I have attended a cosplay picnic at Toronto Centre Island almost every summer since I started cosplaying, and this year was no different. The island is a pretty versatile location for photos between the parks, gardens, beaches, fountains, midway/rides, and petting zoo... and I just think it's an enjoyable place to spend the day!
I feel like I ended up going a little overboard this year though, since I doubled-up on costumes for the first time, and ended up booking 3 shoots as well. I won't normally book more than one shoot per convention/event, mostly for budget reasons, but also because I stress out trying to make sure I have enough time for everything, especially at the island where some travel is involved. In the end, I wore Cersei (got first stage of embroidery - sleeves - done just in time) and then L.A. Woman Kate Bishop, because I figured that Cersei would be too hot to comfortably wear all day, and I was right. In Cersei I shot with Alex Rose in one of the gardens, with SleepyMeow at the hedge maze, and snagged some nice unplanned photos with The Video Ninja, Everage, Very Frank, Joe's Garage, and ZombieKat89 before changing into the very comfortable Kate Bishop outfit. I hadn't planned on actually getting photos in Kate, since it's a very casual costume I only brought to be comfy while still cosplaying, but luckily for me the timing worked out for my shoot with Burditt, and I also got to shoot again with Paul Hillier and Everage. Both my Cersei gallery and my Hawkeye gallery have been updated with some of my favourite photos from the event, but the gallery below includes a lot more of the fun shots from the day ^_^
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Fan Expo. Here's the thing about Fan Expo. I went every year from 2005 to 2010. But I was less and less engaged with the con every year, and the admission prices kept going up, and after the really really terribly managed crowding and lock-out problems of 2010 I decided that it really wasn't worth my time or money and I wasn't going to go anymore. So what changed this year? Well, the biggest thing was that Mr Stark had arranged to be a "booth babe" for an artist at the con, and when your boyfriend is going to be spending four days at a local event and staying at your place, it's hard to say "I won't be there at all". In addition to that, I had also heard many times that the organizers have made a lot of improvements since 2010 (and the company is also under new management) so I thought I would give it another chance. However, I still wasn't willing to shell out the kind of money they were charging for badges, so I asked around for a volunteer position and ended up being a handler for The Cosplay Scion in exchange for my weekend badge. Which meant, for the most part, sitting at her table while she was doing her cosplay panels. I ended up having a very unusual convention experience (for me) as a result, since Lee Scion's table was in the "Cosplay Corner", which was a row of tables for most of the convention's cosplay guests* to sell prints, sign autographs, and meet fans. Up until that weekend, I'd been abstractly aware of the "celebrity cosplayer" business model, but I'd never seen it up close and for extended periods before. I have many friends who do guest spots at conventions and who sell prints, but the women at these tables were on a whole other level. There are a lot of different ways and reasons to cosplay, and I always try very hard not to judge or dismiss others who do it differently than I do. The cosplay guests around me were all clearly fans themselves: they all looked awesome and represented a variety of interests, and they all work hard at what they do. The ones I spoke to were fun and kind. Regardless, when the reason for having a table at a con is to make money (aka almost all the time), you have to offer what customers want, and it was very clear what is popular with the general convention attendee when it comes to cosplayers - traditionally attractive women in sexualized costumes (preferably popular characters) who sell pin-up prints. As someone who cosplays "obscure" characters and (generally) not-terribly-revealing designs, I sometimes feel like I have to fight to get photos of my work, or to find other people who share my fandom. So it was a little disheartening to see just how popular the cosplay guests all were, many with long lines in front of their tables for most of each day. People wanted their photos with these women, wanted to buy posters of them to have signed, wanted to flirt. Some local con photographers were just about falling over themselves to take photos at their tables, and hung around for an uncomfortably long time if there wasn't a line to see someone. Now I'm not going to say that these successful celebrity cosplayers are doing anything wrong - they're clearly doing alright for themselves, and since they're not hurting anyone I certainly can't blame them for making money doing something they love, as most people don’t get that opportunity. Nor am I jealous of their popularity - at least not in the sense that I want to be in their place, because I definitely don't. But it certainly makes a statement about how the hobby has evolved in recent years, especially with the increase in attention from mainstream media and culture. The women at the tables were not the “best” cosplayers in the building, nor--with a few exceptions--did they contribute to the cosplay community in terms of teaching panels or running events. It makes me sad to know that there are amazingly talented people who are "unknowns" and constantly passed over simply because they don't have "cosplay fame"; that is, because they haven't (or don't want to) figure out the magic formula of self-promotion + popular characters + sex appeal. I think this got away from me a little bit there... back on track. Anyways, seeing all this really got me thinking about who gets recognition for their hard work at a con these days. Mostly by accident, I conducted a very small social experiment on Saturday and Sunday to gather some anecdotal evidence. I had decided to cosplay from Hawkeye all weekend - Cover Kate Bishop on Friday, Clint Barton on Saturday, and L.A. Kate on Sunday. My Clint costume is very simple - t-shirt and jeans, a wig, makeup (and bandages), and shades. L.A. Kate is also very simple - tank top and shorts, a wig, makeup, and shades. Both costumes are "closet cosplay" - nothing custom made. Both costumes use the same bow and quiver props. Both designs are from the same book so they should be equally recognizable (well, Kate is at a disadvantage there, since Clint's costume is also used in other Avengers books). Finally, I spent approximately the same amount of time walking around the con, both buildings, in each costume. The difference: Clint is a dude and is fully covered. Kate is a girl in short-shorts and loose tank. The experiment: