![]() I don't think I'm trying to create a false equivalency between bullying and sexual harassment, seeing as how both cover the same territory of unwanted intimidation. Of course making fun of a bunch of fat guys isn't the same thing as sexual harassment, except it kind of is. We don't know who this guy was because Caruso won't say she told the Daily Dot website she'd rather not name the organization she was interviewed by because "they would get a lot of publicity/youtube views/site hits." But this wasn't the first time someone from the mainstream media decided to descend upon NYCC to have a little "fun" at the expense of cosplayers, like last year when Men's Fitness ran a piece called "NY Comic Con: Flabby Versions of Your Favorite Superheroes", subtitled "Ever wonder what Batman would look like fat? Read on, true believer!" (see " Confessions of a Comic Book Guy-Welcome Back, Miranda Mercury"). But rest assured it was definitely demeaning and inappropriate. You can find out exactly what was said easily enough, as the story has gotten a certain amount of traction online on sites ranging from Jezebel to Think Progress to the UK's The Daily Mail. Artist and professional designer Mandy Caruso, while dressed as Marvel's Black Cat, was interviewed by someone who said they were filming a feature on fans for their video channel but was more interested in her measurements. So What Can We Do About It?" by Rebecca Pahle on The Mary Sue website I first read about the incident. It was in the piece "Black Cat Cosplayer Draws Attention to Comic Con Sexual Harassment. And they do it, mostly, for fun.īut there always someone who wants to have fun at someone else's expense. There's no cosplaying reality show (not yet, anyway though to me it seems like the Syfy Channel is missing a sure bet), no big cash prize,yet they spend enormous amounts of time, energy and money on their costumes. But in the last decade the level of quality of the costumes has just been amazing and, given the demographics of comic book fans, equally amazing is it's now increasingly the province of women. I was only there five minutes before (a) a teenager asked me whether I was a boy or a girl and (b) a younger kid ripped my tail off.Īs someone who saw his share of comic book convention costume parades I'm constantly amazed at just how good American cosplay has gotten over the years I never imagined we would ever be able to compete with our otaku cousins in Japan. Wanting to help the cause I decided to make an unscheduled appearance at a Muscular Dystrophy Carnival being held in a neighbor's back yard. Here's a real confession for you when I was twelve I loved the comic strip Peanuts and my mother, God rest her soul, made me a Snoopy costume-the nose was a Clorox bottle. I genuinely admire people who cosplay but don't participate myself due to the one and only time I dressed up as kid outside of Halloween. It dealt primarily with the preparations the New York Cosplay Network went through leading up to New York Comic Con and offered such lightweight observations as "the convention offers people the chance to be a celebrity for a day " and "theirs is an expensive devotion, costing hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars a year." Though the piece does gets points for actually acknowledging while "costume play" is a Japanese phenomenon the practice actually evolved from the costume parades at American science fiction conventions. There was recently a piece on the subject in the New York Times "Superheroes, Stitched Together in Spandex" by Bianca Consunji. I used to think that was only at the big East and West Coast ones but there were cosplayers aplenty at last month's Cincinnati Comic Expo. This week, Bennett talks about a dark side of cosplay at cons.Ĭosplay has become a staple of American comic book conventions. So far we have Anime, Horror, Doctor Who, Power Rangers, Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Gaming, Comics, Toys and Comics, Furry, Harry Potter, Celebrity, Supernatural, Steampunk, and more to come.Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. We have been slowly adding genres to the conventions. Events are listed as Cancelled if the event finds they can not open their doors within two months of the event, unless they have a new date. Any conventions that do not have an upcoming date will get ‘TBA’. There MUST be a website and be cosplay friendly or we will not include them. If you have a convention that is not listed, please send them to put them in the comments and we will include them. The convention list hosted is considered the industry standard… – Heidi MacDonald, editor of Comics Beat, Sept. ![]() ![]() The cosplay convention list is sortable, searchable and continually growing, so be sure to tune in each month to catch the latest updates.
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