Booster's costumes whether he is wearing them or not. (The only on-panel Booster Gold "appearances" I intentionally don't track are when he is mentioned in dialog between other characters when he doesn't actually appear in the book.) Therefore, the question here is whether Guy Gardner's armor really ever belonged to or can be identified as belonging to Booster Gold.

Evidence to support José's case can be found in Justice League America #80 when Beetle says Booster's bulky Mark II armor is based on the Rocket Red armor. Beetle says the same thing about Gardner's armor, but that doesn't make them the same armor. In Guy Gardner: Warrior #18 Beetle himself calls this suit a glitchy prototype, and there is no visual evidence in any comic book that Booster Gold ever wore it.

So is José right? Should I be tracking this costume? What do you think?

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle guy gardner jose fridman logan peterson website update

I've recently learned that some commenters are having difficulty with the Google "I am not a robot" Captcha swallowing their comments. That problem may be especially common for users of the Chrome browser.

If this has happened to you, please try using Chrome's incognito mode, deleting your cookies, or changing to a different browser before commenting. If none of these solutions resolves the problem for you, please contact me directly via the Contact page and let me know. (That form doesn't use the Google Captcha.)

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: website update

Booster booster José got in touch to tell Boosterrific of a hole in our collection of Booster Gold comics. Somehow, we missed Booster Gold's appearance in 1987's Captain Atom #10. That's a 30-year-old oversight!

In our defense, Booster doesn't actually appear in the issue. What you see above is a static image of Booster (and his teammates) being reviewed on a video monitor inside the Pentagon as they discuss Captain Atom's recent addition to the United Nations-sanctioned Justice League International.

Elsewhere in the issue, news reports (and a helpful editorial box) peg the events of this issue as taking place simultaneously with those seen in Justice League International #8. So while the United States military was worrying about Booster's anti-American activities, we know our hero was busy in Paris hitting on (and being shot down by) Catherine Cobert, the administrative head of the local JLI Embassy. It's a small DC Universe!

Thanks for the spot, José. Follow his lead, Boosterphiles; if you see Booster somewhere and you don't think Boosterrific knows it, you can always drop a tip via the site's Contact form.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: captain atom catherine cobert jose website update