Halloween is my favorite holiday. You can dress up as whatever you want, become something or someone else, and look completely different than how you look otherwise. It is a very liberating holiday, more so sometimes for adults than for the kids trick-or-treating. It’s why we have costume parties all year long, because we don’t want to have to wait for a holiday to get dressed up.

In college it was tradition that the students trick-or-treated on the street that led down the hill from our campus toward town, and we did so proudly. These days, when I want to dress up, and there isn’t anything planned for Halloween and no costume parties in the works, I have cosplay to get me through the year.

Cosplay is short for ‘costume roleplay’ and is much more than just slipping into a character’s literal shoes but becoming that character to the best of your ability. You are transforming yourself into someone else, usually for performance or competition, and there is a lot of work that can go into every detail of your persona.


Cosplay is often more associated with fandoms in anime and video games, but can also encompass all roleplay costuming that you might see at Star Trek conventions, ComicCon, BlizzCon, and many other like venues.

Often, even if the con you are attending has specific types of media involved, there are no rules about who you can and cannot cosplay as. I have seen many a Joker costume at anime conventions since The Dark Knight came out, even though he doesn’t quite fit the theme.

There are also many types of ‘furry’ cosplay. Being a furry is when someone dresses up as an anthropomorphized version of an animal, or a character that is mostly human looking but has some animal characteristics, like cat ears and a tail. Anime offers plenty of these characters all on its own, but many people will simply cosplay as an anthro in a more general way, or as how they would see themselves if they were part animal.
 

Where to Cosplay

www.animecons.com is a great site to know, as it lists in order throughout the year all of the possible anime conventions you could attend. There are not only conventions almost every weekend throughout the year, but often more than one. And that is not even touching the surface of how many other types of cons are out there.

The largest and most well known anime conventions are Anime Expo in LA, with attendance numbers nearing 50,000, Otakon in Baltimore, the New York Anime Festival, A-Kon in Dallas, Sakura-Con in Seattle, Anime Boston, Anime Central in Chicago (which I will be attending), Anime North in Toronto, and FanimeCon in San Jose.

Of course those are the general anime cons. If you’re looking to focus on a specialty, Yaoi-Con is held every year in October near San Francisco. Yaoi refers to guy on guy relationships in anime, video games, and frankly, wherever else fangirls (usually fangirls) want to see it. That’s right, yaoi has its own con, and more followers and adoring fans than you might ever have wanted to know.

There are also conventions like Anthrocon in Pittsburgh, dedicated entirely to furries.

Most people know of Comic-Con, one of the largest events all year. Comic-Con goes far beyond just being about comics or people dressed as comic book characters, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that every con-goer should experience at least once.

BlizzCon in Anaheim, taken over by the World of Warcraft enthusiasts for the most part, is for all things made by Blizzard and turns out some very impressive costumes every year.

For a straight-up sci fi convention that covers many an awesome genre and topic there is DragonCon in Atlanta. I mentioned DragonCon in my “Why Feminists Suck or Why it’s Okay to Like Comic Book Women” post. They have a costume contest dedicated to one of my favorite female characters, Dawn, by Joseph Michael Linsner.

Star Trek Las Vegas boasts of being the largest Star Trek convention in the world, and has certainly lost none of its momentum and popularity, especially now that Star Trek has had an impressive reboot thanks to the new movie that came out this summer.

These conventions that I have mentioned are only some of the bigger ones, certainly not the only ones that are out there. I frequented Anime Detour in Minneapolis, MN from its opening year in 2004 until last year, and had a very good time at that smaller, more localized event. Check your area for what may be near you, but don’t count out the big cons or let them intimidate you. If you know what you’re doing with your cosplay, you may just have some of those cosplay pros making a run for their money.

What to Cosplay

I face this difficult question every year. What do I want to cosplay as? Most conventions won’t hold it against you if you cosplay as a character that doesn’t quite fit what the convention is about, but you definitely get extra points for actually fitting with the theme.

The real questions you need to ask yourself are 1) Who are some of my favorite characters, 2) Who are some characters I look like or could pass for, and 3) What is feasible for me to complete as a costume that will still look good.

Not everybody follows these rules, but if you want to win contests and look good all weekend long at your convention of choice then do everyone a favor and be conscientious about what characters best suit you.

For example, my first cosplay ever was the character Paine from Final Fantasy X-2. I loved her, loved her look, looked enough like her that I could make it work, and was able to get a costume done that I was proud of, especially as my first ever.

I am always thinking ahead of what costumes I want to work on. As soon as a convention is over, I am already thinking of possible future characters to portray. You should be the same to ensure you get a worthy costume finished in time. This is partly to make sure you are committed enough to a character to still want to be them after months of thinking on it, and to make sure you have enough time to throw everything together.

Some of my best cosplays to date were as Tifa from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Ivy from Soul Caliber II. A lot of work went into both, and not just from me.

Going to a convention does not mean that you have to dress up, and if you dress up that does not mean you have to compete in any contests. But it can be a lot of fun to strut your stuff and get some recognition for all your hard work.