simply counting photo requests. I got stopped and asked for photos eight times more as Kate than as Clint. Eight. Times. That can't just be me. It's like if you don't fit the mould of the pin-up cosplay celebrities signing autographs, you become more and more invisible. The culture has shifted in such a way that Average Joe Attendee cares about taking photos of people they find attractive, not characters they like or amazing craftsmanship. My friend and author Derwin Mak, who has been attending fan conventions almost as long as I've been alive, not only pointed out this trend in conversation during Fan Expo this year, he named it: they are "fake geek boys". The guys who go to conventions to take photos, and post galleries which are entirely or almost entirely women. The guys who go so far as to ask male members of a cosplay group to move out of their shot. The guys who are clearly only there to fulfill their hetero fantasies as opposed to actually caring about whichever fandom is relevant because if they were, they'd be taking photos of everyone, not just the girls. So what? People are allowed to take photos of whatever they like, right? Of course - it's an issue though when it's not just a couple people, but the new cultural norm; not only just seeing cosplayers as sexy models (I had a few conversations over the weekend with people who didn’t understand that most cosplayers there were enthusiastic fans and not hired models), but also only seeing cosplayers as female. I was telling a guy friend about the results of my Fan Ex experiment when I got home, and he told me that ‘knowing he would probably be ignored after putting all the effort into making/wearing a costume’ is a huge reason that he hasn't gotten into the hobby, despite being a regular convention attendee. Heck, Men vs Cosplay, a group which promotes and supports male cosplayers, was started after the founders kept hearing ‘I want to cosplay but think I shouldn't; it's a girls' hobby’ from dudes at conventions. While it's awesome that so many talented women have seen success being professional cosplayers in recent years, men who cosplay have been becoming less visible and what I see now is a feedback loop of guys being discouraged from joining the hobby because all they see are women. Sorry guys, I just have a lot of feelings - not about how people cosplay, but about what types have become hugely popular and why. Despite the wall of text above, I had a good (if surreal) time at Fan Ex. I did a mini shoot with Nathan Dunham in my Clint cosplay, I did an interview for the We Got the Geek podcast, I did a little shopping at BMV, Dotsy's, and Cakes Cove. I saw friends at Lee’s table, as well as when I invaded the masquerade greenroom and almost ended up working backstage. I tried a pulled pork parfait, and got to watch Hayley Atwell's Q&A at the end of the weekend. I saw the convention from a different angle (quite literally). And in the end, other life obligations got in the way and Mr Stark wasn't even able to attend. Would I go back again? Sure... but I still wouldn't pay for a badge. Volunteer or bust! Enjoy some photos from the con ^_^ *since "Toronto Batman" was the only male in the group (and he was there to be a public spectacle, not to make sales) the rest of the discussion refers to the female cosplay guests
For several years I was going to one convention per year in Québec, between Con*Cept, Anticipation, Otakuthon, and G-Anime, but this year was the first time in a while that the timing to make the trip worked out! I was able to get the time off, and volunteering for WCS Canadian Preliminaries staff helped with the cost, and I had a great time ^_^ Friday was a very long day, starting with settling into the WCS greenroom before 8 am and not getting back to my hotel room until well after midnight. Most of the day backstage was pretty boring since my job was to guard the props belonging to the WCS entrants, but I did have good company from the rest of the staffers ^_^. Things got more interesting once workmanship judging started and I was a more active Den Mom and runner. Even then, most of the teams had brought their own designated helper, so greenroom emergencies were few and far between. Some pretty ridiculous photos might eventually surface of Kurumasha and I helping Melting Mirror with her wings though! I say it every Anime North, and I'll say it again now... I like working masquerade Greenrooms. I like being helpful and giving back to the community with my time and energy, and I like having the chance to interact with all the cosplayers. The show itself didn't run late into the night, but we stayed behind until all the entrants had left, just to make sure that the room was fairly tidy. Then we had a late-late dinner with friends. Then back to the hotel. It was a really really long day. Saturday and Sunday, on the other hand, were all about just bumming around the Palais des congrès in costume! Saturday was Cersei and included a private shoot with Elemental, and Sunday was Postal Twili Midna and I spent a lot of the afternoon keeping an eye out for Legend of Zelda cosplayers (and other awesome people) to hand out mail. Didn't got to any panels or workshops or concerts or game shows - I literally just walked around the con enjoying cosplaying. And while it wasn't terribly exciting, it was really nice to spend a couple of days doing that without trying to rush anywhere. And since I spent lots of time being visible, I even showed up in a bunch of photographers' galleries and a couple of cosplay videos! Unfortunately, neither costume was particularly good for keeping my own camera accessible, so I barely have any photos of my own! In fact, the only one of note is the selfie I took with an older gentleman on Saturday night; partially because I think he makes an awesome Maester (although that wasn't what he was cosplaying), but also because he was very nice, polite, and actually a con attendee. He was the kind of person I needed to run into after having two consecutive encounters on my way into the building with men who didn't have the first clue about anything geeky and just wanted to hit on women in costumes. It definitely wasn't the most pleasant way to end my Saturday night at the con, but unfortunately it's one of the realities of an event where the lobby and outdoor areas are open to the public and in a busy part of the city. In any case, overall I had a great weekend hanging out with a lot of friends, wearing less "casual" cosplay than at most other cons this year, and eating lots and lots of BBQ pork buns (that's what happens when staying in the hotel in Chinatown hahaha). I stayed in Montreal an extra day after Otakuthon ended which was fantastic for just getting to chill, eat awesome food, and enjoy the weather walking around the city. If its possible to join staff for WCS Preliminaries again next year, I'd happily go back.
