The second of 5 parts continuing my interview with Booster Gold cosplayer Nicole (Demyrie).

BOOSTERRIFIC: When and why did you decide to dress as Booster Gold?

NICOLE: I first cosplayed Booster Gold at my first San Diego Comic-Con (2008), so it was something like a double-whammy of awesome to be able to sweep around the convention hall and see that he was actually quite popular! Last year (2011), I fixed up the suit and added his famous Disco Collar, then recruited my best friend as Blue Beetle II — THEN I felt I was really giving a portrait of the Booster I loved, arm-and-arm with Ted, wreaking havoc back in the JLI hey-dey.

My first itch to cosplay Booster came when I started poking around online and failed to find a truly inspiring cosplayer. No one (no man!) so far had embodied the glow of the character with a fitting wardrobe or demeanor, and so, to the chagrin of my unimpressed boyfriend, I launched into making my very first, terribly difficult super-suit.

It was TERRIBLE color-blocking that many pieces together on a first try, and I almost regretted the entire thing... and while I had a great time my first year, when my Beetle and I debuted together in 2011, everything was rewarded ten-fold!

BOOSTERRIFIC: Have your interactions with the general public been generally positive?

NICOLE: 1,000% positive! The entire experience really gave us a feeling of incredible community: when people saw us, it wasn't the verbal equivalent of checking off a box on a cosplay scavenger hunt. People got EXCITED. It was like we had turned over a rock and found this incredible wealth of fans who were thrilled to see a snap-shot of their "irreverent nineties" comic-book childhood, enacted by people who understood and loved the characters.

For example, I constantly high-fived fans in Booster Gold Fanclub t-shirts and generously offered to sign them for ever-increasing sums of money. I pretended to skip to the front of lines and every photo taken with my Blue Beetle was chummy and mischievous, like we had three slightly-evil-but-lucrative plans waiting on the backburner, and many older fans treated us with wonderful mock suspicion. We received many silly photo requests (which we were more than happy to oblige), and at one point, a fan lowered his camera, face screwed up. He couldn't stop snickering, then finally eked out, "You even have the grin!".

Point being, Booster is a loveable shmuck and a camera-hog and I have an indecent amount of fun being outrageous and shameless in his skin. He has to be my favorite cosplay thus far, if just because people love to provoke and engage him more than any other character. Would you play-harass Captain America for an autograph? Didn't think so.

Iron-Man, definitely. Cap, no. Booster, always, if I don't harass you first.

Thank you, Nicole. Check here for the first part of this interview. And check back next week, as there's plenty more to come.

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