"I ain't nobodies bitch." - COSPLAY EDITION
- Julie ( @pandoricaa via Twitter )
Terror Con to me is what dreams are made of. I'm a huge nerd for horror films. Favorite movie of all time is Nightmare on Elm Street. So I knew right away that I would feel right at home in this convention setting. The guest list was pretty much a who's who of horror, rock and wrestling. Names I remember watching and listening to. If I had robbed a bank? I'd have met more than just one person but my goal for the day was Lita Ford (spoiler alert: totally met her and she was awesome.)
Back to the cosplaying. I knew Terror Con would require a horror based cosplay and it just so happened that my friend Roxy and I were planning on doing a Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon joint cosplay at some point. This was the perfect place to do that. Roxy is a pretty easy to fit person as far as clothing goes because she's a small person. I'm a person who has to wear a certain size shirt for specific things, so my biggest problem was finding a shirt to work for this cosplay. I had purchased some pants at JC Penney that worked pretty damn well for what I needed and were also comfortable as hell, so I was happy about that.
My actual first port in the cosplay journey had started at what was one of the things that's most recognizable about Daryl Dixon and that was the vest with the angel wings. The vest was an easy find and surprisingly cheap for genuine leather. eBay can really be your friend sometimes. I already knew that I didn't want to get some patches and just iron them onto the back and I didn't want the cheap Halloween version of Daryl's vest. eBay assisted me with the vest part, but the wings would be the challenge. I wound up finding an old white pillow case set that wasn't too pearly white. It had some age to it. After cutting it in half, I had to figure out how I was going to actually make the detail in the wings themselves. Using a mechanical pencil and the aid of a photo of the back of the vest, I was able to sketch out some of the details.
After I did that, I wound up cutting out the wings. Not on the drawn lines but about a half inch or so away from it.
In retrospect, I should have waited on the cutting it out part because I had a next step that would have been much easier given a whole sheet of fabric to hold on to. I could have just colored over the lines with a sharpie but to give it a look of it being patch-like, I embroidered the lines that I drew onto it. I used an embroidery hoop and some embroidery floss, which helped a great deal because regular thread is a pain in the ass. This process of doing both wings took me about a week and a half after stabbing myself several times. But it was far more affordable in the long run. The only thing I should have taken stock in were band aids.
It took about two weeks to finish it all together and it turned out to be fairly decent for something I made. Attaching the wings on the back was basically a matter of sewing the edging onto it because liquid stitch and I hate one another apparently.
I ended up dropping about fifteen bucks on a shirt that I had to rip the sleeves off of for this cosplay and I almost regret it. But it worked out in my favor anyway because it made the costume look pretty awesome as far as getting things together went.
The day finally came for Terror Con and I threw everything together early in the morning and borrowed a crossbow because I don't own one and probably will never get a chance to because those things are damn expensive. By 8:30, we were out and rolling.... and Rick and Daryl had a third on board!
That's right. Super villain and one eyed bad ass, The Governor came along for the ride.
My favorite thing about going to conventions that aren't nearly as huge as Wizard World or SDCC is that it's not as packed. Especially when it's a small convention getting on it's feet. Terror Con was a first and it's the sister show to Rhode Island Comic Con (another amazing con that Roxy and I will be returning to later this year) and it had great promise. I love to see everything atmosphere-wise and I also enjoy seeing all of the creative cosplays out there. Being a horror convention, there was definitely a blood and guts quota to make.
From stepping into the convention hall alone, we saw at least three Jason Voorhees cosplayers and they seemed to be migrating all together, which was creepy and awesome all at once (fun fact: Kane Hodder, who is known for his work as Jason, was at this event!) There was also a really well done Freddy Krueger who would prove to be entertaining when he stopped and stared at us before calling us creepy and walking away. There was also a personal favorite of mine: Fred!Pool (Deadpool dressed as Freddy Krueger. GOLDEN!)
We started to make our rounds like we typically do and were sucked into a booth for spray blood. They had two models there who were promoting the product and a photo shoot set up for people. We ended up getting one done and got it half off on the price because we're awesome apparently. After ditching the zombie girls and spray blood booth once we got our photos, we enjoyed most of the convention and were stopped several times for photos with people or photos of us.
One hilarious moment in what I believe was the Artist Alley came at the expense of Erland (or Governor). One of the guys at a table had yelled out, "Ey! It's the Governor! .... You're a DICK! I'm glad you died." Erland was a good sport about it and we all got a good laugh. This would happen one or two more times during the convention.
I had meant to get more photos myself, but it's a struggle to carry around a bulky camera and a crossbow all at once. Thankfully Roxy got a few fun shots and that helped aid my gallery on my Facebook since I'm one of those who like photos from events. I print the shit out of everything.
A great part of why we were there at this convention was being able to take in some childhood favorites. Musically that would come in the form of Stephen Pearcy (Ratt), Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) Lita Ford (The Runaways, and her solo work) and Cherie Currie (The Runaways). Roxy and I grew up on this stuff and it was a great honor to be even in the same air space as these people. We both knew we'd have to get a photo with Lita Ford and we did just that. Her handler that day was so pleasant and easy to deal with and the lady herself was so wonderful, charming and everything I hoped for and more. It was a surreal moment to be able to meet the Queen of Metal and it's going to stick with me forever.
I think that encases my journey to and through Terror Con. It's definitely a convention I will be attending again in the future if they keep up the great momentum with their amazing booking and wonderful staff. The atmosphere was amazing and every time I deal with a convention in the area, it's like being home.
Thanks to Ashley for letting me do this spot here!
No comments:
Post a Comment