Tag: cosplay

Mikaela’s Emerald City Comic-Con 2019 Recap – Thursday

by Mikaela Maxwell

This year marks my second Emerald City Comic-Con (ECCC), my first repeat con, and my fourth total convention… So at this point I have enough experience to be so stoked, and to anticipate high levels of exhaustion, but am still naive enough to be totally blown away and overwhelmed by the experience. It’s a pretty good place to be, and I feel pretty danged lucky to be living this life right about now.

Our ECCC trip started early this morning when we rolled our tired butts outta bed to get on the road and make it to Seattle for a soft ten. Derek did the driving, Jake held it down in the back seat, and I napped on and off… did I mention how lucky I am?! What a dream! Once we were settled into our AirBnb (which had the cutest freaking Pug in the yard) we made our way to the convention centre. We easily made our way in and were surprised at how freaking chill it is! It turns out that Thursday is the best day for avoiding crowds! Last year I was in school and had to rush down after class on Friday just to get a couple of days in, but this year we get to do the whole four days, and I’m hoping that we will be able to go on the first day every time we do anything ever, because it is so slow and relaxed, the perfect way to start a convention!

We found our way to the main floor and were immediately swept up into a game of Bakugan. I had never heard of it before, but apparently they were around in the early 2000’s and are making a comeback. It was legit a lot of fun, mostly because you get to play with these little plastic creatures that roll up into balls and then explode and dictate what happens that turn! It’s also a card game, which I had an easier time getting on board with since I have become an avid player of Keyforge: Call of the Archons! Because it was such a chill day I was lucky to have one of the employee guys at my side helping me figure out what to do for most of the game, which was suuuper helpful. Man, I wish I could just have an expert at my side answering my questions for all of life’s tasks! I ended up with a surprise win too which was a real thrill, and I thoroughly enjoyed rubbing it in Derek’s face!

The Bakugan guys asked if we would like to join a tournament which I immediately said no to, and in turn immediately regretted when we heard a roar of excitement go up from the crowd and watched two people step into a caged ring with a table in it to commence the tourney! It was a pretty awesome spectacle to watch all this people screaming and yelling about Bakugan Brawls as this guys battled. It was super fun even to just watch!

Yeah, Derek really wants to pick it up now…

After this we decided to just explore the main show floor. I figured this would be a great day to do it as there wasn’t 4,000,000 people in the place. Turns out even without the crowds we did not make it through one whole floor before we had to call it a day, I was flabbergasted. However I thoroughly enjoyed feeling un-rushed and just pausing to look at whatever struck our interest.

For the first time I went out of my way to grab something from the convention’s specific merchandise booth. I am a huge Stranger Things fan and this year ECCC will be hosting some of the Stranger Things cast, and there is an ECCC exclusive cover for the first edition of the Stranger Things comic. I was super anxious about getting a copy of the comic before they ran out so I made us take a pit stop to grab it part way through the day. I am so friggin excited about it, and am totally gonna frame it to display in our house. It’s also kinda poetic, since at the first convention I ever went to (Fan Expo Vancouver a few years back) one of the most special things I bought was a comic with a commissioned cover where the artist drew a classic Eleven from Stranger Things (I also made Derek an epic Eleven halloween costume, so I might be a bit of a fan!)

Such a cool cover!

We continued to walk around, looking at comics, games, art, and spending way to much time reading the back of so many amazing looking books. I ended up buying myself a book, Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller, but it was sooo hard to choose! There was a lady with red hair, who’s name I wish I knew so I could give her internet props right here, at the Harper-Collins booth who literally knew sooo much about every book and was so helpful and informative, and I can’t wait to start the book I picked! I also got a free book with my purchase, and a Neil Gaiman bag which is pretty much the bomb, especially since I am on a real Neil Gaiman kick right now (If you haven’t read The Ocean at the End of the Lane stop right now and go find it. So. Good…. Also Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book are stellar stories by this great man!)

We got sucked into a booth by a man holding out his hand and saying something that I didn’t quite understand. I mostly just felt awkward and shook his hand, but then he asked if we read comics, and when I said we mostly didn’t he decided that his might be the one for us. I know this sounds pushy and off putting but it was actually great, he instructed us to open the series he was selling and see if it spoke to us. Immediately I knew that it wasn’t my style, even though I would have liked it to be, I just wasn’t drawn in by it, which he totally picked up on and was not offended by. He then opened up another book for us and immediately I was invested. The book is called Rosalynd, and it’s a graphic novel written in a diary style from the perspective of a young girl who will grow up to be a vampire hunter. Between the three of us I’m pretty sure it became blaring obvious that I didn’t want to put this book down. Without even consulting me Derek asked to purchase it and the gent who were were talking to, who happened to be both author and illustrator, promptly signed it for me! I’m stoked! As we walked away Derek informed me that this person, Stephan Franck, was a supervising animator on The Iron Giant. I was floored, and extra stoked!

In my wanderings today I found so many different things that I want to read. It was really hard to not buy everything, and even harder to have all these conversations with people who are so proudly discussing with you their heart’s work, and then having to make the decision to walk away even though you are so interested, just not rich enough for all the things. I am glad I have the rest of the weekend to decide on some of the things I feel torn over not buying. There was a really interesting erotic graphic novel that I was super stoked on, and I’m pretty sure if I’m still thinking about it by Sunday it is going to be coming home with me! I’m also hoping to bring home at least one print, although I found a whole bunch today that I really like, and we haven’t even ATTEMPTED Artist Alley yet, so wish me luck in narrowing it down to just one! Last year there were a couple of prints I snagged that I totally love and have proudly displayed on our kitchen wall, it was pretty cool to see the same artists having booths here this year.

We also stumbled across Laika’s The Missing Link characters, which was super cool! We had some Monster Energy Java samples, found a both repping Pet Semetery, that literally had nothing but a few employee who were googling just what the heck Pet Semetary was and handing out little branded flashlights… it was a bit odd.

Once we decided to make our way out we quickly hopped into the Jelly Belly BeanBoozled booth to take the gross flavoured vs good flavoured Jelly Belly challenge. I literally ate 3 jelly beans that were supposed to be either dirty dishwasher or birthday cake and they all tasted the exact same amount of sugary sweetness and not gross at all… I’m pretty sure I was just enjoying the dirty dishwasher flavour *hangs head in shame*

In case you can’t handle your bean.

We then took a Lyft over to a Japanese grocery store, which was super neat (and where we bought a peach-flavoured Coca-Cola), where we met our friends and then headed back to our AirBnb. Now, remember how I talked about feeling lucky? Picture this: our friends literally went grocery shopping (and more importantly beverage shopping) for all of us today, and after arriving at home they made dinner for us while we worked on writing. How freaking amazing is that?!

All in all this day has been pretty freaking amazing. I feel so happy and absolutely fortunate to be able to enjoy this experience, and so frigging grateful to the people around me who have helped make this day super lovely. Special shout out to Derek for not only introducing me to this magical geeky life, but for also taking every opportunity to encourage me and spoil me as much as he can. I can’t to wait to see what the rest of this weekend brings!

Such a neat sight, at such a cool convention centre!

Emerald City Comic-Con Was An Overwhelmingly Beautiful Celebration Of Art, Fandom, And So Much More!

by Mikaela Maxwell

This year’s Emerald City Comic-Con was by far the biggest convention (or event in general) that I have ever been to, and it was pretty amazing… and overwhelming… and so freaking exciting! Due to constant studying on how to help save lives better (I’m an Emergency Room Nurse currently doing some pretty intense additional schooling and certifications) I was only able to make it to the show floor for Saturday and Sunday, which was a super bummer, but still so worth it to make the mini trek down to Seattle. I definitely hope that I get to attend again in the future, and spend all four days at the convention centre!

This was my journey to and at Emerald City Comic-Con 2018. I hope that you enjoy it!

Mid afternoon on Friday I hurried out of the hospital and started my mini-roadtrip to meet up with Derek in Seattle. I have to say, this was actually an unexpected treat! I spend a lot of time transiting/driving, and have come to love listening to an audiobook while commuting. This time around I just wasn’t feeling my current book, so I listened to an episode of Geekscape Games, and then turned on a 90’s pop playlist that had recently been recommended to me (by Derek). This immediately led to a very animated and prolonged Careoke dance-sesh. It. Was. Great. I used to dance in the car all the time, and for some reason have fallen out of the habit, which I see now is an obvious mistake. I wasn’t even sad that I got stuck on an exit for half an hour trying to get into town, I just kept right on singing. If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, you can grab the playlist yourself right here.

I also stopped for a lil’ McDonald’s snack along the way so I could try this much anticipated Szechuan sauce. Spoiler alert, its just meh and Derek is wrong.

On a super cute side note I rolled up to our Airbnb to find that Derek had been standing outside waiting for me for half an hour. Ridiculous. Heart. Melt.

By the time I got into town Friday the convention was shut down for the night. But we had gotten an invite to a sweet lil’ partay, put on by Skybound Entertainment to celebrate The Walking Dead’s 15th anniversary, so we decided to head over there right away. I was pretty excited… and a little bit nervous. The venue was super rad — the space was beautiful, all exposed brick and wood beams, featuring a photo booth, yummy snacks, and bar featuring various The Walking Dead themed cocktails, and wine bottles that moved (in augmented reality, of course)! It was super neat, there were quite a few people there, and according to Derek there seemed to be a good amount of artists, and writers, and other important people that other folks may have recognized. I was pretty stoked when I spotted a cosplayer I had discovered at Fan Expo Vancouver, and can’t even imagine how star struck I woulda been if I had recognized half the people in there. This party is also where I discovered instagram stories, which is pretty neat once you get the hang of it, you can check out @geekscapeforever on Instagram if you want to see what we’ve been up to. (Hint hint: go follow us already!)

Super cool bottle, made even cooler in AR!

Saturday morning I woke up to Derek podcasting. One thing I love about this convention is that it doesn’t open until TEN! Which means I can get my beauty sleep! And it means Derek can get on that Wrestling Podcast! (#DoubleCountOut You are probably already checking it out, but if not, now is the time when you take a little gander over on the iTunes or where ever you get your podcasts and take a listen! — unless you aren’t into wrestling, cause then you wont understand what they are talking about, and it probably wont make much sense or be very fun to listen to… unless you just like listening to the sounds of young men’s voices, then it’ll still be a treat!)