Extra shout-outs: Link Speaks, The Otaku Crypt, Naredo Photo, Takumi Cosplay Photography, Carl-philippe Aubin, Toodletots, Alain Dahan, MrJechgo Photo, PascalFl
July and August have been so busy. All summer I’ve been riding the work-sew-sleep-repeat-cosplay cycle and I’m really, really surprised that I haven’t burnt out yet. I have, however, pretty much run out of time for writing blogs and posting photos from all these events! I thought that I would have plenty of time for all that online stuff after Otakuthon; after all, I didn’t have any more conventions scheduled for the rest of the year. Then an opportunity to go to Fan Expo came my way, and I got invited to a bunch of smaller events, and this whole hot mess of a convention year is going to keep going! In addition to Fan Ex (which I’m trying to give another chance - I haven’t been back since the 2010 debacle), I’m also going to be doing the Parkinson Superwalk (in Brampton) in costume with a few friends [if you feel like sponsoring me with a donation to Parkinson Society Canada drop me a line], I’m considering attending the Niagara Wine Festival with Cosplay for a Cure (I just have to figure out transportation), and I’m also planning to check out Forest City Comicon pretty much entirely because I really admire Twinzik’s work and we don’t normally run the same convention circuit so I’m jumping at the chance to meet them ^_^ Anyways, moving forward from future plans to looking back to last month’s last event: ConBravo! Like almost every con I attend, I feel like I missed out on a lot of interesting panels and events at Bravo. But at least I got lots of cosplaying in, especially doing the Needle Panic™ thing with Kurumasha! On Friday I pulled a serious “surprise” costume by doing my first crossplay since 2006. Kurumasha was going to wear Kate Bishop at the con, and I thought "while double-Kate is fun, it would be nicer if we had Clint-and Kate", so when I realized I could pull off a closet cosplay Clint for less than $5 the decision was made. I’d only told Sha (because cos-partner) and Mr Stark (because partner-partner and I wanted to borrow mens pants) and I’d say that the costume was quite successful in terms of being a disguise. I confused a lot of friends who didn’t recognize me until I smiled at them or started talking! We ended up only managing to catch the end of the fabric swap and have some photos done at the Cosplay for a Cure booth before having a late dinner and chilling at the hotel for the night, but I had a lot of fun :D Saturday started with a field trip - Needle Panic™ took a walking tour from the convention, up a hell of a lot of stairs that we wish Google had warned up about, to our destination of Ann’s Fabric Shop, where we had a ball looking at alllllll the pretty fabric and trying to buy only a reasonable amount. In the end I got everything I need for a Captain Marvel costume, as well as a very pretty piece of chiffon for a different Captain Marvel costume (can you tell how much I’ve gotten into a few Marvel comics this year?). Unfortunately once we got back, it took so long to get into costume and makeup for our Postal Warriors masquerade entry that we just had to go straight to the greenroom for show prep and judging. Not too much of note about the masquerade itself… aside from disagreeing strongly with a couple of the greenroom rules (no practicing, no leaving) it was a pretty standard masq. Here’s video of the whole thing! The video below is just our entry, “Going Postal”! We wandered the con for a little while after the show since we put so much effort into getting dressed and needed more time to enjoy wearing the costumes. Ran into Paul Hillier and got this sweet pic that I love ^_^ After dinner was just hangout in our hotel room with friends, because we had a kickass suite and know awesome people. Sunday was the first time I actually got to hangout with Mr Stark all weekend! And I got to see the con in general! I threw on my super comfy “L.A. Woman" Kate costume and Sha and I bummed around the hallways and dealers room. I picked up a cute Hawkguy pendant from JellySquid Crafts in the Artist Alley, and a sweet custom Midna shirt from Chop Shop Goods. I learned that ProJared is a Hawkguy fan, and did a fun, goofy photoshoot with old and new friends at the Cosplay for a Cure booth ^_^. My day wrapped up with an invitation to run backup for Kudrel on her “Horns, Helmets, and Headdresses” cosplay panel! I love doing panels at cons but haven’t been on any lately because I can’t really keep up with new materials and techniques, so it was great to have been invited to join her ^_^ I helped Cosplay for a Cure with some of their tear-down and stuck around to have a really nice sushi dinner with the “Cure” ladies before hitching a ride back to Toronto. Overall it was a pretty good weekend, and I’m really glad I got the chance to hang out and cosplay with Kurumasha so much because we don’t get that many opportunities. I only had my camera with me on Sunday, and I was a little brain-dead by then,so photos for the weekend are a pretty slim selection; but here's the rest of my photos! Special bonus content: Dan the Video Ninja's weekend retrospective, in which he managed to catch me in all three of my costumes ^_^ Another A-Pop has come and gone, and I have mixed feelings about the convention this year. It was my 4th time attending, and while on paper it looked just as exciting as it has the previous years, after actually attending I think that the shine has effectively rubbed off the event for me. On Friday I wore a Kate Bishop Hawkeye outfit (a bit of a mix of my other costumes since it was too cold and rainy for the summery one I had planned) and after arriving at the Ontario Science Centre around 