I have a question

So I’ve been thinking about this for a while, since Baltimore Comic Con to be exact.  I saw a young woman cosplaying as Storm from the X-Men.  But she was white.  It tool a second for me to go, oh she’s Storm.  I think most people are used to cosplayers playing characters that are white and the cosplayer is not white, but is it acceptable for it to go the other way?  My brother really likes Cyborg and would love to take on that costume as a challenge.    But my brother is a ginger(pale white skin and bright red hair) and isn’t sure if that would be ok for him to make and then dress up as.  We were talking about this for a while and neither one of us could answer the question.  All we could come up with was we don’t know.  So, I’m posing the question to the universe, since it’s totally cool for a  character say to go from white to black (Nick Fury, Perry White) or for a cosplayer of color to cosplay a white character, such as Jay Justice, or Yaya Han, but is it ok for a white cosplayer to cosplay a black character such as Storm or Cyborg?

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Baltimore Comic Con Pictures

At BCC I went as Powergirl and my brother went as Death Stroke.  Here are some of the awesome cosplayers we saw there.  All of the people we met there were super friendly and the floor was one of my favorites.  My only real criticism was that there weren’t enough panels and even more importantly they weren’t strategically placed panels.  It may not have been the best plan to put artist panels against artist panels, and comic book industry panels against other comic book industry panels.  But the atmosphere was awesome, and for me that can be even more important.  Nice people attending and running these shows is the number 1 thing for me.  Making friends and having a great time can make up for the lack of somethings that I want.

TeenTitans vs. Death Stroke.
These kids came out of no where to attack my brother. That was so perfect. Everyone was in character. You can see the smiles on the titans’ faces.

Even The Avengers eventually start to age

I did my best to take as many pictures with as many Supergirls as I could. It just made me happy.

Someone lost their Blossom, I hope she found her Trainer.

These are some great XMen but to be honest I’m not sure which XMen they are.

Darth’s costume lit up and flashed. So much joy.

Wonder Woman and Black Canary. I like that they took their costumes from the Bombshell Toy Line.

There are so many costumes where I stop for a second and think people are doing Xena and Gabby that I get so excited when it really is Xena and Gabby

Link, a staple at every Con

This Kid is the GREATEST cosplayer alive. He was so excited to be the Doctor and couldn’t be more into everything he saw. Awesome job Doctor.

His mustache was drawn on pretty well, it took a few seconds to realize it was just marker.

T I found some more Supergirls, and Lobo.

I have to find Static Shock at every Convention, it isn’t really a convention without him.

Since this was the convention where everyone was talking about Batwoman it’s good to know she was already there taking care of herself.

Tron! I think it’s super awesome when people’s costumes light up.

There were a whole bunch of different Wonder Women at BCC, and they all came with a different cool way to play her

Raven started yelling at Death Stroke across the lobby. It was a magical moment.

I love her utility belt.

My favorite of all the Supergirls I found that weekend

Now this last picture is my personal favorite.  See I did something dumb, I forgot to take a picture of me and my brother together.  He just started college too, so I can’t just bug him at home to take a picture with me.  I searched far and wide, and I found this.

 

  So, thanks Tumblr.

Days 3 and 4

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.

John Barrowman I love his super hero pajama pants.

They had my favorite pose of the convention.

Raven

Emma Frost and Kitty Pride- the early years

Charisma Carpenter

Jewel Staite

Gina Torres

Adam Baldwin

Summer Glau

 

Tattoos

I can’t believe I haven’t talked about nerdy tattoos yet.  I have mixed feelings about tattoos.  I love them on other people.  I think they are so cool and interesting.  Except face tattoos.  I also hate face cakes, the ones with the edible pictures on them, so maybe it’s just a face thing.  I really want to get one in theory but I’m terrified of needles.  I also know for me I would probably get bored with the design.  When I get a manicure I’ve spent too much money on it to pick it off and change the color but after a certain point that’s all I want to do.  I can’t imagine putting something on my body I can’t change.