Upon getting to the convention centre we entered a line up to go upstairs, and this line up was simply magical. Like people just kept coming out of nowhere. Then funneling into this teeny line, where literally one dude was checking if you had a badge and letting you get onto an escalator to ascend into the madness. Somehow, I don’t know how, this process actually moved pretty pretty pretty quickly. Like we weren’t at a stand still for more than 30 seconds, ever!

At my request we went to see a Cosplay panel Saturday morning, about the basics of getting into cosplay. I was a little apprehensive when it started, as I’ve previously had some kinda meh experiences at panels, but it actually turned out to be really useful and informative! They talked about how to budget for building cosplay, and their various experiences of starting it themselves. There were 5 different young women there, who all had different cosplay styles and had been doing it for varying amounts of time. It was great to listen to people talk about something they are so passionate about, and to see how inclusive this community can be.

I can’t wait to make my own cosplay!

We also had a bunch of time to walk around the show floor on Saturday. I thought I knew what I was getting into with this, but I was mistaken. Now, the conventions I have been to in the past have evidently been on the smaller side of things. The first place we went was the main show floor, which was one of many levels (through several buildings), each strategically housing certain things such as the cosplay centre, the photo op and autograph area, the gaming floor where you could experience new board games or set up a round of DnD or Magic: The Gathering, and way, way more. We started walking around the show floor and I was immediately overwhelmed. There were just so many things, and even more people. And then around the corner there was more show floor, and through the doorway even more, and across the hallway, you guessed it, even more…

But it was an overwhelm in the most wonderful way. I have never in a singular place, experienced so many different kinds of beautiful, curious, interesting things and people! One of my most favourite aspects of being at a convention is looking at all of the art. There are so many different kinds of artists, creating so many different and wonderful pieces of art, from books, to postcards and magnets, to canvas paintings and prints, to leather work and jewelry, and so so so much more. Each booth is filled with treasures of every variety, and most of the time the artist who created this brilliance is sitting right there just waiting for you to ask them about their work! How often in life do we get an opportunity like that, to just openly admire the hardworking these people are doing and talk to them about these things which they are so very passionate about?! I went into this convention knowing that I would want to buy a print or two. I like the idea of taking a piece of this experience home with me, and a beautiful piece of art is a great way to do it, especially if its fairly affordable print! On Saturday we ended up walking past this beautiful painting of a women letting her breath go underwater and I knew I wanted to be able to look at that every day. But I didn’t want to make a decision without knowing all of my options, so I waited until the next day, after meandering through Artist’s Alley (forever, because it’s huge and has its own floor) to find my way back to that booth and take home my own copy of that beauty.

Some of my haul… time to buy some frames!

While exploring the show floor we had the opportunity to demo a couple of games at the Skybound Games booth. It was great fun! At first I was intimidated by the demo guys wanting to get you into a game, but actually this might be my new favourite way to buy a game! We literally got to play a few rounds of a game I had never heard of (which it turns out had just released after a successful Kickstarter campaign), and I walked away trying to adjust my budget so I could bring it home. Who am I kidding, budgeting is not my strength, a week later and my third day of eating Kraft Dinner is telling me I didn’t do a very good job of budgeting… But my super fun games day is telling me it was totes worth it! We ended up picking up The Grimm Forest and Superfight.

The Grimm Forest is kind of like a mashup of every fairytale woven into your memory and a little bit of Settlers of Catan. I was super stoked to bring this one home. You are descendants of the 3 ( or 4) little pigs competing to build your houses, while constantly being thrown off track by monsters and big meanies. It’s great fun, and can be played in under an hour, which in my books is a huge plus (because there is usually a WWE Pay Per-View to get to when people come over)! Superfight feels kind of like a mashup between Cards Against Humanity (but seemly less dirty so far) and Exploding Kittens, with a dash of… whatever games makes you tell a story about characters! You literally pick cards and have to combine a character with a ‘super power’ and then explain why it would win in a fight against the other person’s character… I will admit I was a bit of a sore loser at this one. There are also so many different expansion packs for this one (and even an expansion pack subscription program), so I am sure we will add on to it in the future. I am looking forward to playing it in a group with more people, and more adult beverages, I am pretty certain hilarity will ensue.

Oh man, I feel like I am talking so much already, but there were so many good things, and I have so much to say!

I also had the opportunity to visit the Espionage Cosmetics booth, which specializes in nerdy nail decals, and got to try some on! There were so many different styles of nail art, most of which I was a little clueless to, but the lovely lady at this booth helped by pointing out what a few of them were! She also applied one for me, and it was so simple and easy, but glammed me up so much! I walked away with a little sample and can’t wait to have days off so I can give them a go! (Though I probably won’t be sharing photos of that, cause I have chapped nurses hands!). Their demo station also had glitter available so they could add a little sparkle to the bearded gents who were in attendance. I think this may have been the first time in my life I almost wished for facial hair! I tried to convince Derek to try it, but as you can probably guess, he was having none of that! Lame.

We got to watch a Twisted Toonz, which I had seen before at the convention we went to in Vancouver. It is actually pretty hilarious. A bunch of voice actors (I don’t know why they are called voice actors, they also do the body moving stuff, but they do video games and their characters are animated so I guess you don’t get to call them actors?) get together and read from a script, but each of them takes on a different celebrity (or character’s) accent for each scene. We literally had to stand for an hour and a half just watching giant screens from the back of the room packed with thousands of people, but it was so worth it! They were reading from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and it was hilarious. I feel like I need to go back and rewatch that movie, I just could not believe how inappropriate some of the lines were!

https://youtu.be/-XUluDsQkk4

I don’t know if anyone has noticed the activity on our Instagram feed @GEEKSCAPEFOREVER, but it has been taken over lately by yours truly, and that means so many many photos of amazing ECCC cosplay! Which leads me to, Saturday night and my most anticipated event… The ECCC Western Championships of Cosplay!

https://instagram.com/p/BgAISGWgL-U/

We stood in line an hour and a half before the event started, which meant lining up outside in the cold (which actually wasn’t that cold considering its the beginning of March). It also meant a very whiney Mikaela who did not bring a sweater with her, but it was soooo worth it! There was a crowd of over 2000 people and we managed to get pretty great seats (although not great enough for pictures). I can not even put into words how amazed I was with these costumes. There was someone who had made the Doof Warrior outfit, and musical transportation platform from Mad Max: Fury Road (WTF?! so Amazing, and totally one of my favourite movies/characters!). There was also an amazing Dark Pit with movable wings from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and even giant guy who was dressed as an even more giant guy (some sort of Brute from Halo, according to Derek), and I couldn’t even believe this was real life. This competition was definitely one of my ECCC highlights, and if I get to go again, I hope I am able to grab some photos so I can share it with y’all.

https://instagram.com/p/Bf6zjMFAT2M/

Saturday night after dinner, I tried to stay awake to take advantage of being out and about and young and hip and… I fell asleep before midnight, and before even getting into bed.

Sunday I was determined to see the rest of all of the floors. I was super invested in checking out autographs or photo ops, but I ventured over to the cosplay areas and checked out the gaming area options. Then wandered through Artist Alley with my jaw on the floor as I tried to take in all of the crazy beauty. It was so neat to walk past booths and see people sketching or colouring or whatever, just making their art right there in front of everyone. It definitely brought me back to the budgeting thing, and wish I was better at it, so I could bring home more beautiful things. I picked out some post cards, and found a neat print of a Narwal ( which I had to have.), and walked away sadly from at least 5 prints that I wish I could look at every day. I also nabbed a little independent comic with super beautiful art, and even found the perfect Mother’s Day present!

I want every book.

We also went to check out the Cosplay floor, which had some handy booths for makeup touch ups and demos, as well as places where you could fix your outfits. There were a few Cosplayers who had their own booths, and a green screen set up for photos. The lighting in this area was not great, so I didn’t get as many photos as I would have liked, but it was super nice to see a place set up for the people from this part of the community.

I spent a couple hours on Sunday searching for and photographing some of the most amazing cosplay. The convention centre in Seattle is a beautiful building and has this great little courtyard that was the perfect back drop for so many photos, which you can see on instagram by @geekscapeforever and so many other people. We managed to get out there before the rain started, and still got some great photos inside once everyone was escaping the rain. Every time we go to a convention I am amazed by the amount of time and talent people put into these outfits, and ECCC did not disappoint. Go check out our Instagram and you will see what I am talking about.

https://instagram.com/p/BgMfJgQnDe0/

One thing that I became aware of at ECCC was the amount of respect and kindness the people of this community show each other. This convention even had a beer garden in the same building as the main show floor (!!!), but even with this awesome feature, I did not notice any drunk or belligerent people over the entire weekend! At most big events that host thousands of people there are usually a few rotten eggs in the bunch, and I am sure they existed here as well, but I never came across them. It was so lovely to be surrounded by people who are so accepting and kind towards each other. To be in a place where children and elderly and everyone in between are able to exist and make space for each other (metaphorically, not physically, that place was packed!) was pretty magical.

Thank you Emerald City Comic Con for putting on an amazing event.

I am so happy to have found this super interesting, beautiful, artistic, amazing culture of people, and I can’t wait to venture into this community again in the future.

Geekscape 466: A Holiday Bromance With Leo Camacho!

by Jonathan

Leo Camacho should’ve been on Geekscape years ago! A popular Disney and Star Wars cosplayer (and a lot more), Leo comes on the show to talk about how we’ve both heard of each other for years and yet never hung out… until now! We talk about Leo’s journey into cosplay and how that’s changed over the years. We give our non-spoiler thoughts on ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ and we bond over Tolkien and Michael Dudikoff! If that’s not the makings of a strong bromance, what is? PLUS! Jonah Hex himself Johnathon Schaech calls in to talk about his new zombie film ‘Day of the Dead: Bloodline’!

Subscribe to the Geekscape podcast on iTunes!

Subscribe to Geekscape on Soundcloud!

Subscribe to Geekscape TV on YouTube!

Get your own Loot Crate subscription! And use the offer code ‘Geekscape’ for a discount!

Fan Expo Vancouver: We Chat With Some Amazing Local Cosplayers!

by Mikaela Maxwell

After Fan Expo Vancouver 2016 I could not wait to see more cosplay at this year’s event. I knew I wanted to get more of an inside scoop on what it’s like to be a cosplayer and what inspires these people to spend so much time, money, and effort on their outfits, so I decided to get in there and ask!

