WonderCon 2013, a set on Flickr.
Last week I went down to Anaheim to help my husband, who is a professional illustrator, sell his art (originals, prints, cards, etc.) at WonderCon. This is an annual convention, officially for comics, but also for scifi, fantasy, video games, and all things geek-y, and is organized by the same people who put on ComicCon. I’ve been to this convention a few times to help my hubby, mostly when it was up in San Francisco. I spend most of the weekend sitting in a hard plastic chair helping Michael out — selling stuff, getting food, letting him go on breaks — but it’s also fun from another perspective: cosplay!
I don’t really do cosplay, but it’s (obviously) the most popular area of costuming and growing by leaps and bounds. It’s fun to get to watch people who are just as obsessive as us historical costumers get their costume geek on, even if I do spend most of the weekend asking my husband, “Who’s that character? And who’s that?” Okay, I can spot a Disney princess, Captain America (very popular this year!), and Game of Thrones (okay, so I am considering making a Game of Thrones outfit because they’re PRETTY and sometimes they have crazy hair!).
There are some things that don’t grab me as much about cosplay, mostly the purchasing items and putting them together into a costume part of things (some people make their own costumes, and others purchase and repurpose stuff — not saying there isn’t a ton of work that goes into that second option, just it’s not MY thing!). But what I do get is loving a character, show, book, etc. so much that you want to literally BE a part of it, and find some way to take on that character/world. I think part of what I love about reproducing paintings and fashion plates and historically set movies is that I am trying to put myself into that person or character, so in some ways it’s very much the same!
We’re generally in the small press area, which means we aren’t in the heart of things, so I know there are tons of cool costumes that I miss seeing. But here’s a few photos of costumes that I liked. I think my favorites was Daenerys from Game of Thrones, and the Dr. Who girl who had a hand painted Tardis parasol!
I don’t recognize most of the characters, but I thought those pastel robots were amazing!
My favorite part of the comic conventions is seeing all the costumes. I honestly don’t know jack about comics but I wind up going to Big Wow in San Jose every year to work for my husbands cousin, and getting to gawk at the costumes makes the hard chairs and playing gopher worth it.
On another note, you made a great princess at fantasy faire. I enjoyed getting to meet you , Trystan, and Sarah on Sunday ( I was the redheaded steampunk geeking out and asking about your hair). I like that you stayed in character the whole time. It was great getting to meet some of my favorite bloggers. I pretty much spazzed out the rest of the day.
Lynn Brooks
Gah, sorry to take so long to respond! It was super fun to meet you — I’m glad you were able to put up with our sickly sweet princess-y-ness! Hopefully we’ll meet up at another event where we can chat more!