Cosplay: London Super Comic Con 2013

This post has been a long time coming! It will be pretty image heavy, but filled with lots of the awesome cosplay I saw at London Super Comic Con this year.

There was some pretty fantastic cosplay, as always, with characters from almost all franchises represented. I almost made the terrible mistake of missing the cosplay competition but I managed to sweet talk my way into the show venue so that I could take pictures, but it did mean that I didn't get quite as good a selection of photos as I had hoped for.

If you are in any of these images message me and I can link to blogs or websites as appropriate!

Anywho, here goes (all photos are labelled clockwise from the top left):

Riddler, Batman, Robin, TwoFace, Nightwing, Huntress, Supergirl, Supergirl and Kryptonian Supergirl

Black Widow, Bane, Ariel (The Little Mermaid) 

 Captain America (Femme), Kitty Pryde, Judge

 Hawk Girl, She-Hulk, Red She-Hulk, Juggernaut, Storm

Victorian Wolverine (Femme), Victorian Gambit, Victorian Cable, Electra, Zatanna, Beast, Xena, Red Sonja

Robin, Catwoman, Catwoman, Batman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman Gingy, Punisher Gingy, Poison Ivy, Mortal Kombat characters, Hellboy, Spawn, Ms. Marvel

Tony Stark, Amazing Bag-Man, J Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker, Wolverine, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Black Canary 

My final cosplay picture is of the winners of the two categories, best child and best adult cosplay. The winners were Hellboy and G'nort (who I got confused with C'hp but never mind) and sadly this is the best picture I managed to snap as they seemed to jump around a lot... But the costumes were pretty good!

There were also some amazing stalls, selling books, toys and even home furnishings!

Lastly, here is a snipped of some of my comics haul for the weekend, several TPB of recent and not-so-recent stories, back issues of Birds of Prey (5 for £1!) X-men Legacy and the whole run of Spandex, signed and doodled on by the author himself.

Cosplay Costume: Gwen Stacy Cosplay at the London Super Comic Convention

Here is the tale of my second day at London Super Comic Con. It was an odd old day, at least 4 or 5 people pointed at me and shouted 'You're dead!' I was possibly flirted at by an in character Kaine Scarlet Spider and was given a hug and some sneaky information by Spider (among other things) -legend Dan Slott.

This was the day I spent dressed as Gwen Stacy, the deceased one-time leading lady of the Amazing Spider-Man.

*Spoilers*
Gwen is especially famous and tragic as she is one of the few comic book characters who has really stayed dead. The Night Gwen Stacy Died is a really moving read and a comic classic from the early 70s and if you're a fan of superhero tear jerkers this one is amazing.

Any who enough about the life of Gwen. If you want to know more I wrote a more in depth article a little while ago for Den of Geek and you can read it here.

Gwen Stacy is an iconic character from the 1960s and 1970s and her style is very reflective of that. She is commonly seen in tall boots, a mini skirt and trench coat and her blond hair is cut in a very 60s style and worn with a classic alice band. This styling was also seen in the latest Amazing Spider-Man movie where she wore short skirts and long socks.

My outfit was something I put together after searching charity shops etc. with all the crafty work I put into my Star Sapphire costume I wanted something more relaxed for the second day of the conference. I wore my blonde Sookie Stackhouse wig, which was a little curlier than I'd have liked, but I thought it was the perfect colour and cut. This was paired with a simple black top, a blue mini skirt, black boots and over knee socks and a green trench coat.

As one final touch I added a cute toy Spider-Man (that belonged to my husband but may be living in my room now...).

Here is the final look in a few of its iterations:

My cosplay was also featured on the Women of comic book cosplay tumblr blog :)

Finally to accompany my outfit my husband CJ dressed as Peter Parker, a chap he resembles a bit anyway, but a few extra touches like a camera and press badge made it more of a costume. I'm not sure that many people knew what we were going for, but that's always an issue when you go for a more relaxed costume option in this way. I did manage to run into a sort of love rival Black Cat too, so I had to get a photo!

To finally make my day I attended the Superior Spider-Man panel with writer Dan Slott. Now this is something I didn't read, mainly because I didn't want to buy into the hype, and I was a little sad about the death of Peter Parker so I wanted to reserve judgement until I could get stuck into a TPB. I have previously enjoyed Slott's work, like Spider Island, so I was interested to hear what he said about the character.

Lets just say that after hearing him speak I am very eager to read the story. I then queued for a little while to get a signature on my copy of Spider-Island, the real icing on the cake was the warm welcome he gave me (and a hug) and he even signed our little Spider-man!!