I was super nervous to talk to people, but found out pretty quickly people don’t mind sharing. The thing with cosplayers is they know going into this type of convention that they are going to be stopped every three steps for someone to take a photo, and they’re into it. Heck, I would be too if I had put hours and hours of work into a costume.

Here are a few of the conversations had with cosplayers this year:

Who are you cosplaying as?
I am Jupiter Jones from the movie Jupiter Ascending. It’s a bit of an obscure movie even though it had really big characters in it, Channing Tatum was in it, Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones.

What got you into Cosplay?
I love Halloween, I love making costumes, I love making things. Dressing up and being able to express myself is a lot of fun.

What was the first Cosplay that you did?
Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

That’s rad, did it take you a really long time?
Not as long as this one. This one took about 150 hours, because each of the gems and flowers is individually glued on.

What is your favourite character that you’ve cosplayed?
Probably this one, it’s been the most fun. Although I did a remake of Rainbow Bright in armour and that was fun, but it was not as fun as this.

What cosplay do you want to do next?
Have you seen the movie The Fifth Element? In it there is a blue alien called the Diva Plavalaguna, I am cosplaying that one in a competition in May.

Cool! Where is the competition?
In Prince George, it’s a huge competition, in its third or fourth year this year. [in Northern BC, Canada] The convention is small, but it’s almost as big as this, if that makes sense. And they do quite a large cosplay completion.

Who are you cosplaying as?
Dva’s mech. from Overwatch.

How long have you been doing cosplay?
I haven’t done very much cosplay, I actually do balloons as a job most of the year.

So is this the first time you’ve made an outfit out of it?
Not the first time!

How long have you been doing this?
Eight years. I started learning at festivals and stuff, then got a little bit more inspired every time.

Why did you choose to do this cosplay?
The voice actress who plays the character, there is a character who drives the mech. [Dva], she was here yesterday. That totally influenced my decision to make the matching mech..

Did you get to meet her?
Yeah, I did, she was really happy. You know, mission accomplished!

What is the next cosplay you want to do?
Oh my gosh. It depends on what comes out. It’s always gonna be something big, like bigger than a person size. One year it was Baymax [from Big Hero Six], on year it was T-Rex. Maybe I’ll bring back the Megazord, it’s been on my to-do list, but it’s a bit ambitious.

Follow on Instagram: @kwlballoons

Who are you cosplaying today?
I am The Doof Warrior of Mad Max: Fury Road.

How long did it take you to put this together?
Including shopping, maybe like eight hours?!

What got you into cosplay?
Isn’t this a question!
I’ve only done it twice, so I wouldn’t say I’m “into it”. It’s something that I can show what inspires me. It shows people what has influenced my life. The first time I did it, it was a little bit strange, people talk to you as if you are the character, not as if you’ve made something. So it’s also like you can so how what has inspired you has also influenced a lot of other people.

That must be great insight into other people’s way of thinking.
Yeah, you can immediately tell: he’s one of mine.

What do you want to do next?
No plans, but I like repurposing things, as opposed to making things from scratch, because I have school and a lot of other things. So this was Halloween things cobbled together, and I think that worked pretty well. So things that can be made from in house materials like clothes and the like, things that are practical.

Follow on Instagram: @takimusic

What are you cosplaying as today?
Taako from The Adventure Zone

What inspired you to do this cosplay?
I just recently got into McElroy content, the guys who make this show, and they are really great. It’s a really inclusive show, it’s super funny, and the character is really relatable and hilarious.

What character do you want to do next?
Oh gosh that’s hard, probably Korra from Legend of Korra.

What got you into cosplay?
This is my first convention ever! It’s just more of seeing a lot of stuff online, and seeing a lot of creators and people who are really experienced with cosplay, and wanting to get to that level.

How long did this one take you to put together?
Over the course of a couple of months just pieces here and there. Not a lot of intensive labour, just mostly going to thrift stores and finding clothes. Over all probably about ten hours.

What is your favourite part of Fan Expo so far?
All the costumes, I love seeing all the people dressed in their costumes and meeting people who recognize my costume and things like that. It’s really rewarding.

Follow on Instagram: @jamiekusack

What are you cosplaying as today?
I’m dressed as Ho-Oh from Pokémon.

What inspired you to do this cosplay?
You know it was kind of a last minute thing, I didn’t think I was going to come this year, but I really wanted to and I had a lot of red fabric, so I just kind of made it!

How long did it take you to put together?
I think the top took me about two days maybe, and the rest I just kind of added to it from stuff I already owned.

Have you done cosplay before?
This is my first time in public, but I do have other that I have done.

What do you want to do next?
I don’t know, I was thinking with my sister to do a pairs cosplay. Either Link and Navi, or Magicarp and Gyarados.

What’s been your favourite thing at Fan Expo so far?
I didn’t get here until a little while ago, but I just love the atmosphere. The community is always so welcoming.

Follow on Instagram: @chelo.cm

Who are you cosplaying today?
Azura, from Fire Emblem Fates.

What inspired you to do this cosplay?
Ever since I first played the game I immediately fell in love with the character. I really loved the dress that she wore in the cutscene in conquest, where she tries to break some sort of curse, I thought that was really cool.

How long did it take you to put this together?
It took me a while, I had a bit of time issues with the cosplay, getting the wig was the easy bit though.

Have you done cosplay before?
I have, last year was my first time cosplaying. Last year I cosplayed Princess Zelda, from the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

What is your next project?
I’ve got a lot of ideas in my head right now, I just don’t know which one to pick. I’m thinking about Ruby, Black Butler, Sword Art Online.

Follow on Facebook: Paige Dempsey

What are you Cosplaying as today?
Logan, from Wolverine.

What inspired you to do this cosplay?
The 2013 movie The Wolverine, started doing it then, just for Halloween. Then the last two years Comic Cons.

Have you done cosplay before?
Just on Halloween, then I found out there was such a thing as comic cons. Then I was like whaaat, I can do this every weekend if I can find a con somewhere around the world?

How many have you been too?
San Diego the last three years, Tokyo comiket, Singapore, Manila, one in Malaysia, Salt Lake City, one in Columbia, one in Mexico City, and a few other ones.

Do you have other cosplays that you wear?
This is a one trick pony.

Is there any other cosplay you would like to do in the future?
Yes, I really want to do Hector from Westworld.

Follow on Instagram: @CanadianWolverine

What are you dressed as today?
I am Princess Peach from the Mario series.

What inspired you to do this outfit?
I don’t have that many really girlie costumes, so I wanted to do something different, bright and fun. And she certainly is.

What inspired you to start doing cosplay?
I have been into anime and stuff since a young age and played video games growing up, and then it was a natural progression, I eventually found cosplay. I’ve always been creative and liked to sew.

How long have you been doing cosplay?
I want to say since I was 15, and I am 20 now, so about 5 years.

What cosplay do you want to do next?
I want to do Ashelin from the Jak and Daxter series.

Follow on Instagram: @spiralintohorror

What are you dressed as today?
I am dressed as Sweetums from The Muppets.

How long did it take you to put this together?
I started working on it about three months ago, but it was about 3 weeks total work time I would say.

What inspired you to do this as your cosplay?
I’ve always been a massive Jim Henson fan, so I’ve always wanted to do some kind of costume of his. Then I didn’t really want to do a hand puppet, so Sweetums was always my favourite really big crazy character, and I finally got to the point in my cosplay-ability where I was like yeah I could probably make that!

How long have you been doing cosplay?
About three years now?

Is this your favourite cosplay you have done so far?
I don’t know, I did Babar last year, which was really great. So I really liked Babar as well, but this one is much more comfortable, just really warm.

What is the next cosplay you want to do?
I’ve been thinking about doing Ludo from Labyrinth, maybe. But I am gonna coast on this one for a while, for Emerald City Comic Con. I just need to modify it and put some fans in the head.

Follow on Instagram: @jeff_porter_creative

What are you cosplaying as today?
Link, from Legend of Zelda.

What inspired you to be Link?
I just like it because he is a cool character.

What do you want to do as your next cosplay?
Deadpool!

Is this the first time you’ve cosplayed?
No, last year I was Harry Potter, which was a pretty cool costume.

Have you been to other Conventions with your cosplays?
No, only this one.

Follow ‘Link’s’ Dad on Instagram: @glasscannon.ca

What are you cosplaying as today?
I am Loki of Asgard.

What inspired you to do this cosplay?
I am so mischievous, just like Loki is, so he is like a part of me, he’s like a part of my soul. I absolutely love him.

How long did it take you to do this?
This is not even completed yet, it’s still in progress, but this has been how many months now? We’ve been working on it for about three or four months. And I still have to create some armour pieces to finish it off.

Are you going to take it to other Cons?
Oh definitely.

Where are you heading to next?
Probably Capitol City Comic Con, which will be in Victoria in March. And then after that not sure yet.

Have you done cosplay before?
Yes, I am from Toronto, so I have done these at Fan Expo Toronto. I have also gone as Tank girl, Pikachu, and Darth Talon.

What’s your favourite one so far?
Loki, I feel I can play Loki more than I can play some of the other ones.

Do you have an cosplay you would like to do in the future?
I’d like to actually do a Mystique, cause I do a lot of FX make-up and stuff like that, and I think I couls pull off something really cool.

Follow on Facebook: Gynnie Vi (aka Ginger Vicious, Burlesque persona)

Can you tell me what you are cosplaying as?
Chappie.

What inspired you to do this cosplay?
Chappie is my absolute favourite person in the world. Chappie is consciousness. Chappie is alive.

How long did it take you to make?
Three months.

Is this your first cosplay?
This is my second big one. I did a Xenomorph from the Aliens movie.

What is your next project?
I have no idea.

Are you going to get to wear this a few more times?
Probably. I think I am going to go to Victoria in March, or maybe Animerevo in August.

Follow on Instagram: @wartoast_cosplay

Here’s Some Of The Coolest Cosplay From This Year’s Fan Expo Vancouver!

by Mikaela Maxwell

We had so much fun at this year’s Fan Expo Vancouver.

From a long-anticipated Skyrim VR demo, to some amazing panels and performances, this year’s Fan Expo Vancouver was a treasure trove of great memories. We saw a ton of people, spent too much money, and laughed harder than we had in as long as we can remember (read all about my experience here).