6, we spent the next few hours in line to get wristbands, greeting friends, and having dinner. By the time I actually got inside it was after 9pm, and what ended up happening was mostly Mr Stark, Yavarice, and I checking out the open exhibits and getting a feel for the con until I wanted to go home and crash hard at midnight. most of my photos are from Friday since I wasn't "working" and had full use of both my hands LOL Saturday was the "debut" of my Extremis Pepper Potts, with an almost-complete arm from KW Stark Resilient.... a certain boyfriend didn't double-check that the finger joints were packed LOL. The arm will be ready for next time, and I should have a better wig too since the one I wore was the "close enough" one from my stockpile. I spent the afternoon volunteering at the Cosplay for a Cure booth raising money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. When I wasn't doing that, I was chilling with Mr Stark in his full armour, Dan The Video Ninja in a rare cosplaying appearance as Bruce Banner, and Ragz Cosplay as Spidey. I even ran into one of my friends from university (yes, I have a science degree) who works at the Science Centre and we had fun torturing Dan and Kat. In the evening, we managed to catch the circus show, and some of Elijah Wood's DJ set, but missed out on seeing Prozzäk perform when the fire marshal shut down entry to the area just after we left. We waited in line to try to get downstairs for a little while before being told what was going on by OSC staff and then we just gave up, headed home to take off the armour and makeup, and just listen to Prozzäk on CD. Still took me right back to being a teenager. On Sunday I had been thinking about wearing Izabel, but I just couldn't get up early enough and I also didn't have all the costume pieces prepped and ready to wear. I decided to just go with my Iron Man dress instead, and in a twist, Mr Stark and I put "Deadpool" in one of my other costumes - Erika from Welcome to Night Vale. That was fun and he confused a lot of people at the con LOL! I spent the whole of the day on Sunday at the booth which was relatively chill compared to Saturday. More friends stopped by and I tried to talk them into shooting with us ~_^ My pals and I stuck around for the booth tear-down and we all had a lovely post-con dinner. Still... A-Pop just didn't "do it" for me this year. Or last year either, really (though I kept the con report very positive). I could list off all the little negative things, but I think it really comes down to the size of the convention and the venue; all the programming is really spread out throughout the (huge) building, and the con has gotten too big for me to enjoy the events and activities that I loved the first couple of years that I went - either because of crowding or because they're not offered anymore. Although it was great seeing so many of my friends there and I enjoyed spending time with the Cosplay for a Cure booth, I don't think I'm going to be back again next year. Additional photo credits: Joe's Garage Photos, Elemental Photography, Dan The Video Ninja, Skyleaf Creations.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to my first NFCC! Since I couldn't go to ColossalCon this year, and SouSho was delayed to 2016, I figured I should add something new to my calendar, and apparently a lot of my friends were going to be at Niagara Falls. I commuted in with Ragz Cosplay on Saturday and Sunday to save some money on a hotel. I had wanted to finish my Iron Man mk. IX gauntlet to cosplay "Extremis!Pepper" from Iron Man 3, but unfortunately I had considerable trouble with the paint on Thursday night and had to leave it at home. Instead I brought out Mrs Impossible for Saturday (most likely the last wear for that costume because it is way too small), and Kate Bishop on Sunday. I didn't end up going to any panels or signings, or other programming at all over the weekend, with the exception of the costume contest awards announcement to support my friends who entered. What I did do for 2 days was walk the hall and exhibitor's room, did a little shopping (Hawkeye vs Deadpool and Sex Criminals vol 2 from Big B Comics, and a shirt from TeeTurtle because I hadn't packed one and needed to change), but mostly just talked to people and took photos, with the Cosplay For A Cure booth being the main loitering point XD It ended up being a remarkably enjoyable convention since I had excellent company all weekend, I was amazingly anxiety-free, and I was able to get in a private shoot each day (with Sean's Photography and Elemental) as well as a few mini-shoots on the grounds with other photographers I have met over the last year or so like Very Frank Pictures, Peter Wang, and Cosplayers Canada. I even made it into Cosplayers Canada's magazine! (page 21) This was one of those cons which was made great by the people who were there. I'm not a big-spender (especially at conventions) so vendors and AA aren't a big deal to me, and while there was a nice variety of programming, none of it specifically spoke to me. Same with the celebrity guests. Organizationally, the con was a little lacking. Doors were signed but with things like "re-entry not guaranteed" instead of useful information like "entrance" and "exit". Different days the entrances and exits were in different locations, and even throughout the day the doors we were allowed to use constantly changed. I was very surprised that an event which boasts "more than 23,000 fans" attending didn't have a badge system for attendees - some got wristbands (to be honest I'm not sure if they were for weekend or VIP passes) but single-day people like myself and Ragz only got a hand-stamp on entry (or a somewhere-stamp, because: costumes LOL).