It was a really lovely day all in all, lots of shopping, lots of comics, lots of happy memories - I love comic con!

Cosplay Costumes: Star Sapphire Cosplay at the London Super Comic Convention 2013

Last weekend I went to London Super Comic Convention! It was a great event and I have spent about a month working on my costume for the event... So here it is, my costume has been worn, the event is over and its time for me to share all the photos! This post is a little about the process of making the costume and the costume itself (I'll post more on the event itself later).

On the first day I dressed as classic Star Sapphire. A somewhat obscure choice as dressing as a DC super villain is rarely the most recognisable thing to do (unless you're dressing as the Joker) but I liked the look of the costume and it seemed like a great choice for the first spin on my sewing machine.
This costume is from the 1960s and is a classic comic book costume so it seemed really appropriate for this blog.

I made the bulk of the costume from a 4 way stretch pink lycra and I cut up an old t-shirt to get the fabric for the collar and waist section. In hindsight getting more lycra for the white section would have worked better but never mind! I used existing clothing to make the pattern pieces for the suit and then sewed it all together. It is handy that lycra is quite forgiving when it comes to sewing, however the fabric is a nightmare to stitch... I bought some pink boots and covered a hat I had with the leftover lycra. Lastly I bought a white mask from a costume shop and painted it in a bright pink. I think the thing I was most pleased with was the fact that I managed to put in a zip, that at least made things far easier on the day!

When it came to actually wearing the costume I was terrified! Debuting a costume is nerve-wracking enough, but when it is something you've made yourself it adds an extra dimension of terror. In fact, the fact that so many people at comic-cons sew and make their own costumes it is a little bit intimidating.

Luckily everyone is super nice! Even the people that don't recognise you're character are friendly, asking about sewing techniques etc. A con is also a great place to pick up hints and tips and new inspiration.

So without further stalling - here is the costume in full!

I met up with fellow blogger and (blue) lantern Saranga so a lantern pic was a must!

I also managed to get in on a DC character group photo with not one, but two green lanterns!

I'd like to add that it is super liberating being able to walk around like that without fear of being judged... I think we women are self critical so often that it is nice to take a moment in a community where all shapes and sizes are accepted and people are able to share in fandom. If you've not tried it yet, I highly recommend it!

I'll have pictures of more cosplay from the event up soon (some of it was amazing)!

Cosplay Costumes: Ms. Marvel Cosplay at the London Super Comic Convention 2012

Any one who’s been following my twitter will know that I have been going on and on about making my Ms. Marvel costume for London SuperComic Con (or LSCC for short).

Anywho, I was once told that to call something cosplay it required at least 70% of items worn needed to be home made or modified. I have since learned that while this is true in the highest levels of cosplay competition it does not really apply to amateurs, like me, and the word has taken on a more generic meaning similar to ‘fancy dress’. I guess it’s in the same way cosplay encompasses all aspects of dressing up now, not just those related to Japan.

However for the LSCC I decided to actually make my costume, well as best as I could without a sewing machine!

Ms. Marvel, secret identity Carol Danvers, costume involves a sleeveless high neck body suit with a lightning bolt on the front, some thigh high boots and a red sash to preserve some dignity. She also has long yellow blonde hair and a mark to protect her identity.

With this in mind I set out to create the body suit from a long sleeve top from good ‘ol Primark (from which I removed the sleeves) and cut a lightning bolt into satin fabric in the right sort of gold colour.

Sewing this bad boy was a real pain! The fabric frayed terribly and didn’t stretch at all meaning by the time I had hand sewn the shape to the stretched top I was left with a kind of wrinkly effect. This wasn’t so bad once I was wearing the costume, but I certainly learnt just why superheroes wear stretchy spandex!

Phase two was creating the sash. This was achieved by cutting a meter of red sating fabric in half and sewing it together – not too tricky. I would have loved to have hemmed the edges but sadly I just didn’t have time… but I think I may have gotten away with it.

The final part was adding the accessories, painting on my mask (I've previously recommended MAC Fluidline for this), putting on the wig and sewing my stockings to my tights, yes you heard right, that was quite an effort, but with my size it is exceptionally difficult to get a pair of over the knee boots to fit!

Finally I was ready to leave the house!

Here’s the final look:

The experience of being dressed in something that I had made was fantastic! Furthermore there was the added bonus that people actually knew who I was!

