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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I'm quite glad to see that each of these artists has supporters among Booster Gold fans. (At this point, I'd even be willing to see Liefeld get his hands on Booster.)

Last week's poll question: Which still-active artist who has never drawn Booster Gold would you most like to see draw the character? (41 votes)

That was fun. We'll revisit the topic of artists in the near future. In the meantime, a more topical question given my recent post:

One more thing of note: Adam Warrock of "Booster Gold" rap fame will be having a 24-hour long Rap-A-Thon fundraiser tomorrow to help replace equipment recently stolen. If you liked his Booster Gold rap, or if you'd like to hear him make more DC or pop-culture-centric raps in the future, consider popping over to his site AdamWarrock.com tomorrow, August 24, 2012, and making a donation to his cause.

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As we all know, Booster Gold was inspired by Batman and Superman. But what happens when our hero crosses paths with another up-and-coming hero? Would he provide inspiration of his own? In short, no.

In all likelihood, Booster Gold was completley unaware that he was crashing Maxi-Man's attempt at a debut appearance in Mister Miracle, Volume 2, #9. Though Maxi-Man meant well, it was this constant upstaging by more established heroes that would drive him to seek the attention of the public and lead him directly into a confrontation with Booster's Justice League teammate, Mister Miracle. Needless to say, Maxi-Man was outmatched.

Booster and Maxi-Man would go on to work together in the Conglomerate (in Justice League Quarterly #1), but the group was disbanded before they had much time for bonding. Years later, Maxi-Man met his end in Roulette's casino, so we may never know if Maxi-Man held a grudge against everyone's favorite Corporate Crusader. Maybe Maxi-Man will get a second chance in the New 52.

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Obviously, cosplaying is popular with comic book fans. But what motivates someone to dress up like their hero at a public gathering, especially when that hero isn't the same gender as the cosplayer? The only way to find out is to ask, so that's what I did.

The following is the first of 5 parts of an email interview I recently conducted with Nicole, the very gracious and loquacious Booster Gold cosplayer better known in these parts as Demyrie.

BOOSTERRIFIC: When/where did you first meet the character Booster Gold?

NICOLE: My love of Booster Gold developed as a sort of illicit affair, as it was conducted under the nose of my boyfriend at the time. He actually introduced us, unknowing that my love for Mr. Carter would outlast our own hazy teenaged tryst!

But really, it was high-school, and my comic-hipster boyfriend managed to sway me from a diet of anime and onto western animation, DC-style, through the antics of Blue and Gold. He loaned me some old Justice League International trades so I could become just acquainted enough with happy, cheeky Booster to see him utterly destroyed/re-built in 52. Upon introduction to the JLI and I Can't Believe It's Not Justice League, I loved Booster and Beetle as a unit of dipwads, making trouble for everyone and laughing all the way... and then I retro-found Infinite Crisis.

Bwa-ha-ha-AWWWWWWWmanseriously.

BOOSTERRIFIC: Why do you think Booster Gold appeals to you? In what ways has the character inspired you, other than into putting on his clothes?

NICOLE: First of all, his clothes are incredibly comfy! Except for those goggles. Damn those goggles.

The facets of Michael that really hook me are his flaws, all of which hide a very, very squishy nougat-trauma center that I find far more appealing than Bats' psychosis. His troubled home-life and the abandonment he suffered work towards a very relatable character that jump-starts a life of heroism with an untraditionally selfish act and even more selfish intentions. Warm fuzzies and apple pie were not Booster Gold's MO for picking up that suit, which makes him interesting from the get-go, but the recent evolution and expansion that his writers have taken him through is just plain fantastic. His recent arcs have fleshed out a humorous-till-the-last character who struggles with guilt and feelings of inadequacy (see: Supernova!) and is eventually forced to hide his own maturation into a true hero in order to keep doing the thankless, dirty work of saving the world.

He's gritchy, hilarious, vain, frequently miserable and astoundingly generous when caught off guard. And, y'know, handsome.

When his time-cop series really forced him to figure himself out, I think the most poignant statement Booster makes is that he doesn't want to be Superman: he just wants to be needed. He wants someone to call on him with full faith that he can save them, believing that justice and the safety of the public is important to him. Basically, that his heart is in his job, which isn't a job but a calling. Unfortunately, he has made a literal career out of violating the trust of what a hero should be, so he's never going to get the full moral endorsement that Supes claims.

The recent Booster Gold series was action-packed and almost obscenely emotional (woo man-feelings! Ted's grave should be bursting with foliage, as often as Boost has watered it with his tears) and if I loved Booster before, those arcs officially obsessed me. Characters like Superman and Batman are iconic but I feel about as close to them as I do to Odysseus or George Washington. They've been reincarnated so many times, they're more metaphor than man, and thus are impervious even beyond bullet-proof skin. As a girl who was always more interested in the team-building comics of the Avengers/X-Men than the BLANK vs. BLANK fight-offs, Booster Gold put the human back into heroism for me. He offers an emotional insight into the costs of the business when he loses his sophomoric soul-mate and simply can't see why, if there are 52 Earths and aliens and magic and time-travel, he can't ever get him back. He's a tragic character who, when the cologne deal expires, really just wants one thing: to help.

... Seriously, can we just have Blue and Gold again? Wuughhh!

Thank you, Nicole. There's plenty more to come.

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So no sooner do I imply that I'd like to see Howard Chaykin darw Booster Gold than does TheBlotSays come to the rescue. And Chaykin is just one of six fabulous artists he's lined-up in his Booster Gold sketchbook. Check it out:

You can see the whole sketchbook in much larger detail (including Art Adam's accompanying drawing of Skeets!) at The Blot Says' Flickr page. And while you're out there, consider popping on over to The Blot's blog, TheBlotSays.com, where you'll find some other pretty awesome articles about art and comics and toys and things. Thanks for sharing, Blot!

[UPDATE 08/20/2012: Speaking of sharing, if you see this message, Jesster, can you please get in touch with me at Webmaster at Boosterrific dot com? There's a fellow looking for some reference art, and I was hoping you might be able to lend a hand.]

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