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A Day of Geekery
Well, it’s Planet Comicon time again, Kansas City’s largest entertainment convention. Long time Ricochetti may remember my adventure as a Villain of Cosplay back in 2013; luckily, this one was far more fun and less fraught with reality TV crews.
The headliners were George Takei and Stan Lee, and at $60 and $120 a pop for an autograph, I decided I could live without meeting them. I did run into George on the con floor, when I realized that I couldn’t cross the aisle because I was about to run into a small Japanese man being interviewed about transgender bathrooms. As for Stan, well, there’s a group known as the Iron Brothers of Topeka (IBOT) who have the most scarily realistic Stan Lee cosplayer ever. The universe should have exploded at this moment:
Really good Disney cosplay was a theme this year:
Deadpool is always a popular character, and now that he has a movie, he was even more so, with movie version (complete with “Have you seen this man?” drawing), Steampunk version, Assassin’s Creed version, version being used to advertise his shop’s corsets, and even his own chimichanga shack:
Of course, with “Game of Thrones” now on its sixth season, it had plenty of love too:
Of course, you may be asking, you were at a Comic-con. Where are the comics characters?
I love the family cosplay, with dad getting in action as Kingpin. Colossus’s body paint really made his muscles pop, and it was really cool to see Marvel 1602 come to life.
But what if your claim to geekdom is just loving ’80s sci fi/fantasy movies? No fear!
More of a ’90s animation fan? No problem there, either.
Wheelchairs are a special challenge for cosplay, but some folks rise to that challenge amazingly:
And of course, you can’t have a con without some Star Wars:
My sister and new brother-in-law are in the 501st Legion, so I’ve seen most of the Star Wars costumes done many, many times and in many ways. I don’t think I have ever seen a Star Wars cosplayer as spot on as this Kylo.
I asked him if he really wanted to play Kylo, or if he was doing so simply because so many people had noted the resemblance. Apparently, when he went to see the new Star Wars and Kylo unmasked on screen, the entire row turned around and looked at him. And then he proceeded to get texts for days from friends saying, “You killed [spoiler]!”
A few more random highlights:
These would be GlaDOS from Portal, Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, and Overacting Johnny Depp times two.
My big goal for the con (aside from great costume watching) was to pick up some new art for my walls. I love Art Nouveau, and I found these incredible prints:
Kit Steele of Silvertales also had ones for Thranduril, Ecthelion, and Glorfindel. I may have to complete the set at some point.
I also found my new cosplay inspiration — Victorian Elisa Maza from Gargoyles. Now to figure out how to turn Mr. Amy into a Victorian Goliath the Gargoyle.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Postscript: If all this sounded like fun, please join me at the Kansas City Ricochet Meetup during MidAmerica Con II this August 17-21. There will be all this geekery and more, including the Hugo Awards! I’m still working on trying to get Sarah Hoyt or another of the Sad Puppies ringleaders to join us for a dinner.
Published in General
My daughter put together a Hatter costume for Halloween last year and really knocked it out of the park. She plans to use the pieces as a base and change it in various ways…a feminine version one year, steampunk another. She’s very creative. I was surprised by how little financial assistance she required to pull this one off.
For Halloween, I helped a wheelchair-bound guy in my dorm trick out his chair as a tank. We rigged up a CO2 fire extinguisher to provide smoke. Wish I had a picture.
Great pictures! Looks like a lot of fun.
Yup, I can totally tell the difference between the Disney characters based on the blue dresses. Yahsir.
Animated Cinderella, Live Action Cinderella, Animated Aurora.
Geesh, it’s like you’re a guy or something.
I enjoyed the post, Amy!
I made this costume for my son to attend a gaming convention in 2013 (his stepsister did the leatherwork). This year (for an Anime convention) his wife is making the costumes and I will be babysitting the 2-yr-old while they are away. I love making costumes and I hope they have fun this year
And how is it again you have never made it to DragonCon?!?
Who is your friend Amy?
Pedant alert: unless I’m thinking of someone else, it’s Thranduil. Also, which Echthelion was it?
She’s just another con goer, dressed as Cersei from Season 2 of Game of Thrones. I went with our roommate, who’s the girl posing with Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt.
Because until recently, I didn’t know any geek friends around Atlanta I could crash with … :)
Sorry, yes, Thranduil. She also had in her book of prints a bunch of happy daddy Thranduil and infant Legolas sketches which were adorable.
Ecthelion was illustrated wearing dark blue and playing a lyre, so it could have been either version.
Goliath shouldn’t be too hard, especially if you go with one of his alternate costumes, like “Odin-Goliath.” Or build a costume around the “wings folded” pose. Getting him to speak with Keith David’s voice will be the trick.
Without too much work, I think he could swing Xanatos…
Got the beard now.
Thinking the wings folded like a cape, with a romantic shirt and a brown kilt.
I actually attended a Con or two myself back in the day but have never had the least inclination to cosplay. One day however the thought occurred to me, what about attiring myself as the New Number Two?
I never went through with it but I did find the thought absurdly amusing simply because I was certain almost no one would get it.
If I were ever to cosplay, I suspect this guy would be my inspiration
Cheap, which is good. But rather dumb ass as well, if you’re going to play it cheap then put at least a wee bit of effort into it I say. This is a guy wearing a cardboard box, not good.
I love the Lothlórien background behind Galadriel, the lamps and trees are such a perfect fit for the Art Nouveau style.
The *Perfect* Cosplay to me, is one that is so esoteric that people don’t get it, but when you explain it to them, they are “OH, Of Course, how clever!”.
I have always wanted to get a large group of guys a a party, all dressed like gladiators. When someone asks any one of them, “are you a Gladiator” or “who are you?” the person shouts:
“I am Spartacus”
That is the cue for any man in the group in earshot to say
“No, I am Spartacus”.
Cheep is a bathrobe, slippers and a towel.
Don’t Panic!
I like the cheap costumes that still manage to capture the character. A surprisingly common one this year was to wear a suit, sunglasses, and blind cane for Daredevil. There’s also the Superman T-shirt under a half undone button up shirt for mid-transition Superman. Big guys can do a Fantastic Four T-shirt with orange body paint for Thing.
I initially missed the part about George Takei. What a sad, bitter, hateful old man he turned out to be.
I forgot Sunglasses!