Disclaimer: What follows is vaguely raunchy talk about a comic book character in a provocative position on a cover, some joking speculation about the author/artist’s proclivities, so much gay that you’ll be blinking afterimages of rainbows out of your vision for hours, and something that I would say is definitely not safe for work, though only in text. It’s not being mailed out for the above reasons. Read at your own risk, please.
If you’re easily offended by queer content, this is probably not the post for you.
Every once in awhile, in the midst of my somewhat more scholarly approach to reviewing comics1, something comes up that nonetheless tickles me so much that I can’t help but say something about it. In several cases of late, it’s specifically some of the, uh— interesting artistic choices that Dan made while penning and drawing Booster Gold Vol. 1. Also, there’s the entertainment factor of comic book creators sort of wearing their, uhm, interests2 right out in the pages.
Or even on the covers.
What follows is a late night conversation between myself and my sometimes co-conspirator, sometimes enabler and always dear friend Dara, taken from Discord:
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:44 AM
I haven't even started the next review for Booster's next issue and I'm already laughing myself to tears.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:45 AM
lol! I haven’t actually read his early stuff. But it looks like he’s adorable, generally
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:45 AM
Oh, he's about half adorable, half obnoxious.But he starts the next issue as such a pathetic wet cat that you can't help but laugh.
Plus, the cover is just like-- undeniably homoerotic.
I don't care how straight you are.
Like my review of his first issue is funny, but this one is practically tailor made for my exactly awful sense of humor.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:49 AM
😆😆
The ass pose. It so almost the classic “comic damsel in distress.”
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:49 AM
The ass pose plus the whole crotch-to-ass proximity plus like leg positioning, I mean come on.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:50 AM
Yeah I was about to say
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:50 AM
There is no planet anyone looks at this and thinks, "Yes, this is the most hetero thing I ever did see."
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:50 AM
It’s like. It has to be on purpose. Doesn’t it????
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:51 AM
I would not even be slightly surprised if Dan ever came out as queer. Even if not, though, there's gotta be some kinda subconscious something going on with that man, because between this and the sheer amount of tentacle porn and bondage--
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:52 AM
The heaving chest. The ass-to-crotch. The leg positioning …
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:53 AM
For homoeroticism with the thinnest veneer of not-actually-plausible deniability.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:53 AM
Take off some clothing and it’s porn.
Not even much clothing
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:55 AM
Right? I'm just-- I keep tilting my head this way and that waiting to see if it might seem less FLAMINGLY GAY from another angle and nope.
Nope, it's still gayer than an entire pride parade.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:56 AM
It’s gayer the more you try to talk yourself out of it 😆 because now you’re just making bad excuses
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:57 AM
Yeah, right? Like how do you look at that cover and think, "Dan for sure posed that to convey a very, very manly scene with no homo at all."
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:57 AM
The manliest
Lots of manning
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 12:58 AM
He just took his beautiful, long-legged protagonist and had him provocatively held by a much bigger, beefier dude in the straightest possible way.
Wildly, that cover isn't even what I was laughing my head off about. But now I am.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 12:59 AM
😆😆 rightly. Totally the straightest ass-back scissoring ever
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:00 AM
Booster, sweetheart, if you arch your back any harder, you will be straight-up riding that dude's dick.
For a given definition of straight.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:01 AM
😆😆 he’s fighting for his life here!
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:01 AM
Like when the only thing between you and a good dicking is some skin-tight fiberweave--
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:01 AM
It’s very stretchy
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:01 AM
(in reference to Booster fighting for his life here) Oh my god, ain't he just. 🤣
I'm wheezing I'm laughing so hard, fuck.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:02 AM
One more of our very extensive collection of Booster being the straightest ever
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:02 AM
I can't even drink my tea.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:03 AM
😆😆😆
People on the ground are getting a show
The three closest: 😳
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:05 AM
The real reason Skeets exploded.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:05 AM
😆😆 makes sense
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:06 AM
Even if you somehow make the desperate grab of an argument that he's doing it on purpose as a method of distraction for his giant captor, there, that's not actually any better.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:06 AM
No, it is not.
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:06 AM
Adding in that he's trying to fend off a woman at the same time and this is only the second fucking issue of this book, Dara.
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:07 AM
“I know just what to do with this bear”
(At this point, I was laughing too hard to breathe, but to end on a high note—)
DaraOakwise — 2/10/2025 1:10 AM
😆😆Skeets has been helping him study the time. Skeets is like: I know what fits perfectly.
Steff 🌈 — 2/10/2025 1:10 AM
LOL!!
Skeets is probably like-- "Booster, please. This is not an acceptable way in any time to search for sexual partners."
"That's not true, I overheard this is exactly how you, uh, hunt bears."
Skeets, thinking: Well, at least he got that idiom right.
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