I had the opportunity to interview a myriad of cool cosplayers, so be sure to look out for another cosplay-focussed piece in the coming days. There were simply too, too  many incredible cosplay artists roaming the show floor (and surrounding area), however, so here’s a look at some of the very best cosplay outfits that Fan Expo Vancouver attendees had to offer!

Harley Quinn – aliferouxs, Joker – mxrningstar



50’s Leia – kerri_lowe, Snow White – Eleighapie

Eileen The Crow – spearhead_solaire

Ursula – marcrovich

Wood Elf – tiramisuterror



Ariel and Snow White – dc_sisters_cosplay, Assassin’s Creed –  lullabyedespise, tribalbob41
Cyber Rin – Mahoumelon, Cruella Deville – Shaylakeelymay


Judge Dredd – ctmonks, The Countess – anigma-ashley

Enchanted Princess Kingdom

Leia Staked Jaba The Hutt – amyleeradigan


Carrhunger

The Boss – laurenbamlett

Pikachu – Michael Wang



Left Sharks – vodkablitz, twizzleys, kaitienicholas


But wait, there’s more! I had the opportunity to ask some really cool cosplayers some questions about their work. From an amazing Chappy, to Dva’s mech (made of balloons), to a Jupiter Jones dress that took over 150 hours to make, it’s all pretty incredible. Look for that piece in the next few days!

Fan Expo Vancouver Recap: Cosplay, Twisted Toonz, Personal Growth, And More!

by Mikaela Maxwell

Since meeting Derek, I’ve heard a myriad of tales of the wonders of the convention world, especially his years at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). It’s always seemed so neat to me; so many new things being demonstrated, new experiences to be had, SO much magical art, and a huge variety of people dressing up as their favourite characters. Listening to Derek talk about all the incredible games he has tried (long before they’d been released to the public), experiences he has been immersed in, and cosplay, all the cosplay… I knew I had to give this a try for myself.

This is surprisingly not my first convention! Well actually Fan Expo Vancouver was, in 2016. Last year Derek and I took his Dad (Rob) to Fan Expo Vancouver for the weekend. Now usually Derek, Rob, and I hanging out equates to me asking what everyone wants to do, everyone refusing to make a decision, and then me throwing my hands in the air and creating an impromptu itinerary to keep us busy. So that weekend together was a bit of a change as we were 100% out of my element, and I was going eagerly into their territory of geek fandom. EEP!

Fan Expo Vancouver 2016 was a great weekend. I was a little bit shocked by the number of people, and lack of breathing room (which I still hear is nothing compared to SDCC, or even Seattle’s Emerald City Comic-Con), but adjusted to that pretty quickly (who needs personal space?!). I was waaaaay out of my comfort zone, but super proud of myself for sticking it out. I wanted to look at every single booth, which meant I was forced to talk to vendors, and this turned out to be great. I met local artists and talked to people about their passion projects. I found an artist that I really liked and bought his whole series of comics along with a custom cover that features Eleven from Stranger Things. Someone helped me pick a few new graphic novels (I think that’s what they were, you know the ones where it’s like a comic book but way more pages and like real book covers) based on artwork I liked and previous books from Derek’s collection that I had enjoyed. I wish I could remember the name of that booth – that guy was super helpful, and made me feel like I wasn’t a total loser for being totally unsure of myself in the situation. I even bought a physical copy of the best comic that I’ve read so far called Wytches, a book I had already read the digital version of but wanted the physical one cause it is my favourite art. I literally have a Wytches Mondo print (from good ‘ol SDCC) hanging in our entry way so it’s the first thing you see when walking into our house.

For me the most notable aspect of Fan Expo Vancouver 2016 was the cosplay! The cosplay was REMARKABLE. I could not believe the intricacy, detail, and sheer size of these amazing costumes. As a person whose favourite holiday is Halloween, who wants every party to be a costume party, and who uses any excuse to wear a moustache… I guess its not really surprising that this was the most exciting part for me. I remember walking down a hallway and literally not being able to look straight ahead of me, I was rubber necking all over the place. On all sides there were people wearing the most amazing outfits. Some were riding solo, others were in groups, there were adults and kids and men and women, all just putting so much energy into expressing themselves through the recreation of so many different characters. I have never in my life asked the question ‘What is that one?’ so many times. Derek spent most of that weekend whispering character names into my ear, and then having to explain their backstory as I had no idea who they were most of the time anyways. It. Was. Great.

Old school Mika Moustache

We were also able to sit in on a couple of how-to Cosplay panels, which were soooo interesting. My favourite was listening to Andy Rae go through the basics of how she came up with, designed, and created one of her cosplay characters (I believe it was like a badass Snow White). I came away from Fan Expo Vancouver 2016 feeling totally inspired and freaking stoked about this new world I had stumbled into. I wish I could say I had my own cosplay put together this year, but I still haven’t found the courage/money/artistic-excellence required to make it happen… yet.

Needless to say, this year I couldn’t wait to see the cosplay, and Fan Expo 2017 did not disappoint! Literally on the sky-train down to the convention centre a family of four got on with a tiny Batman and the most legit tiny Wonder Woman I have ever seen. My heart melted and I got so excited!

Now let me paint the picture a little for you. Fan Expo is a Friday to Sunday event. I didn’t get to go on Friday as I had to work night shifts on Thursday and Friday night, so during the day on Friday while Derek was there to kick off the start of the event, I was tossing and turning trying not to think about it so I could get a good nigh… day’s sleep. This also meant that I got home from work at 8:15 on Saturday morning and needed to power nap and paint my face with makeup so I could hopefully trick people into thinking I was a normal human and not a night shift zombie (dang I am just realizing now I shoulda just gone as the zombie #MissedOpportunity). Normally any of the days surrounding night shifts are off limits. I know that I need sleep to be able to function on a normal human level, but the situation could not be helped, and there was no way I was missing out on any more of this convention than absolutely necessary. So, with the help of a little caffeine, we ventured out and managed to get there by noon!

The first thing we did (other than gawk at the amazing cosplayers all around us) was go to a Q&A panel with Nolan North (voice actor of Nathan Drake from Uncharted among a million other things) and Troy Baker (voice actor of Nathan Drake’s brother Sam Drake from Uncharted 4, among a million other things). Side note: Holy crap I just remembered those things all by myself, like literally out of my head, and actually know what I am referring to and their relevance!

Luckily I had watched Derek play Uncharted 4 for a while so I actually kinda knew what we were getting into and why we cared. That game is beautiful, and looks like so much fun (regardless of what Shane thinks)! It would likely take a little too much coordination for me to play at this point, as you can tell from my gaming experience detailed in my Super Mario Odyssey piece. It turns out these guys have voice acted as soo many characters in sooo many different franchises. It also turns out that they are hilarious.

Nolan and Troy walked into the packed Meeting Room 2, stating that they weren’t a big enough deal to get slotted into Meeting Room 1, and away we went. They were briefly introduced and right away launched into questions from the audience. It was super neat to hear lots of different types of questions from people who were clearly huge fans of these guys. It was also neat to see them call out some of the fans to show off their great cosplay. The guys played off of each other really well, and you could tell they were friends and really enjoyed working together. They had the room cracking up with almost every question asked, no matter what the topic. Now I don’t remember most of the specifics, it turns out that inspirational quote about how people don’t remember what you said but how you made them feel… whelp, it’s totally true. The two things that stand out in my mind about this panel, aside from feeling genuinely entertained the whole time, were: when I almost cried, and that it turns out I didn’t actually know how video games were made… like at all.

I did not expect to get emotional listening to some guys talk about how they were the voice for animated characters. Yeah, I was wrong. There was a question about one of the characters Troy has voiced, regarding something to do with how the character had been received (I believe the character was Kanji from the Persona series). Of course I know nothing about what this person was referring to, or the exact words of Troy’s response, but it was something along the lines of the power of accepting yourself and your sexuality and embracing your unique qualities etc. etc…. I was blown away that in the midst of having no idea what these people were talking about I could be so moved by someone’s attitude towards peoples’ rights to their bodies and the beauty of being your genuine self.

Also I don’t really understand why they are called ‘Voice Actors’. Like I get that they are the voice of the character, but I didn’t know that they are actually the body of the character as well?! My mind was serious amounts of blown. I’ll explain my vague understanding, just in case there is anyone else out there who has been living under a rock like I have. These guys legit broke it down for us. Turns out when the character is running, jumping, turning their head, crouching, falling, being thrown by an explosion, basically doing anything in the game, this is ALL actually done by the “voice” actor (or sometimes a stunt person). The actor will don one of those green suits with all the electrodes or something built in, and be placed in a big open room, then recorded from a million different cameras to capture every angle. Then they do all of these moves in this open space, and the animated character will be adapted to their body movements for the game. MIND BLOWN. Now that I am typing it out, it makes sense, it’s just like any CG movie effect. But somehow, I had never connected the dots that they would use the same technology for video games. I literally thought it was like an animated movie… wait is this how Pixar makes their movies too? Oh god I don’t know what’s real anymore.

We then went into my most anticipated panel of the entire event, the Celebrity Cosplayer Panel with LeeAnna Vamp, Holly Wolf, Karli Woods, and Riki Lecotey. I’ve gotta say that their Cosplay was definitely on point. I even knew who most of them were dressed up as! There was a bad ass Lady Beetle Juice and Lydia Deetz; this combo was definitely one of my top five for the expo, but I sadly didn’t get a picture. As well there was someone from X-Men (Derek says it was Rogue), and I’m not really sure what Riki was cause she is tiny and I could barely see her, but her top hat was pretty rad and apparently she rehabilitates baby squirrels in her real life, so I’m officially a big fan. They went on to discuss the basics of what it takes to use social media effectively as a professional cosplayer. There was a lot of information shared, but the biggest tips I remember are: to use whatever the newest feature is on that network (ie: Instagram’s stories, Facebook Live etc.), don’t put text on your Facebook photos cause they will get buried, and don’t put a link to another social network in your Facebook post, instead put it in the comments so again Facebook is less likely to bury it.

Once they were done with social media talk, there were just three minutes left for the audience to ask question (waah-waah). A few questions were asked, most noteably one about how someone who isn’t skinny can make it in a world where most of the higher profile women fit into the thin-waist-big-boobs category. And the answer was a solid inspirational quote type of situation. All in all, I feel like I would have appreciated a lot more of the how-to type of panel in relation to the physical costumes, but I can definitely see the value in knowing the ins and outs of using social media (especially if you’re already cosplaying and not just looking to get into it).