I made this the first "selfie-con" of 2015 and I'm pretty sure I managed to get a picture with almost everyone there who I knew, and some I didn't XD Gallery posts from my private shoots coming soon! Another Anime North has come and gone. This is going to be a relatively short con report, partially because large blocks of my time were taken up doing single events, and partially because I went back to my no-photo-taking habit from previous years. AN ended up being less of a social convention for me this year, which makes taking photos of or with people difficult, but I'm aiming for another "selfie-con" gallery from NFCC :) Anyways, Yavarice was awesome and drove Elemental and I out to the con on Friday afternoon. It took a while to check-in, which is normal for Anime North (except for the additional confusion about our room since the way we were booked in as staff was different from previous years), but eventually we got keys, got badges, grabbed lunch, met up with Ragz, and settled in. Kurumasha's crew arrived from Ottawa just in time to swap our costume components (she had ordered some contacts for my Mai, I had her Hawkeye bow) and head out to the Congress Centre together. I spent a while handing out all the Yaya Han patterns that I had picked up for people at C2E2 and just generally browsing. I made just one single purchase, because as soon as I saw the sloth plushies at Critterama's booth, I knew I wouldn't be leaving without one. Totally worth it. It's super cute and extremely huggable (now accepting suggestions for names). Unfortunately, Mr Stark arrived just barely in time for his evening panel and not early enough to cosplay Zuko with me, so that was sad (but not entirely unexpected). He and I did get to all do a large-ish group dinner at Kelsey's though with Kurumasha, Yavarice, DarthMarySue, Ragz, Dan the Video Ninja, and Derek. Good way to wrap up the night and start off Anime North. Saturday was my casual Chell cosplay since I needed something comfy and appropriate for staffing. Kurumasha and I went to the resin casting workshop with Chris Warrilow at 1pm where we enjoyed getting to try our hand at resin for a minimal cost. Unfortunately, when we paid for the tickets to the workshop it was labelled as being Saturday morning, so having the start time scheduled for 1:00 when the program was released was an unpleasant surprise. We both had to leave early to staff the masquerade, and put together with a late start-time, we didn't get nearly as much of an opportunity to make things as we should have. We did at least get to make one item each, and learned from someone else's mistakes about what not to do when creating a silicone mold LOL. From there the masquerade greenroom was mostly chaos-as-usual. Of course there's always different problems from year to year so anticipating what will go wrong at my level of staff is pretty much impossible. Thanks to all the entrants who were very patient in the greenroom and asked questions or voiced concerns politely! This year I ended up with the task of having numbers ready for each entrant's judging Polaroid, which was definitely a change of pace from previous years, but still gave me the opportunity to see every entrant up close and to say hi or have a brief chat with many of them, which is my favourite part of being backstage at the masq. Once the show started we had ninjas running the entrants from the greenroom to the stage, so I actually got to sit with KW Iron Man, Cloudbreak Cosplay, Mel Colley, Ice Phoenix Art, and Evie-E in their den and watch a bit of the show on the live feed! Other years we have always had problems getting dinner once the show is over since the restaurants are always packed, so this year we just ordered pizza and it worked out great. And we got another evening of conversation with friends in the hotel :) Sunday was the big photo day for me! It was quite the hassle trying to get in a full costume with excessive makeup and fixes/repairs for the rest of the group while also packing up to checkout (especially with both suits of armour in our hotel room) but somehow we managed. So what was my mysterious Sunday "backup" costume? Since I didn't get Midna done in time for our Hyrule Warriors group, and Kurumasha didn't get her Agitha finished either, we decided to just go with the main pieces of each that were done and make postal uniforms to match Yavarice's Postal Link. To help fill out the group, I decided to put Hikarimoro in my old Midna costume and make her a uniform as well. (More details on all this stuff will be going on my Zelda gallery page with the next site update) Kurumasha, Yavarice, and I ended up randomly meeting up with Chanelley and Kymera Cosplay who are also HW cosplayers, and we got a Hall Costume Award from Kaijugal while waiting for Hikarimoro to arrive. Once she got there, we put her in her costume and did her makeup in a hurry and then it was off to spend the afternoon doing photoshoots! I got photos or video with Viewtiful Design, Trillance, Elemental at Cosplay for a Cure, The Video Ninja, Very Frank Pictures, Paul Hillier, and we stopped by the massive Legend of Zelda photoshoot too LOL Most of those photos will be going up once I set up the new gallery, but in the mean-time, a few teasers are below. The weekend ended with a shared cab ride home for Elemental, The Video Ninja, Mr Stark, and myself; followed by a very nice sushi dinner. Overall, Anime North was as enjoyable as always, and of course I'm looking forward to being back next year. :) Shoutouts to everyone I haven't already name-dropped because as always, they are just too many awesome people at AN to tag them all ^_^ My C2E2 recap is being split up, because it's just too much for one post. Part 1 is the usual con-report, and Part 2 focuses on just the Crown Championships of Cosplay. Big wall of text here... scroll to the bottom for photos and video! What is the "Crown Championships of Cosplay"? It is a relatively new competition which is aiming to be a very prestigious contest featuring winners from other competitions across America and the rest of the world. Since it's only the second year running, it's not quite there yet (this year there was only one "Eastern Champion" present - the winner from NYCC), but they seem to be quickly gaining traction and attention - even the Chicago Tribune featured photos from the contest! Entrants applied for the contest ahead of time online so all the costumes were pre-judged based on photos and descriptions before being accepted for the