Emma Frost | NerdGirl Fashion

So here are the last couple of days of Comic Con. I have to say for me the best part of all cons are the panels. I can sit and listen to these talks for hours. Even though they’re pretty much the same questions and answers over and over again. I love hearing about the process that actors have taken to discover their characters. Or listening to other cosplayers talk about how they make their costumes. One great tip I heard was when you’re looking to making something with fun foam or any sort of thin foam one way to get a raised texture is to use puffy paint.

This is fun foam. It comes in a sheet about the size of a piece of paper. Great for making gauntlets and other semi-sterdy light weight costume details.

Once it’s hard and you paint over it it’ll look all the same. The New York Cosplay Network had a great panel where they shared a lot of tips and tricks they use to make their amazing costumes.

The New York Cosplay Network outside their booth.

I have not started to really go to enough panels at cons where I’ve started to take a preference in moderators. They can really make or break a panel. I find this is especially true when you don’t have a panelist that really knows how to handle the crowd, whether they are new to panels or there is a really really large crowd and it’s just hard to be a big enough personality to stop the truly annoying and rambling fans that are inevitably going to ask a question. There is one particularly awesome modirator that has been in Philly the last couple of years, Jarrett Crippen.

He won the second season of Who Wants to be a Super Hero? He will cut a fan off (which I think is just wonderful), tell a funny story while you’re all sitting around waiting for the panelist to arrive, lets the panel go straight to the fans and their questions, and makes sure things end on time, which is good because other people need the room in about 10 minutes and I don’t want my next panel to start late so it’s good that we are all considerate of each other and their interests.

This year the convention’s focus was a little different than last years. Last year is was celebrity packed. They had all five Star Trek captains, and what a disaster that panel was. People were so star struck they asked the worst questions that had nothing to do with Star Trek. It has been a year and I’m still mad. What an excellent opportunity that was squandered. Thor was there and most of the questions were teenage and 20-something women asking him for a hug, which is pretty creepy when you think about it. This year there were panels by scholars of the kind of pop culture I love. Not all of them are great, some are ok, and some when I see them coming I want to pull my hair out and run. But it is nice to have a different view point each year. It keeps things fresh.

Here are some of the pictures I took from the second two days of comic con.