I wandered around the convention taking photos for Den ofGeek, doing my day-job (I WISH!), and posed for photos with fans of Ms. Marvel and some people with an interest in cosplay.

A highlight of this was when a man asked if his tiny son could have his picture taken with me. I nearly cried it was just so cute!

I also had my picture taken at the Panini Marvel Graphic Novels stand with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor… or at least their cardboard equivalents.

Then I went to artist’s alley and after asking for autographs I had my pictures taken with several comic artist and writers – some of which even complimented me on my costume, including Peter Nguyen, Mike Carey, Mike Norton and Paul Cornell!

I must confess, and this sounds very vain, but I felt great! Typically I suffer a lot with body image problems and have to say that going outside in a silly outfit, wearing a mask is extremely therapeutic for resolving this (even if temporarily). I would definitely encourage anyone to try it. 

 I can absolutely see why people get hooked on this.

For the final part of the day I *reluctantly* took part in the cosplay competition – my first. It was terrifying! And I had no idea what to do, and I made a complete mess of it… but it was still fun and having done one, I would very much like to do some more. I just need to work on some poses and get some practice with my sewing machine!

I'll post a gallery of my favourite cosplays from the convention in the near future and I'll also post about retro-cosplay and what I wore on Sunday in a few days too. Until then...

Cosplay Costumes: Trailer Trash - Comic Book Flicks - Harley Quinn Cosplay

With some of my costuming events (London Super Comic Con and Trailer Trash) coming up in the next couple of months I thought I would do a post about a super villain costume I wore way back in autumn 2009!

Trailer Trash: Comic book flicks was an event I had won tickets to at the previous event and with my love of comic books in mind I knew I had to raise the costume bar!

After much thought and a few suggestions from friends I settled on The Joker's number 1 groupy Harley Quinn. Partly this was down to the fact that I liked the character but also because my friend Sadie was planning on dressing as Poison Ivy and for those that don't know it, Harley and Ivy are the BFFs of Gotham City.

Now I'm not much of a sewer, and the things I do sew are by hand (please bear this in mind when I explain making my Ms. Marvel costume in the not too distant future) so the prospect of making a full body suit was terrifying!

Luckily for me several companies make Quinn costumes to rescue even the most hopeless of us. I managed to find one on eBay (where else?) that seemed appropriate for my size, 12-14, so I took a risk and ordered it.

When it arrived I tried it on and promptly ordered a pair of super sexy spanx to hold everything in place and went on a mission to find other items like a mask and white facepaint.

My makeup took about an hour to apply and I made sure to wear my hair in bunches for authenticity but once this was done the rest of the costume was easy.

Here are a couple of snaps of me as Harley and Sadie as Ivy:

The evening was great fun! On the way there I bumped into a friend who didn't even recognise me on and the music and acts throughout the evening were great. There wear quite a few Batman Rogues at the event and I manages to get a snap with a few of us together. This was also the event where my tradition of accidentally dressing as a stripper started with the performance of an awesome Harley Quinn burlesque act by Miss Honey Moon!

I was very pleased with the overall look, and the Trailer Trash team must have been too as I even won first place in the costume competition and received free tickets to the next event and a bottle of bubbly :D

You can find other costumes I wore for Trailer Trash Sci-fi and Vanpires vs. Zombies on Fancy Dresscapades and I'll be posting on next months Speakeasy (23rd of February at Brighton Komedia) and what I wore to the Moulin Rouge event later on.

My next big costume challenge is Ms. Marvel though and I'll let you know how that goes very soon. Its the most ambitious thing I've made in some time and I'm very excited!

Wedding Planning: Scenes From An Impending Marriage

Last weekend my fiancé surprised me with a package from Amazon – and it made me smile so much that I thought I’d share!

A few of you may know that I am planning a wedding and I’m sure any of you that have planned or are in the process of planning a wedding will be aware; it can be a stressful business.

This little Amazon package contained a book: ‘Scenes From an Impending Marriage’ by cartoonist Adrian Tomine.

This is a small book, roughly 5 inches square, and around 40 pages in length. It is comprised of short comic strips featuring conversations and actions that occurred before the authors wedding. Running through events such as choosing a DJ, keeping both family traditions alive and trying to please everyone on the guest list.

I believe it was published as a wedding favour for guests and certainly pokes fun at the whole process of wedding planning.

It is the kind of book that when you read it you think – ‘Oh my gosh! That’s just like us!’

I won’t go into too much detail of the stories, but it manages to remain sweet and poignant and is really worth a read if you need to let off some steam during your wedding planning.