Going into this weekend, the big Geekscape project that I wanted to do involved taking pictures of cosplayers and interviewing them about cosplay generally. However, walking into the chaos of Saturday on almost zero sleep and even less confidence I definitely lost my nerve. I wandered around staring at all these amazing creations and passionate people, and basically just shrivelled up inside myself.

I took one picture all of Saturday (of an amazing Jupiter Jones cosplay). I got up the nerve to ask her a few questions, as soon as we started talking I immediately forgot how words worked and forgot the short list of questions I had prepared. Luckily for me she was super approachable and really excited to talk about her look. It also turns out she is a nurse (like me) and so we got to chat about that a bit too. I felt good about this interaction, but still totally self-conscious and awkward.

We then went to a panel called Twisted Toonz where a few voice actors Maurice LaMarche (The Brain), Rob Paulsen (Pinky), Jennifer Hale (Lady Shepherd from Mass Effect), Troy Baker, Nolan North & Veronica Taylor (Ash from Pokémon) were assigned various well known characters/celebrities to impersonate while reading scenes from The Princess Bride. It was pretty freaking hilarious. I spent most the time not being able to follow what was happening, but cracking up at their impressive impersonations.

https://youtu.be/o6-tPoKi7xA

Going into Sunday morning I knew if I wanted to earn my right to represent Geekscape, and walk away feeling satisfied with having pushed myself out of my comfort zone, I needed to step up my game.

I’m happy to report: I did it!

Sunday morning we arrived and hung out in the lobby for a while allowing me to approach people and talk to them about their cosplay. After a while I found my footing and got in the groove of it. Not once did I remember all of the questions I wanted to ask, but was able to get varying little bits of insight from everyone. It was super interesting to hear about how people got into it and what inspires them to do cosplay. I ended up talking to a lot of people who were cosplaying for the first time, which was pretty neat. I also get to talk to a guy dressed as the guitar guy from Mad Max: Fury Road, which is one of my all-time favourite movies. It was pretty neat – I won’t go into detail here, but hopefully I can get that article up in the next few days!

We went to Sketch Duel between Jae Lee and Eric Vedder, which was kind of a big deal. They were given a character (someone from Game of Thrones whose name I don’t remember) (editor’s note: Daenerys) with a modification (zombie) and each had to do their version of it while the audience sat there and asked them questions. It was pretty neat, and totally crazy that these people can just sit there chatting AND creating amazing art like it’s just no thing. The best part was at the end audience members got to win the sketches! (I was one number away from winning and just a little bit bitter about it).

Next up was a panel with the cast of iZombie, which Derek is super into and I have yet to actually watch even though it’s on Netflix (oops!). It was also pretty entertaining. I don’t remember anyone’s names, but they all played off of each other very well and were super into engaging with the crowd for the Q&A. The best part was when everyone sang Happy Birthday to one of the guys, and then at the end Rose McIver (the main character of the show) got all the people who were dressed in her character, Liv Moore, cosplay to come up on stage for a group photo. There were so many. It was great.

We then spent the rest of the day walking the floor, talking to artists, talking to cosplayers, taking pictures of people, and looking at all the things. Derek surprised me with a painting he bought for me while I was caught up in conversation with someone (the artist has an amazing Etsy shop here). We legimately did not leave until the show floor closed.

All in all it was a great weekend. There was so much packed into these two short days, and I walked away once again feeling inspired and excited about so many new things. I am so proud of myself for finding my lady balls and talking to all the people. I felt awkard and scared and I did it anyways… and I think it turned out pretty well. I gotta give a shout out to Derek for totally supporting me in embracing this and opening his Geekscape arms to me; as well as reminding me that I am awesome when I wanted to run away from everything. I am really looking forward to putting together my piece about cosplayers, and hope that you are too!

Wow. That was a lot of things to talk about. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read about my experience! I had a great time and can’t wait for the next convention!

Shout out to the photo-bomber in the background.

SDCC 2017: Some Of The Best Cosplay We Saw At This Year’s Convention!

by GeekscapeStaff

We had a blast at this year’s SDCC. Aside from the shoulder to shoulder crowds, it was an incredible opportunity to reconnect with each other, to meet with ‘Scapists new and old, to spend way, way too much money, and to see some incredible cosplay!

Many of us were on the prowl for some great cosplay across the convention weekend. Here are some of the coolest getups that we were able to lay our eyes on!

Were you at the convention? Did you see any amazing cosplayers not pictured below? What were your favourites?

Anime LA 2017: A Revelation in Wigs

by Matthew Morrell

This past weekend from January 26th through the 29th under the back drop of the snow covered San Antonio Mountains, and bright California sun, a sea of people gathered at the Ontario Convention Center for Anime LA, 2017.

Indeed a vast sea of people showed up; different ethnicity, different races, different religions, different sex, different gender, all congregated to celebrate a common love of art. They celebrated freedom, creativity, and diversity in a week when those values were purposefully, systematically, and maliciously attacked.

Now, just to be clear, an event like Anime LA is crazy. On paper it sounds impossible. Tons of contrasting people from all across the nation, all in one place celebrating a niche art?

It’s a lot like Anime hair: it defies all reason.

“Is it hair, a gun, a dick? Seriously, Please explain.”

At the con we spoke with Elizabeth; one of the hundreds of dedicated Cos-players, and creators, who make the impossible possible. Admittedly, making wigs seems like a minor, tedious, finger callous creating task, and it is. However, a lot can be learned from putting on a headpiece that looks impossible.

One of the more obvious lessons: a good wig isn’t all one single piece of hair. The best wigs are made from thousands of different strands of plastic fibers, woven together to make one whole headpiece.

A bunch of different individual fibers, woven together, to form impossibly beautiful shapes, colors, and styles all in the name of art. It is a metaphorical concept that’s both figuratively and literally designed to wrap around your head.

“HA! Take that gravity.”

It looks impossible, but it works. Not always perfect, sometimes unwieldy, but individual pieces bonded together form something beautiful.

Perhaps taking such a ridiculous concept to heart would go a long way in preventing division?

Nevertheless, in a week where sanity seems to have taken a nose dive, have peace in knowing there are places where diversity continues to band together to celebrate and create something truly spectacular.

Thank you to all who attended, volunteered, and staffed Anime LA, 2017.

On Site @AnimeLA2017

Here’s Some Of The Best Cosplay We Saw At Fan Expo Canada!

by Philip Dobson

Fan Expo Canada took over the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this past Labour Day weekend, and while we’re reallye excited to share our thoughts on the massive Canadian convention in the coming days, we simply had to show you some of the coolest cosplay that we saw on the show floor.

Take a look at the images below, be sure to let us know your favourites, and stay tuned for more Fan Expo Canada coverage!

fanexpo03

fanexpo04

fanexpo05

fanexpo07

fanexpo012

fanexpo013

fanexpo014

fanexpo015

fanexpo01

fanexpo06

fanexpo08

fanexpo010

fanexpo02

fanexpo011

fanexpo09

Celebrate Pokémon’s 20th Anniversary With These Fan-made Hats!

by Natalie Kipper

From downloading rare monsters to attending special events, many Pokémon fans are taking part in activities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Pokémon series. Rio McCarthy of Rio’s Renditions has chosen to show her fandom by releasing a special line of Pokémon-themed hats in her Etsy shop. These beanies are extremely limited in edition size, three pieces for each of her ten designs (that is 30 total, for all of you playing along at home).

Let’s take a look at some of styles available, shall we?

RiosRenditionsMeowthhat

There is the Meowth hat, perfect for that friend just straight-up loves money. Or cats. Or both (What? They aren’t mutually exclusive).

RiosRenditionsSnorlaxhat

And then there is the Snorlax hat. I wonder if it would double as a sleeping cap?

RiosRenditionsMunchlaxHat

Rio also has a Munchlax hat, which would make for some pretty awesome family photos when paired with the Snorlax one.

Other hats in the line include Jigglypuff (as seen in the header), Ditto, Psyduck, Marill, Lucario, Raichu, and of course, Pikachu. Prices range from US$25 to US$35, depending on the complexity of the pattern. Each hat is handmade with care by Rio herself. You can follow her store on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

 

‘Salute To Supernatural’ Was An Incredible Fan Experience! Here’s What You Missed!

by Melissa Sanchez

This past weekend was Creation Entertainment’s Salute to Supernatural convention at the Pasadena Convention Center. The weekend consisted of exclusive panels with cast members, photo ops, a concert, and tons of official Supernatural merchandise for sale. Though I was unable to attend all three days, I did make it out on Sunday, the last day of the event (and arguably the best).

Sunday morning began with Coffee with the Kostermans, offering attendees a preview of the upcoming 10 episode series and an exclusive Q&A with the show creators. Those who wanted to wake up bright and early were able to enjoy this event and get a glimpse of what the Supernatural fandom is really like. VIP ticket holders were also treated to a private panel with Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles (Sam and Dean) that morning, while the main convention opened its doors later on that day. Programming for Sunday began at 2pm, but I arrived early to scope out the scene. Upon entering the convention center and checking in, I headed to the vendors area to see all the available merchandise for sale. Though small, the vendor’s area had a decent amount of official and unique merchandise sure to please any Supernatural fan. There were Funko Pops of the boys along with buttons, magnets, T-shirts, and more. Some vendors offered custom jewelry related to the show like angel wing earrings and character specific charm bracelets. I even snagged myself Castiel’s grace! (A necklace that glowed like angel grace from the show). People took pictures with life size cardboard cutouts of Dean and Sam as well as a pretty cool looking custom made Castiel puppet. Also cool was a 13” replica diecast of Dean’s 1967 Chevy Impala that too could be yours for the low price of $70. After I picked up my grace and did a double walk through of the vendor’s area, I made my way to the theatre since the programming was about to begin.

Castiel
Yep. Pretty lifelike.

Around 2:15pm Rob Benedict (Chuck) came out with his band Louden Swain and Master of Ceremonies Richard Speight Jr. (Trickster/Gabriel). The band treated the attendees to a mini concert with Speight occasionally taking on lead vocals. Fans cheered as the Los Angeles rock band played loudly and frontman Benedict ran around the room. Speight and Benedict then proceeded to sing to the crowd the rules and regulations of the convention to the tune of My Generation. After a fun energetic few songs it was time for the first guest of the day.

