Any fellow San Diego Comic-Con attendee, or general con goer, will tell you the first question anyone asks when they say they attend is, “Do you dress up?” And for me, every time the answer is: “Nope! Love seeing it, but not my thing, I’m too busy at SDCC.”
Until this year, apparently.
Last Halloween, my friend did a very cool Red Robin costume (is it still cosplay on Halloween?) and my jealousy immediately pulled me into an unhinged spiral of spending all my time and money on building myself a cosplay for SDCC.
I chose none other than Red Hood, Jason Todd, my favorite Robin, the yang to Red Robin’s yin, my emotional support Outlaw, but as my version of him. Mostly to avoid sweating through a heavy leather jacket on the show floor. But by doing a fanon amalgamation of my favorite looks, I had the freedom to avoid accuracy paralysis, which I imagine is the plight of many cosplay creators, and I was definitely feeling it as I began.
A lot of my pieces were consistent with typical vigilante armor, but I went with a battle vest with motorcycle club patches instead of the comic-accurate brown leather jacket. I had guns that simply looked cool to me instead of trying to use realistic guns that would require the orange tip, because that simply wouldn’t work with my aesthetic. Ha!
The goal was to do a look I felt Jason would use as his vigilante uniform: a practical, gear-focused, somewhat “punk” Red Hood that fit into his neighborhood (hence the Park Row patch) but also be loaded with enough weapons to strike fear. It wasn’t as “punk” as I wanted but I tried to practice progress over perfection and listen to the seasoned cosplayers: wear comfortable shoes, don’t worry about it being perfect your first time, just get started. Always easier said than done, but I think I got there. I learned a lot about the practical side of making something to wear and especially actually wearing it all day.
But this isn’t a cosplay tutorial. I want to talk about my experience doing something completely different at the con as a seasoned con goer.
Firstly, I made a rookie mistake of not trying on and testing my entire look until I was in San Diego. My gun holsters broke immediately and pieces were falling off me left and right when I made our fearless leader, Kerry, take pictures. I couldn’t see anything through the helmet in the dark Omni hallway. It was literally a comedy of errors, with me bent over trying to find my fallen props while unknowingly kicking them further away and Kerry yelling at me to stop moving! So do as I say and not as I do; walk, sit, run, dance, and more in your full cosplay before you leave home.
But the feeling of walking into that massive show floor for the first time as my version of Red Hood was surreal. Having another Red Hood fist bump with a nod of mutual respect, or someone yelling “hey, Red Hood!” to get my attention and ask for a photo, or the non-cosplaying attendees who said a quick “You look awesome” as I passed by, made all the effort (and stifling heat of that helmet) worth it.
I met and talked with fellow Hood, JMD, about making our own armor and the elusive talent that is posing. Realizing you need to learn to pose in-character for pictures is not something you want the first time you’re asked, trust me.
In my short experience, attending this convention as a cosplayer is completely different from attending as a regular attendee. When I said I was too busy at cons to cosplay, I had no idea how accurate that was. I thought I’d solved it by containing my cosplay to one day. I picked Saturday because it was my lightest day of scheduled panels and offsites, but I still missed attending the Stuart Fails to Save the Universe offsite with my roommates, which turned out to be one of the best of the weekend, with the swag to match.
I didn’t attend the DC cosplay meetup on Friday because there simply wasn’t time to sit in Hall H all day and get ready for a meetup. Not that I could even sit in my costume without taking half my gear off so it didn’t break when I tried. I also decided not to use the restroom all day because I feared my barely-secured guns would fall into the toilet.
Anyway, I say this to illustrate something I didn’t understand before: a cosplayer’s day sometimes has to be more about the cosplay itself than the panels or events. It’s not as simple as dressing up while also doing all the con activities.
We all know SDCC is about prioritizing, whether it be choosing to cosplay or sit in a room all day, or one of the many other available activities. Maybe some of the young and brave can do both. I regret not attending the meetup because I missed time with my specific fandom community, but I don’t regret seeing The Vampire Lestat and Lanterns panels from the third row of Hall H.
The beauty of Comic-Con is the vastness. There’s always something you haven’t done yet, which is what keeps a con from going stale. Over the years, I’ve shifted from only a Ballroom 20 panel kid, to slowly figuring out offsites, to actually reading comics and spending hours sifting through long
boxes in the exhibit hall, to doing the whole Marvel in Hall H day (never again!), and now I’m exploring something I never expected to do at cons: cosplay.
The few interactions I had while in cosplay made me wish I’d had more group photos and more playful moments with the creative people behind these characters. It certainly made me want to do it again and the ideas are already percolating. Though it might force my typical con schedule to change, I look forward to new friends, perspectives, skills, and experiences I’ll no doubt gain.
Over a decade attending SDCC and I’m still finding new things to love and explore. What more could a nerd want?
And, at least now I have a new answer to “Do you dress up?”
Hell yes, and I’m doing it again.