contest. Judging for the awards was based on backstage craftsmanship judging and posing on stage - no skits, solo entries only, no music. All the contestants were divided by source material* and awarded a 1st-2nd-3rd winner from each category, with an overall 1st (crown)-2nd-3rd awarded from among each of the first place winners (and large cash prizes on the line). In theory, the first place winners from the other contests are also in the running for the "Crown Champion" grand prize, but this year there was just the one returning winner from NYCC. Here are the 2015 entrants, a really talented group of people! So how did that go? My day started very early (considering I was on vacation) - I had to get up at 7:30 am to start getting ready. I've streamlined my Izabel makeup process each time I have done it, but even then, it took a little over an hour and a half to put on the whole costume. I was ready on time though, since we were supposed to be at the convention and ready for judging by 10:00 am. As an aside, terror is going to judging wearing water-based makeup in the rain O_O Ragz and I were assigned judging times shortly after 11:00, so we just waited around the holding room instead of trying to do anything in the meantime. We met and chatted with Star Eater for a while since she's a fan of Saga, asked Josephiroth about the size of his sword (heh heh), and spent a little time in the hallway talking to Lady Thor, Goddess of Thunder and Rattle and Burn and of Oneiromantic Designs, but I was too distracted and brain-dead for proper socializing. The judging itself went well, I think. There's not a whole lot of advanced techniques or labour-intensive work on Izabel, but they did say "oh, that's a good idea" a couple of times while explaining what I did and why I made some decisions. So I left feeling pretty good that even if they weren't impressed, the industry professionals seemed to at least approve of my work. Squee ~_^ After judging I did the round of photos for C2E2 and some for Cosplay Culture Magazine, and was free to leave for the afternoon. There was an optional live-stream interview session arranged with twitch at 2:00 which both Ragz and I decided against attending... I'm not super comfortable being interviewed on camera, let alone it being a live broadcast, and since I'm not aspiring to be a "professional cosplayer" and I'm not a commissioner, I don't need the self-promotion. I still haven't watched the recording of the interviews, but Stark saw them as part of the Championships pre-show, and said we made the right choice when we declined to participate. According to his review, the interviewers had no idea what they were talking about (making themselves look like idiots), and as a result of trying to answer their questions, the cosplayers didn't look any better. Very unfortunate. The stage show wasn't scheduled until 7 pm, but we were asked to return to the holding room at 5 so that everyone could go to the other holding room (which I'm just going to call the greenroom) all together so people didn't get lost. On one hand, arriving 2 hours early was not at all necessary given that all the pre-judging and photos had already been finished in the morning, but given how long it took to get all the contestants and costumes up to the greenroom, I guess it was a good idea after all. We had to go from the first floor at one end of the (huge) convention center all the way to the fifth floor on the opposite side of the building, and had to do it in groups of 10 or so people because we were taking elevators. That took a long time to happen. The next bit is where things started to get rough. At 6:30, we were ushered down to the fourth floor (which is where the main stage was) and lined up in a concrete hallway. We proceeded to stand around in the hallway, posed for some backstage photos and video, and continued to wait. I don't even know how long we were there, since I left my phone, and the other belongings I had with me, in the greenroom so I wouldn't have to worry about them on stage. After what felt like an eternity of waiting for the pre-show to end and for the MC to stop talking (almost nothing in terms of actual words was audible from backstage, or even on stage), we got to take our brief walk across the stage. But once that was done, instead of returning to the greenroom (where the tables and chairs and our stuff was) to wait for the remainder of the show and for the judges' deliberations, we had to line up again in that back hallway, ready to parade back out for the awards. So we were stuck there, in the hall, with no chairs, no water, and no washrooms until sometime after 9:00 when awards were finally given and we could leave. So that's over 2.5 hours stuck in the hallway. I was unlucky in that I hadn't thought to bring my phone with me, so I couldn't get in touch with anyone, or see the fan's choice polls, or take photos with the other contestants; but I was lucky in that I was definitely in one of the most comfortable costumes in the contest. I don't even know how Groot survived. So we all went back on stage, the awards were handed out, and then back to the hallway again, where we then had to try to find a staffer who could show us the way back to the greenroom where many people had left their stuff! Unfortunately, we were totally on our own for getting back to the holding room on the first floor for the swag bags everyone was getting for participating. The halls were crowded with the audience also trying to leave the building for the night, so we ended up having to back-track quite a bit when routes we took to avoid crowds ended up not going where we thought they did.... I was so sick of being in costume that I was removing all my accessories as I was walking down the hall. By the time Mr Stark met back up with us in the holding room, I'd taken off my wristbands, gloves, guts, hat, wig, and ears.... basically everything I could. Didn't care how weird I looked going back to the hotel. At least the swag bag was useful for holding all the pieces of my costume! My Final Review: I knew when I applied that I wasn't going to win anything (especially with the "top-three" award system instead of the "excellence deserves recognition" system I'm used to) but I wanted to have the experience of entering a contest in the US, and one where the emphasis was on workmanship instead of on performance seemed like a good fit for me. Even though I'm often cripplingly shy, my favourite thing about masquerades is getting to talk to the other contestants and learn from them or just admire their work, and make new friends. Talking-shop about costumes and conventions is the best icebreaker I have LOL Since my end goal was not to win the crown, but to have fun and meet some amazing cosplayers, I consider the contest a huge success. ... All that having been said, given the hassles of this style of contest, it really seems designed only for people who are serious about winning. I don't think I would enter again... it's hard to justify having to be so uncomfortable for so much of the day instead of getting to enjoy the rest of the convention. And that's coming from someone for whom "cosplay" is the main draw of almost every con. Links for awesome people that I missed above:
Groot: Jim Schmid Lady Sif: Phire & Brimstone Captain America: Cap Santiago Peggy Carter: AsgardBarbie Loki: Son of Asgard Cosplay photo: Video Game Tidbits photo: KW Iron Man photo: C2E2 photo: Gregory Romany And a full list of winners (with photos!) is available over at Midlife Crisis Crossover. *not all entries ended up in the same category that they applied for - several of the other "comic book" cosplayers had applied for "movies and TV" but the contest directors made the final decisions on which category each costume would compete in. My C2E2 recap is being split up, because it's just too much for one post. Part 1 is the usual con-report, and Part 2 focuses on just the Crown Championships of Cosplay. Thursday (Day 0) It was a long, long drive from Burlington to Kitchener to Chicago, but at least I had good company with my awesome friend (and driver) Ragz and equally awesome boyfriend Mr Stark. Highlights of the drive included watching the first episode of Daredevil, dropping in on my parents for a short visit, billboards for Lion's Den because we're mature grown-ups, and marveling at Michigan's roadkill (too many raccoons and deer to count plus TWO wild turkeys!). Lowlights included a traffic jam for an invisible flipped truck before we even picked up Stark, a long detour before realizing that the GPS was sending us to Ottawa to avoid toll roads, the interstate we needed to be on literally not existing due to construction, and creating a time paradox (I mean, getting confused) when the GPS knew that Chicago is in a different time zone but we didn't. In the end we arrived exactly 12 hours after leaving (objective time) and were very relieved to discover that the Chicago South Loop Hotel was precisely as advertised: free parking, free wifi, clean and pretty, and the staff were all very very nice ^_^ We took a quick walk around the area after settling in and ate at the only place we found: White Castle. Started to realize why the hotel was so affordable. Friday (Day 1) We started off our convention bright and (relatively) early with a photoshoot! The AnarCHris (of Chris and Carrie Creative) arranged for a Hawkeye-based cosplay group to get together for some fun photo times. CHris was Hawkguy, Allycat Alisha was Mockingbird, Pepperbots was Black Widow, I contributed Kate Bishop, and of course, that's Ragz as Wiccan and Stark as Deadpool/Iron Pool. Big thanks go to Eddie B Photos for taking the pictures! After the shoot wrapped up we picked up our badges and headed to the show floor! Unfortunately the Canadian contingent managed to get separated from CHris within about 10 minutes of being in the exhibitors' area (which could only be the result of how busy and chaotic the place was, because it's actually difficult to lose someone as tall as CHris - see photos above XD). So we just wandered on our own, resisting the temptation to buy everything everywhere. We got stopped for lots of photos (Iron Pool especially was a big hit!) and I even saw someone with a super cute Katie-Kate shirt! (I regret not getting a photo with him) In the afternoon Mr Stark and I caught the Thrilling Adventure Hour Concert Film screening, which was pretty sweet. The brief Q&A with a lot of the main Workjuice Players was icing on the cake. We had wanted to catch Adam WarRock in concert not to far from the hotel on Friday night, but exhaustion and a few other things conspired against us. Things like having an extremely difficult time getting a hold of some dinner, and having to evacuate the hotel for a possible fire somewhere on the second floor. In the rain. That was... fun? Not really. So that was lame - I had really wanted to see him live. Saturday (Day 2) This was the Crown Championships of Cosplay day, and a lot of my day was taken up with craftsmanship judging and photos and greenroom time and the actual show... but not quite the whole day. We stopped by the Marvel photo shoot in the cosplay lounge for a little bit and the guys hopped into some photos. I made sure to stop by the Image booth with Izabel, found a The Will cosplayer for a photo (unfortunately I didn't see any of the other Saga cosplayers who were around that day), and said hi to CHris and Carrie over at the Athena's Wink booth. And then costume touch-ups and back to the contest stuff. Sunday (Day 3) As the only day when none of us had any obligations in the morning, we all slept in. Very snooze, much yes, etc. When we did get moving, Stark and I went with our Viria13-Avatar costumes. I regret not getting a chance to do a test run of Zuko's scar before hand, but after just a couple of attempts I think I got something acceptable. It was barely visible under his wig and hood anyways, and at least now we know how to prepare for wearing them again at Anime North. Like, three people recognized us as our characters (though two of the three thought I was Azula, not Mai) so that's good I guess? In our relatively "comfortable" costumes, Sunday became designated shopping day while we picked up some things for ourselves, a couple of gifts for people at home, and too many (ha!) copies of Yaya Han's bodysuit pattern from the McCall's booth as requested by friends at home. The rest of the night was spent decompressing back at the hotel with some drinks, card games, Daredevil, and Game of Thrones. Monday (Day 4?) I had hoped that we could do some sightseeing before heading back home on Monday, but we were all pretty worn out from the weekend, and considering how long the drive to Chicago took, ultimately the decision was made just to drive back home. It was another long trip, though significantly shorter this time since we never got caught in traffic, construction, or headed the wrong way. Tried to turn roadkill-spotting into an actual game (especially in that apparent Michigan Kill-Zone), but nobody wanted to keep score. "No Stark, for the last time, we're not stopping at Lion's Den". And the last bit of geekery for the trip: getting Ragz hooked on Thrilling Adventure Hour on the ride home. It was pretty good driving entertainment ^_^ TL;DR