With the recent announcement of his upcoming role on The Walking Dead, Jeffrey Dean Morgan aka John Winchester was welcomed to the stage with a roar of applause. He expressed how excited he was to be there before taking fan questions from the audience. Morgan played the character of John Winchester, Sam and Dean’s dad in the first two seasons of Supernatural. He spoke about how much John meant to him being one of his first big opportunities acting and crediting it and his role of Denny Duquette on Grey’s Anatomy as really launching his career. However not before inviting a fan onstage who got cut off from asking her question at the Las Vegas convention. JDM talked about his upcoming role of villain Negan on The Walking Dead and said that when his agent asked if he was interested in auditioning for the role Jeffrey asked “Is it for fucking Negan?” and his agent said he didn’t know.  He then went on to say  “It is fucking Negan! I’m fucking doing it!” A fan then asked him what he thought Supernatural would be like if John Winchester hadn’t been killed off and was still on the show today? Morgan felt the show would be drastically different saying “It’d be like The Waltons” as he laughed, only to then follow by stating the crowd was probably too young to even know of the 70’s drama. On the subject of his favorite episode, Morgan stated it was Shadow (Season 1, Ep. 16), where father and sons come together and the audience’s introduction to the yellow-eyed demon Azazel who kills John’s wife/Sam and Dean’s mom Mary Winchester was his favorite. Fans continued to ask him more questions like “What was your favorite scene?” and “Would he do more conventions in the future?” Morgan spoke about how he would want to play Negan (The Walking Dead) or The Comedian (Watchmen) in the Supernatural world before his TV sons came out and crashed the stage to greet Morgan with a hug.

Louden Swain rocking out!
Louden Swain rocking out!

A sea of camera and phone lights and screams erupted as Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles took the stage. They bid Morgan a fond ado and then took their seats preparing themselves for the next hour of questions and story telling. Long lines of fans formed on both sides of the room with mostly females anxiously awaiting to get the chance to ask the TV brothers their questions. Ackles and Padalecki answered things like “What was the most emotional scene you had to film?” and “What was the sexiest scene to film?” in which Jensen replied Baby, episode 4 from this past season which is told entirely from the impala’s perspective. Jared answered a question about how his hair has changed over the seasons and Jensen joked “Yeah Jared, did you want to go from skater boy to fashionista?!”. Both spoke about their biggest fears, with Padalecki telling the audience he was afraid of snakes and bears while Ackles expressed not being able to get to his family in a time of crisis is his biggest fear. More creative questions were asked like “How would Sam and Dean handle themselves if they were in a horror movie?”, more specifically the remake horror movies each men starred in  2009, Friday the 13th and My Bloody Valentine. Jared exclaimed “Jason would be dead!” if Sam Winchester was in Friday the 13th, while Jensen said if Dean was in a tunnel and ran into a man with an ax Dean would blow his head off. They also joked they would end the zombies on The Walking Dead.

Fans continued with asking the guys what their favorite season finales were. Padalecki cited the episode Sacrifice at the end of Season 8 in which Sam and Dean finish the trials to close the gates of hell and Sam has to make a huge decision. Ackles chose the episode Swan Song (Season 5, Ep. 22) where Chuck tells the history of the Impala and Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) uses Dean as a vessel, as well as the season 9 finale Do You Believe in Miracles? where Dean deals with The Mark of Cain and we find out more about Metatron. The duo talked about the use of contact lenses in the beginning the series used for demon eyes versus now using CGI to create those same effects.

Cutout

Each of the men spoke about parenthood including the joys and difficulties of being a dad. Jensen told a story to the crowd about how a friend of his sent him a meme that said “Guns don’t kill people, dads with pretty little girls do.” and how he looked at it and said “Yup!” (Ackles has a 2-yr-old daughter). Padalecki recently becoming public with his deals of depression and creating his Always Keep Fighting campaign that assists others with mental health issues, said he hoped his children would never give bullies’ negativity worth and value.  When asked if the boys could be any other character on the show who would they be, both answered Cas being that Misha Collins’ schedule isn’t as demanding as the two main stars, with Jared adding Rowena (Ruth Connell) as well so that he could give Mark Sheppard (Crowley) a hard time. Another creative question from a fan was “If there was a Supernatural theme park, what would it consist of?” Jensen insisted that the roller coaster cars be modeled after his character’s infamous Impala and there also be a nutcracker stage where you can get your nuts cracked. Jared said there would have to be lots of salt circles and joked that a Crowley impersonator would be walking around talking nonstop in which that experience would be called “hell”. One of the last questions was “If each were not an actor, what would they be?” Padalecki said he would probably be an engineer while Ackles said he would have went to college and got a degree if he wasn’t acting. The duo’s panel closed with them bringing out Cain (Timothy Omundson) to answer who his favorite guest star was. Louden Swain played as the crowd left the theatre while Jensen Ackles sang on the first song.

Mark Sheppard closed the evening taking questions from fans and talking about his character Crowley.  He even went out into the crowd and interacted with the fans while taking questions. Sheppard spoke about fan fiction and what happened between Dean and Crowley during their bromance in Season 10, as well as what’s in store for Crowley in the future. Louden Swain then took the stage to end the night by singing “It’s the end of the con as we know it.” to R.E.M.’s It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

Though small and lacking a good amount of vendors, Salute to Supernatural is a must do event for any diehard fan! It allows the audience to get more up close and personal to the cast versus a larger convention like Comic Con. Next year’s convention returns to the Burbank Marriott in Burbank, CA and Jared, Jensen, Misha, Mark and Osric are already confirmed.

For more information on Creation Entertainment’s Salute to Supernatural, head here.

Supernatural airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

‘Supernatural’ Fan In Pasadena? The Official ‘Supernatural’ Convention Returns Next Weekend!

by Melissa Sanchez

It’s that time of year again! No I’m not talking about stuffing your face with turkey or even standing in line at your local Best Buy to get the latest cool gadget released for the holidays (though that’s all cool too). It’s time to get out your salt and lighters and wear those trench coats as Creation Entertainment‘s Salute to Supernatural once again rolls around. The cult TV show is currently in its 11th season and follows brothers Sam and Dean as they rid the world of demons, vampires, witches and all things that go bump in the night.

Taking place this year at the Pasadena Convention Center on November 13-15th, the three day event brings us everything Supernatural with exclusive panels, costume parades, karaoke, auctions, meet and greets and more. Who doesn’t want a chance to take a picture sandwiched between some of the best looking demon hunters on TV?! All the major players will be there including the Winchester Bros (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) and everyone’s favorite angel Castiel (Misha Collins), as well as fan favorites Crowley (Mark Sheppard), Kevin Tran (Osric Chau) and The Trickster/Gabriel (Richard Speight Jr.), with the latter also doubling as Master of Ceremonies.

Supernatural fans can enjoy a karaoke party Friday night with Young John Winchester (Matt Cohen), Chuck (Rob Benedict)  and The Trickster (Speight). Fans are encouraged to dress up for this fun filled event but it’s not mandatory. On Saturday night after your day of meeting with like minded SN diehards and attending Misha’s always entertaining panel, check out Louden Swain (musical act featuring Benedict). You never know who might drop in for a song or two, as some of the cast have participated in the past. There will also be plenty of vendors with Supernatural merch and memorabilia so don’t forget your wallets! Sam and Dean will take the stage Sunday which no doubt is the most popular day of the convention, but perhaps more exciting than the brother’s appearance is that of their TV dad played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is set to make an appearance Sunday as well. Also set to appear are Ruth Connell (Rowena), Kathryn Newton (Claire Novak), Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills), Travis Aaron Wade (Cole Trenton) and Briana Buckmaster (Sheriff Donna Hanscum).

Whether you’re a newbie hunter or seasoned pro,if you love Supernatural this is one event you don’t wanna miss! I know I won’t! We’ll see you there!

For more information visit www.creationent.com. Tickets for Salute to Supernatural start at $30 and can be purchased at the door on day of the event. Supernatural airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

4"x6" Post Card Template
4″x6″ Post Card Template

Ryan Reynolds Spent Halloween As ‘Deadpool’ And It Was Hilarious!

by Shane O'Hare

Halloween may be over, and the Deadpool film isn’t out til next year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy Ryan Reynolds as the titular “merc with a mouth”.

Over the weekend, Reynolds went out and about in his Deadpool costume and took an adorable photo with some X-Men trick-or-treaters. That would be enough, but he then posted a quick little behind the scenes video that is absolutely hilarious.

This little video just solidifies Reynolds as THE perfect Deadpool. It’s obvious that when he puts on the costume, he channels his inner nutbag and runs with it. February cannot come soon enough!

And the picture this video is all about is just as awesome.

Remember, tonight we set our clocks back 34 years. #happyhalloween

A photo posted by Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds) on

Crowdfund This: ‘Ghostheads’

by Derek Kraneveldt

I am absolutely in love with this idea.

When the original Ghostbuster hit theatres back in 1984, I was still a good six years from even being born, and it would be a number of years following that before I was ready for my first movie. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure I would have started with some baby crap rather that gems like Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel.

Thus, I’ve spent my entire life watching people of all ages, races, genders, and nationalities, build proton packs, ECTO-1’s, and celebrate a phenomenon that I’m too young to remember the birth of.

Now, I completely adore Ghostbusters (and you can bet your ass that I’m looking forward to next year’s reboot), but I’ve always wondered just why Ghostbusters garnered and maintained such an incredible influence on our culture. Hell, our own Eric Francisco just donned a Ghostbusters jumpsuit at New York Comic-Con, and at last weekend’s Halloween parade in Vancouver (yes, for some reason we have a parade for Halloween), a Ghostbusters group costume (including an inflated Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, was probably the most impressive aspect of the entire morning.

Thats’s why I’m beyond excited for Ghostheads, which is coming from director Brenden Maertens and producer Tommy Avallone (who directed the fantastic documentary I Am Santa Claus).

Basically, “Ghostheads are hardcore Ghostbusters Fans; the nickname was born in the mid 1980s after the huge growth of Ghostbusters fan base around the world. Ghostheads are just a collection of friends and acquaintance that decide to get together a couple of times a year, dress up in their Ghostbusters gear to either entertain people, attend conventions, screenings and even do charity work as well. Ghostheads are very much intuitive, as they re-build all of their very own Ghostbuster props from scratch, using only screen shots from the films as reference points.”

