Comic Con Cosplay - Become Superstars

Cosplay, short for costume play, is a mix of costume creation and role-playing, and it’s a big part of the scene at Comic-Con, the annual pop culture expo that kicked off Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Transformers and Stormtroopers mingle with Dothraki warlords and Disney princesses. Cosplayers strive for authenticity, trying to come as close to the character as possible.

Briana Roecks dressed as Batgirl at Comic-Con 2013. The San Diego Convention Center is in the background. (Kirk McKoy/ Los Angeles Times)

Briana Roecks dressed as Batgirl at Comic-Con 2013. The San Diego Convention Center is in the background. (Kirk McKoy/ Los Angeles Times)

That doesn’t come easy. The Batgirl and Robin costumes that Roecks and Earnhart are rocking are the products of more than three months of bargain hunting, pattern-making and sewing.

While there are plenty of cardboard-and-tape costumes on the Comic-Con floor, serious cosplayers often spend months and sometimes thousands of dollars creating elaborate costumes, often more than one per convention.

Roecks and Earnhart are each wearing three costumes for San Diego Comic-Con. In addition to Thursday’s Batgirl and Robin getup, the couple joined a group of people dressed as fairies from Disney’s Tinker Bell franchise on Friday. And for Saturday’s Masquerade — the expo’s annual costume contest — Roecks, Earnhart and another friend are entering as Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.

Now in its 43rd year, Comic-Con International has attracted costumed participants since the very beginning, said David Glanzer, spokesman for the convention. Glanzer recalls working with friends to create “Star Wars” costumes in the 1970s.

“It was living in a fantasy for a couple of hours and having people acknowledge that,” Glanzer said.

Jessica Merizan, lead community manager for Electronic Arts division BioWare Edmonton-Montreal and co-founder of cosplay fabrication shop Crabcat Industries, wrote her masters dissertation on cosplay and fandom. Merizan theorizes that putting on a costume is transformative, either revealing an aspect of the wearer that is normally hidden, or hiding an aspect the cosplayer would rather not show.

“Cosplay helped me get over being socially anxious and have more confidence in myself,” Merizan said. “It sounds really egotistical, but it does make you feel like you’re kind of a celebrity, just for that moment. Everyone is like paparazzi, and everyone wants your picture. And it’s really cool because you worked so hard and you’re really proud of what you’re wearing. … It’s like being Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.”

For some cosplayers, however, the appeal is more in creating the costume than in wearing it.

Lisa McKeever, a 29-year-old engineer who works on heart valve replacements, has been cosplaying since 2008. She spends months designing her costumes, spending between $200 and $900.