Like any con these days, there were cosplayers galore at the East Coast Comicon this past weekend. I took some shots of a few of my favorites. I neglected to get any of their names, so if you see yourself or someone you know, let us know in the comments and I’ll edit their names in. And now, on with the show!
I saw this great Mister Miracle almost as soon as I walked into the convention center. I really like that he figured out a way to make the mask work.
Next, a cool Ditko-y Dr. Strange. This guy really has the right look for the character (although I did see him later in the day after he lost his mustache). I like how Mister Miracle looks slightly perturbed in the background, like he’s disappointed that I’m no longer taking his picture.
Next, Black Canary and Mr. Freeze. This Mr. Freeze had a cool homemade look to him. The backpack part was just a silver wastebasket and the mounted a small fan on the neck of his helmet. Very clever re-purposing of everyday stuff.
Here’s Batman: The Animated Series director Kevin Altieri with a Harley Quinn cosplayer. I talked to her a bit while we were both waiting in line for Kevin. She was nice. As I recall, she ran out of time to do the Harley hood/jester cap, so she just went without it. She still looks great!
Classic Harley is a trickier costume to put together than you’d think, since you have to be really conscious of which parts are red & which parts are black, as well as remembering where all the diamond patterns fall. It’s tough enough when you’re just drawing her!
I was really impressed by this Harley’s domino mask. It had a thickness to it, but it was still affixed to her face without any strings. She told me that she put in on with the same sort of glue you use for false eyelashes. I also like that she has Harley’s pop-gun.
On Sunday, I saw this great Trickster and Mirror Master. The Mirror Master told me that he was called a carrot several times by people who don’t recognize cool Flash villains. I can sympathize — When I dressed up as the Riddler for the East Village Halloween Parade in New York, a TON of people called me “Joker.”
I met this cool Marvelman/Miracleman as I was combing through back issues. He assembled all the materials for his costume, then had a friend do the final assembly on it. He even dyed his hair to match the character, since he had also dressed up as Miracleman for C2E2 in Chicago a couple of weeks before.
Here’s a combo I really like — Blue Beetle and John Constantine. I really like this combo and if I were running DC, I’d green light a mini-series featuring these two immediately. The John Constantine cosplayer dressed up as Booster Gold on Saturday for the JLI panel, but I think I like him as Hellblazer more. He was in character and appropriately surly.
Dan Greenfield and I saw this couple as the Rocketeer and a Julie Newmar Catwoman as we were chatting after the Kevin Altieri panel on Sunday. The Rocketeer made his helmet and rocket pack from scratch.
Dan wanted to take a picture of Catwoman solo, so I did, too.
And finally, I saw this cool Lex Luthor in a variation of Luthor’s George Pérez-designed power armor from the 80s. Again, an impressive piece of hand crafting & re-purposing of everyday objects. This Luthor told me that he’s friends with the Mr. Freeze cosplayer I saw on Saturday. They’re big on costumes that cut off your peripheral vision, I guess.
There were other cool cosplayers there. A little after I saw this Luthor, I ran across a little boy dressed up as the Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite (he even had a Hooty!). I asked his father if I could take a picture of him, but the boy was being a bit surly at the moment. It’s always fun to see the kids in the costume, though, especially when their parents join in. I saw a father & son Spider-Man, and it was just adorable.
For more on last weekend’s East Coast Comicon, be sure to read my column from yesterday.
I’ll be back next Monday, when I’ll be chatting with my BACK ISSUE editor Michael Eury about his new book Hero A-Go-Go. See you then!
At this point I like the cosplay at this size convention than the really big ones. A lot of these are near or better than professional, but you can feel the individual effort put into them. Which is what makes them amazing. Too many of the big shows seems like they’ve been taken over by the professional cosplayers. Which are fine, they’re fun to see, but I was always more impressed by those that look like something you could do yourself, if you were willing to put the work in, and still look awesome.
Absolutely! Yeah, I’m always more impressed by the amateur efforts than the professional ones. I like seeing what people can produce with limited resources.
See, I see things like this (including the Black Panther from the other day), and then I remember all the time movie makers have said ‘we just couldn’t make those costumes work on real people’, and I just want to drag them to a convention like this so I can meet these Hollywood pros and also go to a convention like this!
… oh, and while we’re there, show them how non-professionals, with limited resources (financial and personnel), make these costumes work so well!
“The Mirror Master told me that he was called a carrot several times by people who don’t recognize cool Flash villains…”
Okay, I admit I thought he was Paste Pot Pete (especially with that gun).
“When I dressed up as the Riddler for the East Village Halloween Parade in New York, a TON of people called me “Joker.””
That’s less understandable. You’d think the Adam West TV series ALONE would put paid to that kind of comment!
“The John Constantine… was in character and appropriately surly.”
Okay, now I’m imagining him doing Spike’s ‘Get that camera out of my face!’ bit from Storyteller. (Buffy, Season 7)
That’s less understandable. You’d think the Adam West TV series ALONE would put paid to that kind of comment!
I think it’s just a testament to how little non-comics fans know the difference between these characters, or care to know the difference (Not really a criticism, just an observation). I think they saw my Riddler costume, they knew it was a Batman villain, and “Joker” was just the first Bat-villain name that popped into their heads. Jokes and riddles are interchangeable to most people, so why should the villains be any different?