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? How the heck do I joint?

Brendan and Tommy are currently following around Ghostheads; those amazing folks who dress like Ghostbusters, build proton packs, and drive around in ECTO-1s. The documentary also, of course, celebrates the cultural impact that the movie has had on the public for the last 31 years. Damn, that’s a long time. The film is also set to be narrated by Slimer voice actress Robin Shelby, and interviews are lined up with original cast and crew members of both films!

Want to see it? Fantastic! The film is already being worked on, but Brendan, Tommy, and the rest of the crew are going to need your help if Ghostheads is ever set to see the light of day.

Yesterday, the team launched a flexible-funding Indiegogo campaign in order to raise funds for the film. Ghostheads has a modest goal of just $30,000, and its already getting a running start with more than $2500 raised in less than a day!

As always, backers get a lot more than a documentary out of the deal. Backer rewards include copies of the film, Zack Ryder signed Peter Venkman Funko Pop! Figures, T-shirts, producer credits, birthday parties (yep), and more! There are certainly some fantastic rewards here that Ghostbusters fans should be jumping on.

Now, it’s all up to you! You can learn more about the film via the Indiegogo campaign video below, and head here to back the project! Be sure to let us know which rewards you’ll be looking for. Can’t back it yourself? I’m pretty sure that you know someone who loves Ghostbusters, and would absolutely want to be a part of this!

https://youtu.be/sYo-_2xKwls

Geekscape 386: The Comikaze 2015 Special With Regina Carpinelli!

by Jonathan

Comikaze 2015 is upon us… and we’re not ready for it! To help us prepare, Comikaze President and Founder Regina Carpinelli drops by the show to take us through the Comikaze schedule of events! What are the highlights? Who are the big names dropping by? And what panels can you not miss this year? Geekscape will be there all weekend, talking to creators, moderating panels and chilling at Booth #150 so listen up, make a plan for the weekend and we’ll see you at Comikaze 2015!

Subscribe to Geekscape on Soundcloud!

Subscribe to the Geekscape podcast on iTunes!

Subscribe to Geekscape TV on YouTube!

I Embraced The Darkside With Ultrasabers’ New Crossguard Lightsaber!

by Jonathan

I’m ready for the 3rd phase of being a Star Wars fan… and it’s a lot like the Holy Trilogy I’ve loved my entire life has prepared me for. In the last 15 years, Star Wars and I have had an often virulent relationship. As anyone who listens to the podcast can tell you, I did not handle The Prequels very well. But you know what? That’s part of being a Star Wars fan.

A New Hope was our early fandom. It was all sunny and amazing. For over 20 years, almost everything Star Wars was great, from the trilogy of films to the video games to the books and comics. It really was the best of times and the future looked bright! But The Prequels for me were like the Empire striking back. It was a pretty dark time for me, one in which I got rid of almost all of my Star Wars memorabilia and cried to anyone who’d listen that we’d all been wronged. I’m not sure if I’m still over the heart break.

But just like the Jedi returned, so has Star Wars… and the future looks promising with a brand new series of films, brand new tie-in stories and the reappearance of our favorite characters. So why wouldn’t I return to A Galaxy Far, Far Away in heavy anticipation for Episode VII? Besides, with brand new Star Wars brings a whole bunch of what helped make us super fans in the first place, right? I’m talking about Star Wars memorabilia!

Well, after steering clear of Force Friday (I know, I still kind’ve want that remote controlled BB-8) I am finally proud to say that I have my first piece of Episode VII swag… and it’s probably the coolest piece on the market yet! Just look at my reaction when I unboxed it and quickly put it together:

CrosssabreSurprise

Yup! I’ve gone to the Darkside! The awesome folks at Ultrasabers sent me their new replica version of Kylo Ren’s crossguard lightsaber… and I love it!

The lightsaber actually shipped in two packages, one with the hilt and the other with the bulbs. The first thing I noticed in unpacking them (furiously, with my dog Rufus helping to destroy the bubble wrap) was the weight of the hilt. It’s very, very well crafted and has a good amount of heft to it. No doubt, shipping them with the plastic LEDs may have damaged them. Even still, the LEDs (which make the cross guard 14” long and 5.5.” wide) seem pretty sturdy. It would take a pretty big impact to damage them. Really, the construction of everything really impressed me.

Hilt

My specific saber came with the batteries ready to go (4 AAAs). And the LEDs were easy to insert and tighten into place with the tiny included Allen wrench. Once that was all done (a few minutes), it was ready to go. This IS the first replica sword that I own (I almost bought a Master Sword and shield at SDCC a few years ago but disciplined myself) and I’m pretty impressed by it. The craftsmanship that went into it is pretty detailed and the aircraft aluminum construction really needs to be felt to be appreciated.

There are other replica lightsaber companies out there but it’s best to go to a company that’s reputable. The model that I got retails on the Ultrasabers site for around $199-$250 depending on what options you select (some of the sabers come with motion sounds, rechargeable batteries, etc.) but they all seem like a high quality for the price. A friend of mine on Facebook warned me away from some of their competitors, saying that companies like Saberforge were known in the fan community as “Saberforgery” because of their reputation for not fulfilling orders. Regardless, I’m pretty glad that my first experience was with the folks at Ultrasabers.

Handle

So just like that, my Star Wars fandom has been reignited and I can’t wait for The Force to awaken. Like every single one of you, I’m planning to get tickets for opening night. This time though, when the lights go down and the opening Star Wars crawl starts stretching across the screen, I won’t be empty handed when the theater fills up with fans waving around their replica lightsabers (because you know it’s going to happen)! I’ll have my Ultrasaber crossguard with me, ready to represent The Dark Side in full Force!

To take a look at the entire inventory of customization options, visit the Ultrasaber site for yourself!

IMG_6546

IMG_6544

IMG_6542

IMG_6536

IMG_6535

Cosplay At RetroCon Gets Nostalgic, Here Are Our Favourites!

by Saintmort

California may currently be hosting the beloved Long Beach Comic-Con, but there’s a smaller convention happening in the Philadelphia area this weekend that I have the pleasure of attending. RetroCon is a blend of all the nostalgic bliss of a convention mixed in with a flea market attitude.

While walking around the convention floor today I talked horror with someone selling some amazing vintage horror titles, talked Lucha Underground with a man who was rocking an Aerostar mask, made slime with the Philadelphia Ghostbusters and checked out some amazing grassroots cosplay.

RetroCon does Cosplay beautifully. While roaming the floor taking pictures there were so many people that put my brain in “holy-shit nostalgia overload” these are just a few of my favorites.

RetroCon - 1

RetroCon - 3

RetroCon - 4

RetroCon - 5

RetroCon - 6

RetroCon - 7

RetroCon - 8

RetroCon - 10

I also wanted to give a quick shout out to people who exhibited their home-made creations. Check out this homemade Bill & Ted Telephone booth and this functional SteamPunk R2 unit.

RetroCon - 9

RetroCon - 2

Jamie Lee Curtis Invades EVO!

by J.C. Marquez

And just like that, it became that much easier to love Jamie Lee Curtis.

It is not uncommon to find a wide variety of fans cosplaying as their favorite video game fighters, but what is uncommon is when a cosplayer happens to be one of the most recognizable actresses on the planet.

Jamie Lee Curtis, the award-winning actress and author, was with her family and walked the floor of EVO in full cosplay–dressed as Vega, Makoto, DeeJay, and Dr. Boskonovich from Tekken (how awesome is that?!). Once leaving the venue, Jamie Lee couldn’t resist but let it be known it was her behind the mask!

jlc

Does this surprise appearance mean we can expect Jaime Lee Curtis DLC in Street Fighter V? Probably not. Her ability to dodge sharp objects would make her such an unfair matchup, anyway.

Which celebrities would you want to see cosplay as fighting game characters? Let us know in the comments!

Geekscape 369: Getting Ready For Summer With The 2 Nerd Girls!

by Jonathan

Summer is definitely upon us… and that means San Diego Comic Con! To get you ready for the biggest Con of them all, I’ve invited The 2 Nerd Girls, Becca and Faith, on the show to talk cosplay, books and all the amazing things that summer has in store! I let you know that ‘San Andreas’ is awesomely outrageous if you have the sense of humor for it and we repeat our love for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘Ex Machina’! We also look forward to ‘Jurassic World’ and discuss the divide in Game of Thrones fandom! The Summer is all about blockbusters and it all starts here!

Subscribe to Geekscape on Soundcloud!

Subscribe to the Geekscape podcast on iTunes!

Subscribe to Geekscape TV on YouTube!

The Best Cosplay We Saw At Atlantic City Boardwalk Con!

by Saintmort

This week I attended Atlantic City Boardwalk Con to do some interviews for The Saint Mort Show, and to help my friends at Ashen Phoenix with their booth. Whenever attending a first time show, you never really know just what you’re about to partake in, but I can honestly say that this was the most fun I’ve had attending a convention in a long time.

The show was easy to navigate, even with a great turnout. I was hugged by Jason Mewes after talking to him about sobriety, got to interview the writer/director of Animaniacs (podcast coming this weekend), watched DMC rap ‘It’s Tricky’ from not more than 15 feet from me, and I took a picture of Xavier Woods not realizing it was him until much much later (more on this below).

At the con I befriend Marvin Cruz of Hero Hotties Photography, I’d like to thank Marvin for providing me with hese pictures so that I wasn’t posting cell phone photos.

There was definitely a lot of great cosplay at the convention, and these were some of the standouts!

