If there was any news about Booster Gold at this past weekend's New York Comic Con, I still haven't heard it. DC was too busy crowing about their upcoming weekly Batman title, I guess. (Everyone knows that there can never be too many Batman titles. I think Albert Einstein proved that when he published his theory on Batman Relativity in 1939.)

But just because no one was talking about him doesn't mean that Booster Gold wasn't there.

Photographer C.S. Muncy snapped this pic of Booster Gold, "The Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of," at the convention on Saturday. You'll find more of Muncy's work at ComicBook.com. (Link courtesy Russ Burlingame.)

If you like cosplay pics, brace yourself. Tomorrow Booster cosplayer Pyynk talks about his hobby to Boosterrific.com. Stay tuned!

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Last week BleedingCool.com both teased and debunked a rumored list of upcoming DC Comics announcements for New York Comic Con.

Of particular note to Booster Gold fans was the implication that Booster Gold would be announced (again), to be written and drawn by Dan Jurgens (again).

We now know that the list was completely fabricated, but it's still nice to think that some Booster Gold announcement could come out of NYCC, which starts today. Keep hope alive!

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The second half of my interview with Booster Gold cosplayer Nathaniel (nkpercell).

BOOSTERRIFIC: Your costume looks great. Can you describe its creation?

NATHANIEL: The costume was based specifically on a storyline in Booster Gold volume two when he traveled back in time and donned his old costume to find evidence of Max Lord's existence [Booster Gold v2, #33]. I mention this because I think the version of Skeets I made is not usually associated with this costume.

Since this was my first attempt at cosplay, there was extensive trial and error involved. I have no experience with costume-making, so I enlisted the help of my mother, who is pretty handy with a sewing machine. I designed the pattern on the fly and she built iterations of prototypes until we had something we liked for each piece. The costume was a combination of purchased items and custom-designed elements. A wig, safety goggles, blue running shirt, and black boots were combined with fabric elements and items made from wonderflex and cardboard. Some parts proved more difficult than others. For instance, I ended up purchasing 2 pairs of gloves and about 4 types of dye to get the yellow gloves, and during the dyeing process basically exploding boiling dye all over the kitchen. So it was quite an experience. We got a pretty late start and built most of the costume in the two weekends before GenCon, culminating in a near all-nighter the Sunday before GenCon. Including all the missteps, it probably cost $200-300.

I sculpted Skeets out of styrofoam based on a pattern I created, and covered it with Wonderflex, which is a heat-activated plastic material I found online. I didn't do a great job with the Wonderflex, as it was my first time working with it, so he has a bit of a battle-damaged look.

BOOSTERRIFIC: Did you enjoy cosplaying as Booster Gold?

NATHANIEL: Dressing as Booster was a fantastic experience. I was afraid it would be really hot, but the weather in Indianapolis in August was beautiful this year. The best part of the experience was meeting so many enthusiastic Booster fans. Two times, people asked me to go see their friend because they knew it would make their friend's day. I was called Green Lantern a half dozen times. One of my favorite parts of peoples' reactions was when they would say "Booster Gold!" and then a couple seconds later, excitedly, "and Skeets!", as they noticed him. This was my first experience with cosplay, but it will certainly not be my last. It was a really good time.

A big thank you to Nathaniel for sharing his experience as Booster Gold. If you missed it, you can find the first part of this interview here.

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About this time last year, I interviewed Demyrie about her experiences as a cosplayer. This year, I'd like to introduce you to Nathaniel, who recently joined the Boosterrific Forum to share his own amazing costume. I asked him if he'd be willing to answer a few questions for the blog, and he graciously agreed.

BOOSTERRIFIC: What inspired you to cosplay as Booster Gold?

NATHANIEL: The woman in the picture with me, dressed as the fan, is my wife Kimberly. She's actually a big reason for this costume coming into existence. I've been a lifelong fan of comics, but when we met, Kim had not read many comics or been exposed to much of that culture. Over the course of our relationship, I've introduced her to gaming and comics and other aspects of geek culture, and she has found that she enjoys a lot of it. One day we were having a conversation about comics with a gaming friend, and we were looking for a comic that she might enjoy. He suggested the Booster Gold comic (Vol. 2), which at the time was pretty early in it's run. She was interested, so we checked it out, and have read pretty much all of his appearances since then, along with going back and collecting earlier issues of the series. A couple years ago I picked up the fan club shirt for her at a con, and so it just seemed a natural choice when we were talking about doing a costume.

As far as what draws me to the character of Booster Gold, I think there are a number of things that are compelling about him. His origin story is original and lays the ground work for redemption and character growth. I'm drawn to stories that feature strong friendships, and his friendship with Ted ranks with Butch & Sundance, Turk and JD, and Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. There is a sense of humor and lighthearted fun that is missing from a majority of super hero books, but the character has enough depth to cause emotional moments as well.

BOOSTERRIFIC: Tell us about your history as a cosplayer.

NATHANIEL: This was my first attempt at cosplay. I have been attending GenCon [in Indianapolis, IN] regularly for the last 4 years, but this year was the first that I have brought Kim. I don't really remember what spawned the idea to cosplay, but the fact that she was willing to participate gave me the courage to give it a try. (She also went on a different day as Harley Quinn.) The idea of cosplay appealed to the kid in me, wanting to grow up to be (at least visually) one of these characters, instead of just reading about them. I like to try new things, and it seemed like it could be a lot of fun. I think the idea had been in my head to go as Booster since late last year, but we really only got serious making the costume a month or two in advance. Booster is definitely one of my favorite characters, I don't think I really seriously considered anyone else.

Thank you, Nathaniel. There's more of this interview to come later in the week.

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Yesterday, Ryan in the Boosterrific comments reminded me that I haven't posted any Booster Gold cosplay pics from DragonCon 2013 yet. Let's rectify that today.

Booster Golds of all shapes and sizes were at this year's event in costumes running in quality varying from professional to amateur. The costume on the left comes from dr_archeville (more on flickr.com). The costume on the right comes by way of _nerdyblackkid (more on Instagram).

This pic is just one of many in Pat Loika's "Dragon*Con 2013: JLA vs Avengers Shoot" on flickr.com. The staged photo-op featured JLA cosplayers battling Avengers cosplayers at the command of George Pérez. (Booster Gold faced off against Black Knight!) Only at DragonCon....

You can see many, many more pics of the event at the links above. If you want to see video of the JLA fighting the Avengers, check out youtube here or here. (Thanks to Brian Wilder for the links.)

[UPDATE 2013-09-10: Credit where credit is due: that's Pyynk as Booster Gold in the big group shot. You can get a better view of his costume in my coverage of DragonCon 2012 here.]

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