Beyond the Page #1: The Art of Cosplay

		Written by Janea on Oct 31, 2012 \| 2 comments \| Forum Discussion
		Filed under: Fantasy News, General News, Op-ed Articles

I don’t know about you, but my obsession with all things SFF goes way beyond my reading material. I play games, watch movies and TV shows, go to cons, and sometimes even dress up in strange outfits. Since I know I’m not alone in this, I thought I’d start a new column here at The Ranting Dragon called Beyond the Page, all about the geeky things we do besides reading nigh incessantly.

It’s Halloween, and here in the US lots of people celebrate by dressing up in strange outfits. It’s like a whole holiday dedicated to celebrating how geeky you are. Trick-or-treating (known as guising or souling in the UK) has been a major part of US culture since the 1950s, just in time for the Silver Age of comics ushered in by Marvel. I’m going to guess that comic book characters like Superman and Batman were just as popular then as now, and that there were some people who were rather disappointed that they spent all this time on these costumes and only got to wear them once a year!

At some point, these people started showing up at the World Science Fiction Convention in their costumes, and in 1984 they were seen by Nobuyuki Takahashi of Studio Hard at the Los Angeles Worldcon. Takahashi coined the term ‘cosplay’ when he returned to Japan, naming an entire sub-culture and spreading it. Today, cosplayers are a well-known phenomenon at just about any type of convention, and are even starting to get media attention during events like San Diego Comic Con. You may even have seen a few, either in person or online. Just what is this all about, and how can you get in on the fun?

L from Death Note

First, cosplaying is more than just a fancy costume. It’s about the portrayal of a character right down to speech patterns and mannerisms. Different cosplayers will take this to different levels. Some will acknowledge that they are playing a role while in that role, others won’t. How far you go is completely up to you, but I would advise at least making an attempt at the role playing. It can turn a cosplay with an average costume into something truly special to see.

Your cosplay doesn’t have to be something elaborate, either. Don’t have the skills or the budget for an Iron Man Suit just yet? No worries. Take a look: to the right is a friend of mine who does magnificent cosplay. Right now she’s dressed as L, a major male character from the manga Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba. She’s nailed the look from head to toe with a wig, simple white shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The hardest bits are her two props, the chain and the notebook. No sewing or metal working skills were required! On that note, places like thrift stores and army surplus stores (also known as PX stores) are great resources for weird or hard to find things, or just clothes that you can practice modifying without spending a lot of money to do so.

One thing my friend has done, but which is not completely necessary, is to work with her natural looks rather than against them. Obviously, she’s only done this to a point as she’s gender bending. Just keep in mind that if you want to play against your natural form, you’ll have to do a lot of make-up, wigs, and other things to really look like a certain character. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with doing a twist on a well-known character: one of my favorites from the cons I’ve attended were a group of girls who did burlesque-style Batman villains. Just be aware of what you want to do and what it’s going to take to get there.

Once you have a cosplay, don’t be afraid to share! You’ll be a magnet for other fans of that character, and there are endless competitions (known as Masquerades) to enter and win. Most of all, there are lots of geeky friends to be made, and this is a surefire way to find them.

If you did a cosplay, what character would you do? Or, what character have you done and what advice for newbies do you have?

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Bibliotropic

I love seeing people do cosplay. My roommate loves doing costumes, as does a friend of mine on Facebook, and I love seeing the stuff they come up with. And more than half the time they either get their costume pieces at thrift stores or handmake the items that are less easy to find, so there’s a real element of originality about them.

Myself, I kind of wish that I did more cosplay. It isn’t that I have no drive to. I just have too many issues with my body, and have seen way too many people express mocking and disgust at overweight people who dress in character, and I don’t fancy putting myself through that. Thus, no cosplay for me, at least not for the time being. Which is a shame, because there are definitely a few characters I’d like to spend a day as.

http://merssong.blogspot.com/ Janea S

That’s really sad that you’ve seen people mock other people’s cosplays because of body build. For me, the key is always in the execution. If you know that your body doesn’t meet the exact body type of the character you want to do, why not do something different from the norm with the character? You’re more likely to get “oh, that’s a cool idea!” rather than nasty comments. (And anyone who makes nasty, shallow comments isn’t worth listening to anyway.)