Category: Conventions

Conventions

Emerald City Comic Con 2018

kpodelnyk

This past weekend I attended Emerald City Comic Con.

I should preface this post by saying that I adore ECCC – I don’t attend a lot of conventions and ECCC is absolutely, positively my favorite huge convention.  And, if I’m being completely honest (which is definitely my thing), I have a hard time wrapping my head around the size and scope of ECCC.  It’s completely overwhelming in a really really good way.

So, this past weekend I attended Emerald City Comic Con.  I considered this convention a “working convention” – I really wanted to get out and show some of the costumes I’ve made and showcase the cosplay that I’ve as-of-late been pouring my blood, sweat and tears into: the queen xenomorph.

I expected to sacrifice my time to costume changes and maintenance.  I expected to spend my days dealing with cosplay malfunctions and discomfort.  What I didn’t expect was the AMAZING experience I had connecting with my fans and those I’m a fan of.

So, this blows my mind: I have fans.

I can’t even begin to express the depth of my gratitude and admiration to the people who approached and chatted with me.  The experience was absolutely humbling – and I was awestruck by the kindness of those supporting me from afar. Being able to talk to people who not only recognized me from Rose City Comic Con, but also had kind words to share — the experience was absolutely life changing.

On the flip side, I had a chance to meet some of the amazing cosplayers that I seriously admire.

Steven of SKSProps was so incredibly kind.  He let me talk his ear off for a full twenty minutes about costume building, his experience drawing the Wasteland Alice art and anything else that popped into my overactive imagination.

Bill and Brittany Doran from Punished Props found me to take a picture in my queen xenomorph costume.  I even met Rob Doran and had a great time bonding over our mutual experience as chemistry teachers.

I had a chance to catch up with Nick from Modulus Props, Eric from Coregeek Creations, Thomas from Rawrbomb and Alan from Kato’s Cosplay.  I chatted with Brad from BHCosplay Scott from Wildekarde and Aliya from HuntressCraftandCosplay. And there were so many other cosplayers I had the opportunity and privilege to talk to – IT WAS AMAZEBALLS!!!

In addition to the seriously amazing networking, I had the chance to wear the queen xenomorph in public and on stage.

I’ve never worn a costume like the queen xenomorph before.  I knew going into the convention that I would need to take frequent breaks, I was going to sweat (a lot) and she wasn’t a costume I could wear all day.  Honestly, I experienced a ton of anxiety around the whole convention. Before I show any costume (for any reason) I always get super nervous. Privately, in my hotel room, I completely melt down ahead of time.  It’s my ritual. I’m a really concrete, linear type person and creative stuff comes with a lot of “what ifs?” that I love, but also set me on edge.

What if people don’t like the costume?

What if people laugh and point?

Or worse, what if people think my cosplay is bad?

These are the “what ifs” that terrify me most – which, in my mind, is actually pretty human.

But then, at the end of pre-judging, Ivy Doomkitty took a selfie with me.  It was marvelous. And when I walked outside to get to the convention building, I was mobbed by picture requests and astonished gasps and people stopping to stare.  I even stopped traffic for a little while.

When I wasn’t looking, someone gave me a pin that read “Achievement Unlocked.”

The costume itself wasn’t all that uncomfortable to wear and my visibility was surprisingly good so I had a great time posing with kids and cosplayers alike.  It took me over an hour to walk to the ECCC sign in the main convention hall and another hour to walk back to the elevator – so many picture requests!

And the truth is: the experience was a dream come true.  I had so much fun interacting with people on the convention floor and again on stage that night.  With the queen xenomorph, I set out to do something that I had never done before and improve my performance/stage presence.  I think I accomplished my goals – but best of all, I had a chance to interact with so many other attendees and cosplayers.

I felt and continue to feel such deep gratitude.

The queen xenomorph was the most complicated, complex costume I’ve ever made.  I was so scared to wear it in public, but I’m so grateful that I pushed past my anxiety and fears – the experience inspires me to keep cosplaying and to continue to seek out challenge in my future project.  So, stay tuned.💗

 

Conventions

Rose City Comic Con 2017

kpodelnyk

Cosplay entered my life five years ago and today our relationship is healthy and strong.

And slightly co-dependent.

And a little obsessive.

The point being, I entered the cosplay world tentatively in 2012, but now I feel confident declaring that I’m seasoned cosplayer.  2017 is gonna be my break out year!  Or not.  I’m okay with either outcome.