_zOA-hXSVZRcfcaVRUzUoTI2eAQibhpDuP_eZ9j52bo,CIgUWUBG6eHXWgpqIVloTPKGd19slMprY-8FzKNe3OU

1DHnVcBZcB1k1wfVIXXbhG0W-tDHrU-B2mIwTlUvex4,QFO0H1lpFdzd8T1jWYLSe6Q1FLb6dEbFgoU4pTDsmDU

3pMtlvL2hnE-hQ5AVPSZxd9oAePsXg-mgpW1N4Kma9Y,FQpPadC-USPM4PJt-GN-v9uHXMELspzr6Xp9YNMz_bc

3ZsBLBdnsnMzWXB2WuTNOfjhrWEXJIFpkRaKkS5BsGc,Dp47qZFMudQImk5a0yWP279a4-6r9hmwQ0_2Q6zxn7M

5SmPmh4gIzDZS9cxixYRpgdyVx5aYF91beckevAG6nc,uaomwOZma8iS0-R4xC1BrLo9i7J4qoQck7tJmTCy0f8

iJGoySxhMcsVTfwxXG6V-YORdkRzx-OFBHiIS_mUyFU,DelnlLgsQ5yVI0AF3tyVRSxSEhzE5tSXoD4KLp9l2dI

JYlaF_RHoMHVPsmBO3ZNJ10ppp8nKMymKM29TOln8SU

KMyccwawoXJMFZ-lZ_8-eQHt9qOAWJgeTIEFTjbMSHw,VbVEMXAHv8QigKRovFu98DcSQwZKU559eiTIRLSGzro

NgjA4zhNNVhgrzJejPsYT4urm1g4g5rHaSImCybPl6w,q7Kvdw028Uhpz4gL_3vv4J_3tOqOm3luOoZUNMziJSM-1

nowWyAZ5cqjZ9ALDDbYRDGQLQ0W-leP_IdSz88DP5fc,F1VrX1adXDjHvj0sjtMdoHT3AKEAJ1LucpJ7e0p_9Wk

sHW-_i3FHVIpfM3tkxBSui3g_xsZODlF2ud8nPusVN0

t7HP8AWllJ2lZqIaloHi-RXmnLvKmmJzYlnofKKMmMU,UzDVV_Bq3SHOwn24R4F61ah7EdTL54gWTZs7_9xZ56Y

vdzNV4WrdkpAp35U6gf8bNFojQFwW99IvJ9Um2J3-mI,UMk80gaKARQzjdZmUfEZEXjpblFFehuVCGQwZprne10

zL6IK-ZC_9TIgzzfuon97CS6uVExkveSNXu6OdxvqGA

Okay so Marvin didn’t take this last photo. It was pulled from Xavier Woods’ Instagram, but it comes with a story. In wrestling there has been a faction called New Day that people HATED. About 2-3 months ago I began telling people that I genuinely think they were about to turn a corner and become must watch TV. Everyone made fun of me. Now they’re still getting booed … but because they’re heels. They’re hilarious and people have seemed to embrace them more.

So at the booth a guy dressed as the black ranger came over to get a photograph, and I thought he looked familiar but I couldn’t place a name to the face. He wanted a picture with one of the models dressed as Kraven (who was his friends favorite Spider-Man villain). We took the photo and about an hour later another fan came by the booth and noticed my Dolph Ziggler shirt and said “Did you see Xavier Woods was cos-playing as the Black Ranger?”

I checked Instagram and lo and behold… I failed at a chance to tell Xavier Woods how much I love the New Day gimmick (for evidence look no further than this weeks episode of the Saint Mort Show podcast).

11231754_10152763117470780_3765376930864228879_n

The Saint Mort Show Episode 122: The Ashen Phoenix Galactic Con Booth Party

by Saintmort

Matt joins the Ashen Phoenix Team at Galactic Con to talk about small conventions, failed date rape attempts, penis pics and butts. No… I’m not kidding.

Pick up your copy of Invaders From Mars from Scream Factory.

Follow Saint Mort on Facebook and Twitter and SoundCloud.

If you really like the show get Matt something nice off his AmazonWishList

Subscribe to Us on iTunes

Check Out Some Of Emerald City Comicon’s Best Cosplay!

by Derek Kraneveldt

Emerald City Comicon has come and gone, and along with 80,000 eager geeks, hundreds of extremely talented cosplayers descended on the Washington State Convention Centre.

I had a blast talking to some of the costumers throughout the weekend, and the ECCC Cosplay contest featured some of the best cosplays that I’d ever seen. I took a few photos of the costumes I saw at the convention, so take a look below, and let us know which one is your favourite!

DSC_0436

DSC_0431

DSC_0432

DSC_0433

DSC_0439

DSC_0440

DSC_0445

DSC_0448

DSC_0461-2

DSC_0525

DSC_0530

DSC_0534

DSC_0535

DSC_0541

DSC_0544

DSC_0548

DSC_0552

DSC_0554

DSC_0567

DSC_0572

DSC_0580

DSC_0588

DSC_0591

DSC_0598

DSC_0629

DSC_0632

DSC_0644

DSC_0652

DSC_0659

DSC_0667

DSC_0668

DSC_0710

DSC_0712

DSC_0716

DSC_0722

DSC_0726

It’s hard to see in the photo, but that Halo 4 baddie was too big to fit on the stage!

Meet Robert Franzese, The Real-Life Peter Griffin

by Eric Francisco

By now you may have heard of Robert Franzese. If you haven’t, you definitely have seen him. Last year he made waves online with his flawless cosplay and impersonation of Peter Griffin, the central oaf of Seth MacFarlane’s never-ending Family Guy.

Now, a short documentary has surfaced online, and the man himself seems way cooler than any spot-on cosplay.

Produced by BOOM! Big Pants, Robert Franzese is an aspiring voice actor but is a “nobody” with a “nobody job” making “nobody pay.” And in just 4 minutes, you learn a little about how geek culture can elevate said “nobodys” into “somebodys,” and we hope that somebody does what they do with the best intentions. For Franzese, you can feel his passion for geek culture. While he is the stereotypical image of a nerd, he’s incredibly eloquent, smart, and very sharp both in-character and as himself. It’s guys like Franzese, I think, that embody the best about the environment we have chosen to surround ourselves in.

I don’t know Franzese in real life, and I only just now started following him on social media. I don’t know his political views, I do not know his personal life, I just don’t know him. But in the 4 minutes I’ve seen him, he seems pretty A-OK, and it’s heartwarming to see him do stuff purely to make people happy.

You go, Robert Franzese, and good luck on your voice acting career (you seriously need to watch him do other characters, the accuracy is insane). If he ever says something awful or does something terrible that I can’t get behind I’ll be sure to rage on my keyboard, but for now: the dude is all right with me.

You can follow Robert Franzese as the Real Life Peter Griffin here.

The Saint Mort Show Episode 107: Hollyhocks from Ashen Phoenix

by Saintmort

Ashen Phoenix is back! This time with model Hollyhocks! Holly is a charming and eccentric model/cosplayer who opens up about her favorite characters to cosplay as, her life as a single mom and her love of 90’s everything. Also before the interview check out my brief interview with Kevin Hock the writer of Fantasy Killer an amazing new horror/comedy comic book.

The song during the intro is #nudesforsatan by Ichabod Crane.

Follow Saint Mort on Facebook and Twitter

If you really like the show get Matt something nice off his AmazonWishList

Subscribe to Us on iTunes

Follow Us on Soundcloud

 

Fandom Planet #71 Live from Comikaze Expo 2014

by SaxCarr

Tim and Sax sit down the “The Birds of ‘Play” cosplay duo, ABC’s The Quest contestant Bonnie Gordon, and YouTube legend Katers17 at the 2014 Comikaze Expo to talk about taking your fandom into the public eye, and maybe making some money at it. Learn the stories of these four amazing geeks, and hear their thoughts on some of the more pressing geek issues such as cosplay and conventions. Its Fandom Planet.  (audio is down after these exciting images of the guests)

 

The birds have many versions of these two character costumes.
The birds have many versions of these two character costumes.

Bonnie has started 'The Library Bards"
Bonnie has started ‘The Library Bards”

Katers has new hair now... this photo does not.
Katers has new hair now… this photo does not.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:31 — 21.8MB)

The Saint Mort Show Episode 99: Alvree of Ashen Phoenix

by Saintmort

I was at RetroCon this weekend and got a chance to sit down with Alvree of Ashen Phoenix. Alvree is one of the quirkiest and interesting guests I’ve ever had. Instead of talking Cosplay we ended up discussing how great Horror Movies and Halloween is. A perfect way to end September and kick off October.

The song playing during the intro is II by Athletics off their album Who You Are Is Not Enough.

Follow Saint Mort on Facebook and Twitter

If you really like the show get Matt something nice off his AmazonWishList

Subscribe to Us on iTunes

 

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()

Universal Releases Back To The Future II High Tops You Can Actually Afford!

by Shane O'Hare

Way back in 2011, Nike made a seriously limited number of the highly sought after light-up high tops from Back to The Future II, and auctioned them off with all the proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox charity. Pairs of the shoes went for hundreds of dollars, and all 1,500 got gobbled up quickly, quickly killing any dreams of us regular folks of snagging a pair…UNTIL NOW!

Universal Studios has teamed up with HalloweenCostumes.com to release a pair of the sneakers to consumers for $99! They don’t self lace or anything, but they do light up via a rechargeable battery!

Back to the future shoes light up
My future sure is bright!

Though already listed as “OUT OF STOCK”, you can be sure HalloweenCostumes.com is quickly making more.

To attempt to get your hands on a pair, head on over to HalloweenCostumes.com!

This Guy Shows Us How To Make His Awesome Cosplay Soul Edge Blade From ‘Soul Calibur’

by Shane O'Hare

You may or may not have seen some of Will’s videos. He has an amazing channel centered around making things yourself. Some of the highlights of his channel are making props from video games, and his newest video has to be seen! Check out how he turned cardboard and foam into the Soul Edge Blade from Soul Calibur!

Check out his channel EpicFantasy and his homepage Storm The Castle!

The Saint Mort Show Episode 094: Paul Ray of Ashen Phoenix

by Saintmort

This week I sat down with Ashen Phoenix founder Paul Ray and we discussed what its like professionally attending comic conventions, why the internet would produce the worst wrestling writers and why Fantastic Four is almost undeniably going to be terrible.

The intro music contains the song Ocean City Windshield Punch by Facts . 

Follow Saint Mort on Facebook and Twitter

If you really like the show get Matt something nice off his AmazonWishList

Subscribe to Us on iTunes

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()

The Cosplay Of Anime Expo 2014

by Josh Jackson

Now that Anime Expo has come and gone, and as we gear up for Comic Con this week, what kind of jerks would be be if we didn’t share the incredible cosplay from the event?

From Monster Hunter to Hyperdimension Neptunia. Blazblue to Phoenix Wright. And of course, there was plenty of Sailor Moon at the show. Check out the best of AX 2014’s cosplay, and stick with Geekscape as we move on to Comic Con!