But tell us Mai Sheri, how did C2E2 measure up? I had fun at the con. It was nice to see my AmeriCon friends and meet some new ones. There were a lot of cool guests and panels and meet-ups going on. Lots of fun, positive cosplayers, and if the exchange rate wasn't so bad, I would have come home with a LOT of books and merch. Unfortunately, a lot of other factors decreased my enjoyment a bit, mainly our issue with the hotel's location. It was the same distance from the convention as our hotel was from NYCC when Ragz and I were last there, so I thought it would be fine, but the big difference was that the NYC hotel was close to countless restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores, etc, while South Loop had nothing. So concerns about food and travel meant that I didn't do as much socializing as I would have liked, and that also contributed to missing some meets and panels I would have liked to have seen. As did the cosplay contest.... I'm used to giving up a lot of my Saturday if I'm competing in (or staffing) the masquerade, but this one was definitely the biggest time-sink so far. I would like to return to C2E2 again... but I probably won't be back next year. Even though I had a great time at the con, I have a limited travel budget, and I think in 2016, I'd like to try somewhere new, once again ^_^ Another year, another Ad-Astra. My ninth time attending; their thirty-fourth year running! Which I really only mention because it makes me a little sad that so few of my convention-friends have even heard of Ad-Astra, and many have asked me if it's a new convention. Despite its small size and relatively low attendance, I like Ad-Astra. I got to know most of my good friends because of this con, I entered my first masquerade (and won my first award!) at Ad-Astra, and I've learned more in the cumulative cosplay panels I've attended there than anywhere else*. I really hope that more costumers start attending (or go back) in the coming years. So here's my quick con report, with a photo gallery below ^_^ Friday I dressed as Gabriel, for what is probably the final time. (I would like to keep cosplaying Gabe, especially with the renewed interested generated by the Constantine show, but the costume is old, doesn't fit anymore, and Gabe's wing stumps need to be entirely replaced after what I put them through) Most of the evening was spent hanging around the hotel lobby, waiting for Calamity and Kurumasha to arrive so we could check-in, and then waiting for Elemental to finish her Thermoplastics panel, then foraging for dinner. But then, then... it was time. Time to put Gabriel in a pool. Time for the photoshoot that I've been waiting to do since 2007 (no, seriously, look at this: me complaining that I missed my chance eight years ago), and which Elemental has wanted to shoot with me for almost as long. We were fortunate with our timing in that the kids cleared out just as the lighting was set up, and nobody kicked me out XD. Looks like Elemental got some great shots, Toast was assisting with lighting and grabbed my BTS pics, and I can't wait to post the new images when they're ready!!! Sunday was a little rough around the edges - not enough sleep plus check-out plus masquerade awards at 10am (are you getting that I'm not a morning person?) but I was eventually vertical and presentable by 11:00 and we even checked out around noon XD But the day still went well - I wore Kate Bishop again, and this time with the "right" makeup XD, won an Honourable Mention for Izabel ( the "You got guts, gurl" award XD) from the masquerade, got rid of some ribbon and buttons at the cosplay swap meet, had a nice lunch with friends, and attended the Cheats, Tricks, and Illusions for Costumes and Props and Mascots and Big Costumes panels, both of which had some very interesting little tidbits for me to take home for my own projects.THe whole day wrapped up with a long chat with Jen and Dawn about conventions, masquerades, and costuming in general. Saturday was unusual for me in that I actually wore two costumes in one day! Since I was planning to enter Izabel in the masquerade, but didn't want to deal with the makeup all day, I decided to just wear Kate Bishop for the first half of the day instead of just dressing "civilian". Kate"s "costume" is mostly street-clothes as it is so the plan worked out well... except that I couldn't put on my usual fashion makeup because it would mess with my facepaint for Izabel. So I feel like my face was very under-dressed for cosplay, especially when next to Kurumasha who was in full Hawkeye and looking awesome, Bro. Team Katie-Kate play-tested Exploding Kittens in the game room as part of International TableTop Day and I had a lot of fun with that. I didn't back the Kickstarter, but I'll very likely be picking up the game once it gets a major release. Big ups to our other players Jon, Jon, and Mike :) As green-room time approached I ran off to pink-ify myself for the masquerade, and this time I timed myself. Two hours to fully get into makeup and costume on Izabel. I might be able to shave that down a little with having my supplies better organized, but there are so many little fiddly things to take care of, that it won't make a big difference. Which means I'm going to be dealing with a hell of an early morning for the Cosplay Championships at C2E2. UUUGGHHHH. Anyways, the Ad-Astra masquerade ran well. Very small (only 11 entries including 2 "young fans") but with Dart, Jayuna, Kurumasha, Sarcasm-Hime, and I all at Master level I think we put on a good show for the audience at least. Even though there weren't many entries, the audience was still full! I ended up with footage of myself, Jayuna and Kurumasha, so I'll share them with they make it to YouTube. I was really hoping to hit up the dance or at least one room party after the masquerade, but instead er ended up hosting most of our friends in our hotel room just hanging out and chatting until finally a decision was made to get dinner around 11. No energy left for partying when you don't get back to the hotel until 1:30 and still have to remove all that pink makeup! * Costume Con might have beaten it, but I managed to attend almost no panels there so... oops. >_>
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