Justice League International Annual #1, the first and last Justice League International Volume 3 annual, hits shelves today. According to the advance solicitations, this issue "ties in to the shocking events of JUSTICE LEAGUE #12!" A preview of the issue was released earlier this week at USAToday.com (thanks to MetalWoman for the link).

Since Justice League #12 also comes out today, you may want to keep your eyes open when you visit your Local Comic Shop this week. False alarm. I bought it. It's terrible and in no way has anything to do with Booster Gold. Never mind.

What's next for the JLI? Even Skeets wants to know what happens in this annual. Skeets covers its visual receptacles and hides.

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

BOOSTERRIFIC: How does cosplaying in a Booster Gold costume differ from other forms of fan-participation, such as writing fan fiction or drawing fan art?

NICOLE: I indulge in all forms of fan-creation, honestly, but cosplaying is what sticks most with Booster because of the public nature of the character.

Cosplay is a tricky business, in my opinion, because of the balance of factors at play. You can be an incredible seamstress but fight shyness your whole life, or you can put the emphasis on the performance/attention and either half-ass your costumes or buy them online. I've actually heard of cosplay used as a kind of behavioral therapy for those shy people, where they can adopt another personality and explore low-risk social situations, but I'm a drama-kid: fear left me a long, long time ago! For me, the art is in both the creation and the performance and I love each aspect equally.

Call it romantic, but I try to make each of my cosplays an homage to a character I adore unconditionally. It's a holistic, yet totally biased view of his or her past, of their mentality, and their journey. I pick the aspects I want to reflect (which version of the costume? Which era? Realistic or cartoony take?) and render them in fabric and a little improv and hope that what I love about them resonates in me. For example, I love bringing out the (doofy) debonair in Booster because it allows a vent for my gender-fluidity, giving a frame to my semi-masculine traits that often confuse both men and women when I'm schmoozing on them in a skirt and heels.

The middle-space of gender-bending, a very popular thing in cosplay recently and an unintentional experiment in gender performativity, is so interesting and weird that it almost deserves an in-depth study in and of itself. What do women gain by effectively putting on a male character while remaining women, and how are they received by a male-dominated and male-produced industry? For example, being She-Booster allows me to playfully proposition both men and (presumably very heterosexual) women, and without exception they react positively — you explain that! I suppose the men see the woman, and the women see the suit: a gender-icon Rorschach test.

BOOSTERRIFIC: How is cosplay different than stage acting?

NICOLE: Cosplay is much different from stage-acting in that it's like wearing an art piece and sometimes, as is your wont and shyness level, animating it. It's also completely interaction-based and the opportunity to improv with fans is like having a hilarious, coded conversation about your favorite comic-book moments, yet taken out of canonical context and into fandom. You really need to be prepared for anything if you're going to avoid awkward situations! (While gender-bending Robin, one of the moments that struck me speechless was when I was posing with an impressive Batman and someone in the crowd shouted (and I'm summarizing here) "KISS!". I opted for a kiss on the cheek, but the original order was far more graphic, and in public!)

So, yes, subject is very important for me. The few times I've made cosplays either for ease of execution or "I dunno, 'cuz?", I've been sorely disappointed. I don't connect with the people that I want to and I don't have fun, all because I don't care about the character. You do have to be careful, though, that you don't go overboard in your representation of your favorite character: you have to know when to drop the smug ass shtick and actually answer a question, or when to stop whining about that record deal that went bad in issue 72. You don't want to seem DETACHED from reality, just that you're questioning it humorously while in a spandex suit.

Thank you, Nicole. Follow these links to parts 1 and 2 of this interview. There's plenty more to come.

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Remember this poster?

That's Kevin Maguire's "Class of 1987" Justice League International poster. I need a good, high-resolution close-up photo of Batman. If anyone can lend a hand, please let me know in the comments, forum, or via email (Webmaster [at] Boosterrific.com). Thanks.

UPDATE 08/27/12: Shawn, Booster Fan Club Member #001, stepped in and got me the pic I needed. Thanks, Shawn!

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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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