March 16, 2015

• Looking Comical

  This last Saturday found me at the Comic Con in Indianapolis. It had a little of everything for everyone. Before I get to the photos (and I took lots of photos) I have to say that the people attending fell into several broad categories:
  1. The curious fans - these are people who attended without dressing up. They didn't spend exorbitant amounts of money on replicas of costumes or props. Nor did they shell out money for autographs or photos with stars...
  2. The Cos play crowd - these are the people who identify with a character or story and dress up as a character in that story. Some of them are very young and some are very old. Some do justice to the character and others become a mockery. There are several subgroups that include: "creepy old guys", "pitiful attempts", and the "delusional".
  3. The professional - this small group of folks are paid by the organizers to attend the Comic Con and provide photo opportunities for the attendees - some are free and others require a fee or gratuity for posing for pictures.
  4. The Hardcore - these people are so into the world of make believe that they have blurred the lines. They tend to do odd things such as get tattoos to mimic that of their characters (Chakotay for example) or have facial or body modifications to look like the alien's they portray (for example Vulcan ears). They also spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours making, buying, and modifying clothing to replicate the costumes worn by the character they are imitating.

  Sparky and I plunked down our money, had the wrist band attached, and made our way into Comic Con. We discovered that it wasn't just about comic strip characters. There were comic characters from the super heroes
     
  to the side kicks to the love interests and even including auxiliary characters. (Poison Ivy was by far the most popular - sorry no photos.)
  Anime was represented, especially by the younger crowd.
  The movies were represented with a heavy concentration of Star Wars characters.

      The good Jedi.

       Darth Vader was imposing and on a mission  to crush the rebel forces.

      The Sith were present as well, and the menace wasn't phantom at all. He confided that the horns were attached with super glue and that he's lose skin in taking them off - but it was worth it!

      Princess Leia as a child to Leia as an adult. Not to forget the various other characters like R2D2m,  and Queen Amadala.

       I won't tell what he said to me as the photo was taken!

     
  There were a variety of Imperial Storm Troopers and officers , some friendlier than others!
  
  There was a larger than life size Rancor ready to devour the person unfortunate to find themselves too close. It was about $25 to pose up close. You even got to hold a large bone from one of its earlier victims.

     
  There was even the bounty hunter, Boba Fett. He was very difficult to photograph as he didn't want to hold still.
  There were characters from TV shows:
  One of my favorites being Star Trek
       The 3 girls were having fun and the Vulcan was holding a Tribble. The 2 guys had just met and wanted us to take a photo of them together with their phones, kind of a mutual admiration for the costume accuracy.

      Bender from Futurama and Quailman from the Nickelodeon show Doug. Both had really good costumes.
        Surprisingly there were a large number of characters from Game of Thrones.  And many vendors selling the implements of destruction. The knives were from a vendor called "Sharp Pointy Things".
  There were many Dr. Who fans and a fair number of those who dressed up. At one point I counted 11 people wearing this Tardis dress. There was only one wearing a homemade Tardis outfit...

        
  I couldn't resist having my photo taken in front of the mock up of the Tardis. Then we spotted a ton of Time Lords. Most were very elusive. I finally pursued and was able to catch this Doctor with his companion.
        
  We saw many Disney characters - a predominance of Disney Princesses ( mostly Elsa and a few Anna's thrown in for good measure), with some of the Disney villains although Maleficent seemed to have been the most popular.
     
  We saw lots of the Hunger Games folks - too many to count. After awhile you just ignored them. We did take this photo of Katniss just because she was posing.
  
  There were video game characters such as Mario and Luigi, Zelda, and the wildly popular among the young males, Desmond of Assassin's Creed.
  
  We also spotted Waldo and Carmen San Diego.
      Although this was the only Waldo present, I think I've seen the real one on several other occasions.

  • 6:30 am
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