Do you know what’s awesome? Cosplay. Do you know what’s NOT awesome? All of the controversy surrounding it lately. You know what I’m going to do? Offer up some awesome cosplay.
For the last four years, I have been going to dozens of conventions a year and photographing cosplayers and convention antics. I have THOUSANDS of shots so sifting through them was a chore, but here’s a smattering of just a few of my favorites. I made my decision on lots of things: costume quality, the content of the photo, etc etc. Basically, all these shots are awesome, and I wish I could post all the hundreds of shots that resonate in me but for now here’s a small amount. Oh, by the way: obviously NONE of these people are geeky. At all. They’re all doing this for attention.
Molly McIsaac (obviously) takes her camera with her everywhere. She’s also totally a fake geek – you can tell because she wears nice clothes and makeup. You can follow her rants on twitter or on her blog, The Geeky Peacock.
Awesome.
Most impressive…
Wow, I must not know as much about comic culture as I think I do because I only recognize about a third of these.
A lot of them are from manga, video games, and TV shows.
Gotcha, thanks. I recognized the Gears of War one but I read pretty much no manga so that’s probably why I don’t get any of those. Who is the red haired woman in the third row? It just looks like she is in normal clothes.
*Third row from the bottom.
It’s Mary Jane Watson, of course!
Oh my god I’m an idiot.
I’m not really into cosplaying but based on recent articles I’m starting to see how passionate a subculture it really is. Maybe you’ve already done this and I just missed it but it’d be cool to see an article about why cosplayers ARE so passionate about it. Not about the controversies or creepiness or anything like that, just why there is so much love for it among those who partake. A Manifesto of Cosplay or something. I dunno, maybe I’m off base but in the spirit of what you wrote above the pictures, it might help to explain to non-cosplayers why the practice is an important part of geek culture.
That’s actually a REALLY good idea. I’ll do that next week!
Sweet! I look forward to it!
Is that the character from princess mononoke? Sweet bayonetta and death star. Keep on keepin on.
It is! As cosplayed by my best friend Becki.
Now anyone please correct me if I’m wrong, did not cosplay originate in Japan before the U.S.? I went to SDCC in 1993 or ’94 & cannot recall costumed players. Only booth persons of the default (xx) gender.
Thanks for this. I really have trouble understanding all the negativity out there. I promised myself when I started my site that I would spend my energy trying to show people all the great comics out there to read, instead of doing tear-down reviews and beating up creators. I think everyone could use a little dose of “if you don’t have something nice to say, keep it to yourself”. Thanks for focusing on the good!
Chuck
http://www.whatchareading.com
Cosplay isn’t my scene at all, but man, if I saw a woman walking around dressed as my comic’s leading lady, I would just die of happiness.
Deadpool has to be my favorite. Especially because I think that is the most comic book-y face I have ever seen a human make.
When she pulled that face when I pointed my camera at her, I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s why the pic is slightly blurry!
That face is freakin’ amazing. You could not have drawn a better one!
Awesome Paul Rudd as Loki.
That’s actually Curtis who does “Dragonball Z Abridged”
I get dressing up in costume.
I get LARPing.
But how much “play” is going in in Cosplay?
People generally attempt to embody the characters. I am ALWAYS method acting when I am in cosplay.
Who is the girl in the black shirt and tan pants cosplaying as?
I asked the same question. She’s Mary Jane Watson.
Actually, I think that’s Kim Possible.
@cabinboy: Oh, yeah it definitely could be. If you look a little further up though Molly did say the person was supposed to be Mary Jane.
Ok, I know I’ve seen the character and pose before, but I can’t figure it out at the moment.
Who is the girl in the black outfit with the lightning bolt motif supposed to be?
Livewire.
Molly, you must come to DragonCon next year! They average at least 8 costume contests. Star Wars, Comic Books, LOTR, Steampunk, Professional Costumers, Anime, Adult, kids, and their massive Masquerade!
I want to SO BADLY, but it always falls on the same weekend as PAX (which is in my Backyard!)
All really good but the cyberman is unbelievable.
I’m also interested to know “who” these cosplaya’s are. I imagine a good portion are either heavily into theater or are looking for prospective employment as a actor/booth dressing.
Uh, no. We’re geeks who like dressing up. Most cosplayers have boring day jobs and aren’t actors in any way.
Hmmmm.
Yeah I don’t know much about cosplayers, neither myself or any of my comic oriented friends are cosplayers, but I never got the sense they wanted anything more out it than dressing up and having a good time.
I am the succubus from WoW (second row, far right) and have been in the cosplaying community since 2007. I can tell you that 95% of cosplayers do not work or study in theatre/dressmaking (I know about, 4 out of the 100 or so I have met?) the rest come from a diverse range of backgrounds, and the only thing that brings us together is geeky shenanigans and cosplay (I’m a network technician!). I make my costumes, and learnt from scratch how to sew and craft. i find constructing the costume is the most fun part of the entire experience, and albeit expensive and time consuming, to me cosplaying is the greatest form of glorification to your favorite characters.
Ironically, when I went to my first big convention earlier in the year (after a number of years) I remember thinking I was kinda LESS cool for not dressing up. It’s like I can see being negative about the fact that these people are making me look bad… 🙂
offers to “cleanse your palate of controversy” with cosplay post, is passive aggressively controversial in cosplay post.
I was kind of thinking that too. If she doesn’t like that people are skeptical about girls liking comics, I can very much understand that. But I’m not sure anyone has ever actually said these people who take all this time to build these costumes and parade around with all these other people who do the same thing aren’t at least a little dorky.
You obviously haven’t been privy to the Tony Harris controversy: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/11/13/hey-quasi-pretty-not-hot-girl-you-are-more-pathetic-than-the-real-nerds-tony-harris/
Obviously not. I was wrong. Somehow these people exist, although logic is telling me there can’t possibly be more than two dozen people who think this way. Although logic has been wrong before.
I will say though that it would help if you linked this in the article; I didn’t even know what palate was being cleansed. (This is the only comics site I read). Or maybe don’t link it; what do I know.
Great point Ed!
All of these are incredible, but fuck me, that Loki is FIIINE. :B
Tony Harris better not see this page. RAGE!!!
The Deadpool one was my favourite.
The usage of “awesome” here is both hyperbole and inaccurate. Most of these cosplay are mediocre at best.
I would not say that about Vampirella. **COMMENT MODERATED**
Till this day, I don’t know how that chick sewed plastic onto fabric. I mean that faker chick, the one that’s faking it 😉