I don’t cosplay professionally – and I’m not sure I ever will.  My personality doesn’t lend itself well to financial risk-taking, so I probably won’t be quitting my day job any time soon.  But cosplay is something I really love to do in my free time, and I’m happy donating every spare moment to my projects.

I’m building some back story here before I dive into the good stuff – the RCCC experience – to give a sense of the person that I metaphorically “bring to the table.”  And I’m unashamed to admit that my opinion and experience are biased, because I love cosplay and the community of cosplayers that spend their precious hours laboring over projects of love.

So, Rose City Comic Con was an important convention for me for a couple of stand-out reasons:

  1. I cosplayed for the first time at RCCC in 2013 – It’s my home base!
  2. I have enough friends and emotional safety nets nearby Portland that I feel comfortable taking risks – the artistic kind, at the very least.

To me, cosplay is about celebration and creation.  I select characters that I admire, or speak to me in some way – folks I’d like to meet in real life and have a conversation with over a burger.  But there’s also the artistic aspect of cosplay.  I like to imagine that I’m tasked with bringing a character to life, and it’s my job to interpret that character in a way that honors the work of the actual artists, actors and writers who make a character living on screen.

For RCCC, I decided I wanted to cosplay Heimdall.  I had some help in making this choice (thanks mom!), but ultimately there were some things that really drew my attention to Heimdall:

  • In the Thor franchise, Heimdall is conveyed as quiet, thoughtful, calculating, observant and strong.  He’s complicated.  I like that.  He’s also not just a front line grunt, he’s an unstoppable force – always a step ahead and always a level stronger.  I think this makes his character interesting.
  • Heimdall is rarely cosplayed.  This could be because Idris Elba plays Heimdall in the movies (and as far as I’m concerned, he is a god amongst humans) or it could be because his recognizable character is passed over for the more popular kids – Thor and Loki.

So, let me be clear here: I’m not Idris Elba.  Not. Even. Close.

If Idris Elba was the Statue of Liberty, I’d be a kindergartner’s clay coffee mug.

We are very different people.  And I’m not speaking about size or skin color or gender – the physical traits that are obvious – I’m talking about branding.  No one calls me calculating, or powerful, or unstoppable for that matter.  Sometimes, when I sneeze, I startle my cats, but that’s about as intimidating as I get.

It turns out, the fact that Heimdall and Idris Elba are so different from me actually attracted me to the cosplay more.  I felt challenged to scale the character to a petite female form, while showcasing the strength and pride of Heimdall.

This isn’t a tutorial.  Those will come…eventually.  So, I’m not going to go into great length about how I built my cosplay.  Instead, I’ll share this: my vision for my costume was always crystal clear and present in my mind’s eye.  I wanted my Heimdall cosplay to be magnificent.  Clean lines.  Solid pieces.  Detailing that keeps the eye busy for a solid five minutes.  Most importantly, I wanted my work to honor the original concept of Heimdall and the integrity Idris Elba brings to the character.

With any build, there are pieces you like and there are pieces that you put on your list to “revisit.”  When I walked into the Rose City Comic Con in my cosplay, I worried that my pieces in need of “revisiting” would overshadow the whole build.

I was wrong.

And I was swamped.  With requests.  For pictures.  Of me.

The reaction was both overwhelming and flattering.  People loved the cosplay!  In retrospect, I think what surprised people most was that I took a character who was hard to imagine past Idris Elba, and I adapted it to me.  Short, fluffy Kristy.  There were some things I had to give up – like his heavy golden chain mail.  But there were other things that I added – celtic knot work across the vambraces and sabatons.  Subtle details like embroidery and quilted sleeves in exchange for heavy leather garments.

This is the part I really want to talk about though.  As I worked my way across the convention floor, from photo request to photo request, my cosplay heroes approached me about my work.

Eric Jones, from Coregeek Creations, came to talk to me about my sword.

Nick Kettman, from Modulus Props, let me chat his ear off about his samurai storm trooper.

I met Murray from Foam Friction and Brad Hallock from BHCosplay and they invited me to RenCon!

To have the major players in cosplay take time out of their convention to strike up a conversation was amazeballs.  I’m still riding the high.

Fangirl done.

Kinda.

What resonates with me most, though, is that my vision struck a chord with people.  The vision I worked tirelessly to achieve caught the attention of my community.  And that’s some pretty heady stuff.

I’ve never been one to network, but the experience of reaching out and actually making contact with the people I admire inspires me to try again.  There are a number of amazing cosplayers whom I’d love to pick their brains.  And this whole experience has me wondering about what might happen next time.

Cause’ RCCC makes me want to build again.  And I’m hopeful to get an even bigger reaction with my next project.