You also don’t have to make every piece of your costume yourself. You will no doubt need to buy wigs anyway, and some things are just difficult to make, starting out or as a pro. Just make sure that if your costume was made by someone else, or most of it was made by someone else, that you give them credit or avoid entering in any craftsmanship competitions altogether. Doing so when you didn’t actually do the crafting is not cool.
 

How to Cosplay

Once you know who you want to cosplay as then you have to start working on the how. One easy way is to find a good wig (if your hair doesn’t look like the character, or the hair is unlike normal human capabilities) and then locate an already made costume at a cosplay store or on eBay. Many people do this, and there is nothing wrong with choosing this route. Just remember, you can enter competitions for performance as the character but not craftsmanship. You didn’t make your costume.

The next step down is to only make parts of your costume. Most people go this route, as a lot of pieces can be bought bit by bit, leaving only specific things to be crafted. For example, if your character wears heels, you don’t need to make heels, you can just buy some that are the right shape and color. If your character has a jacket that you see in a store, buy that jacket and add onto it what details may be missing.

Starting with basic pieces makes things much easier and can still get you an impressive result if you know how to alter things, or if the costume is a simpler design.

For Anime Central I am going to be cosplaying as two characters, one costume having been mostly made with a few bought pieces, and one that will be mostly bought pieces with only a few things made. It’s about choosing which things you are capable of creating yourself and recognizing which pieces can be bought as-is, and maybe altered, or maybe left just as they are.

The last option is to make the entire costume yourself. Sometimes this is the only way to go to get the results you really want.

Some good friends of mine that I have been cosplaying with for years now are endeavoring to make a mech suit from Zone of the Enders, Jehuty.

Some people work with actual fiberglass for these kinds of costumes, some get creative with cardboard, there is the malleable plastic WonderFlex, thin Styrene, and many other options. The hard thing is taking your material of choice and making it look good.

Do not take on more than you can handle. Professionals spend a lot of time working their way up to being able to create costumes as complex as Jehuty. You can still win contests with simple fabric work, but if you are capable of going to such lengths, it can be worth the extra time.
 

Making Money from Cosplay

Usually, you’re not going to be able to make any kind of living off of being in cosplay competitions, but there are some lucky individuals who have managed to make a supplement to their careers out of going to conventions. These people make enough of a name for themselves that they are invited to cons to speak, perform, you name it.

But that’s not what I’m talking about when I say you can make money from cosplay. I’m talking about making and selling costumes. There are many cosplay sites out there where you can commission a costume made specifically for you, and great sites like Cosplay.com that can give you ideas. The same wonderful girls who made my wedding boots, Setsuna and Haruka’s Anime Shoppe, also made my Tifa costume. These days I prefer to make things myself or work on them with friends, but I am not ashamed to admit that I did buy a full costume once.

My good friend AtalantaDreamWeaver has a DeviantArt page dedicated to her art and cosplay work. Besides cosplaying herself each year, she has also been taking on cosplay commissions.

It is a lot of extra work, but if you can get enough of a following that people will be interested in what you can create, it can be very lucrative too.

The trick is in knowing what you are capable of making, setting reasonable prices that are competitive to other sites but that won’t wreck your budget when you have to buy supplies, and making sure you are strict with your rules. If you say you need half of the money upfront, make sure you get it before you start anything on a costume.

eBay is also a great place to sell costumes as well as buy them. Maybe you are good at making weapons, or armor, or a specific type of costume. It doesn’t hurt to have an eBay store to help get your name and products out there.

Now, I’m not saying that making cosplay is a get-rich idea here, but if you’re good enough, smart about how you handle your business, and get enough regular commissions, it can earn you some extra cash that just might pay for your next convention fee.

Having Fun with Cosplay

The number one thing about cosplay is having fun with it. Whether you make your costume, buy it, do a little of both, or maybe just sell pieces and watch others shine in your place, a lot of fun can be had in the world of becoming someone else for a day.

Competitions can be fun too, even if they are not for everyone. There are always cosplay masquerades and other ways of showing off your talents at cons, like the occasional Anime Idol that allows you to showcase your vocal talents.

But regardless of how you plan to enjoy your cosplay experience, please cosplay as a character that means something to you, cosplay as someone you look good as, cosplay in a costume you spent a good amount of time making just right or had someone talented make for you, and you can’t go wrong.

If you want to compete, do it, but don’t feel pressured. Sometimes just walking the halls can be a great ego boost when tons of other con-goers are running up to you wanting your picture.

I love cosplaying and I hope I never stop getting the opportunity to do it. Why should Halloween come only once a year? If you have the money and time to hit more than one convention then it can be Halloween every weekend.

Happy costuming, folks. I hope to see some of you at ACen next year.

It’s time for another series premiere, and that’s StarGate Universe starting Friday night. For my blog on Friday, in honor of SGU, I’ll be taking a look back through the wonderful world of StarGate, including the movie, SG-1, Atlantis, and the new series about to begin.

Thanks for tuning in.

Images taken from:
http://m8-2.com/community/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=698:stargate-universe&catid=37&Itemid=139
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25451973&page=5
http://www.epicfunnypictures.com/photograph/best-japanese-cosplay/
http://adella.deviantart.com/art/Midgar-Aerith-Costume-40140085
http://2darkpark.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=401965
http://www.cosplay.com/photo/1592099/

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