HEROES OF COSPLAY 3

I was writing about obsessions yesterday and watching SyFy’s Heroes
of Cosplay has become a minor obsession of mine.  The show’s third
episode was something of a change of pace with only four members of
the cast taking part in Megacon’s costume competition.  There were
also brief appearances by YaYa Han and Victoria Schmidt.

My interest in cosplaying is more about the fun of it than with the
professional cosplayers featured in this series.  The professionals
are either making a living from their cosplaying and design work or
hoping to do so in the future.  So the competition can get intense.
The show producers doubtless love the drama of the competition, but
I’d like to see more of the fun of cosplaying.  If the series gets
renewed, an episode devoted to floor costumes and/or the folks who
just love to wear costumes would be most welcome.

Business and cosplaying partners Holly and Jessica were the genuine
stars of this episode.  For the first time, they weren’t competing
as a team.  Instead, they created their own costumes and competed
as individuals. Their concern over how this might affect both their
friendship and partnership seemed a lot more real than some of the
clearly exaggerated drama of previous episodes. 

Becky, known for her performances, wanted to ramp up her chances of
winning a prize with a prop.  Her costume and persona were that of
Taffyta Muttonfudge from Wreck-In Ralph.  Taffyta’s car was to be
her prop...until airline security searched the package in which the
vehicle was shipped and left out a key part when they resealed it.
Becky has a knack for portraying characters, but the judges seem to
want bright flashing lights from the competitors.

Digression.  I take issue with the judges being so easily swayed
by the equivalent of Christmas tree lights.  Week after week, they
give prizes to cosplayers whose costumes light up.  Those costumes
might be authentic and well-made, but they don’t have the heart I
see in performances like Becky’s and Holly’s and Jessica’s.  Their
value system is skewered towards the bright shining objects.  For
me, heart and personality are what make a costume and a cosplayer
great.  End digression.

Riki went with Bettie Page as the Rocketeer, based on a story from
the Rocketeer comic books.  The costume was very well made and her
performance was excellent.  How is it that vintage lingerie always
seemed almost innocent when worn by Bettie Page?

YaYa’s sequence had her modeling for her own action figure before
leaving for Norway.  I found I didn’t miss YaYa having a more major
role in this episode, but I did miss not seeing Victoria and Jinyo
competing.  Victoria can be a little prickly, but I’m still pulling
for her to take home a prize before the show reaches the end of its
six-episode run.

One last note on Heroes of Cosplay.  I shouldn’t be surprised, but
more than a few cosplaying fans have been extremely nasty in their
posts on the series and its stars.  Just as they are quick to knock
any cosplayers whose physical form doesn’t match that of whatever
fictitious characters they are portraying.  A pox on the houses of
all these uninvolved asshats.

In the case of Heroes of Cosplay cast, I’m amazed by how much hard
work goes into the creation of their costumes.  In the case of the
cosplayers who don’t quite achieve the exact look of the characters
they portray, I enjoy seeing them having the fun of being someone
other than themselves for a few hours.  The former are more skilled
than I could ever be and the latter more courageous.  I salute them
all...and another pox on the asshats who would deny them this.

****************************** 

With exceedingly rare exception, I enjoy hanging out with my garage
sale customers.  I do get annoyed by “civilians” who think they can
haggle with me on my already incredibly low prices...like the woman
who was complaining that her son wanted to spend two whole dollars
on a trade paperback that originally cost over ten dollars.

I used to agree to special showings to accommodate those customers
who couldn’t make it to my garage during regular sale hours.  What
put an end to that were these annoyances...

1. The customer who made an appointment and didn’t show up.

2. The customer who spent nearly two hours going through my boxes
and bought exactly three bucks worth of comics. 

3. The customer who, doing the same as the above customer, got all
imperious when I told him he would have to complete his sale as I
had things to do and snarked:

“Oh, what do you have to do?”

Then there are the blessed few customers who say really dumb things
in front of me. I’m not anyone’s priest, doctor, or even bartender.
No one who says dumb stuff within my hearing has any expectation of
privacy.  This brings us to a brief conversation overheard during
last weekend’s garage sale.  It has been condensed and edited for
your reading enjoyment.

We’ll call the speakers THING ONE and THING TWO.

THING ONE: Dave Gibbons isn't going to be at the Baltimore Comic-
Con.

THING TWO: Yeah, I'm not happy about that.
THING ONE: Since I won't be standing in line for him, I figure I'll
have time to stand in David Finch's line and get a free sketch from
him.

THING TWO: He does free sketches?
THING ONE: He's been doing them.  That's why his line is always so
long.  I don't like his art, but his sketches sell for around $60
on eBay.  I can flip it and pay for the convention.

How utterly charming! I’m now in complete and utter solidarity with
artists who won't do free (or even paid) sketches at conventions.
But I am thinking of doing free sketches at conventions myself,
just to see if such "fans" try to sell them on eBay.

******************************

Speaking of my garage sales...

The September 6-7 garage sale is cancelled.  In the past few days,
some new projects have beckoned and I realized I would not be able
to devote the necessary time to making that garage sale as cool as
I would like it to be.

On the good news front, since I now have until September 20-21 to
prepare my next garage sale, I can go through the two dozen boxes
I’ve brought to my house from the Fortress of Storage over the past
month.  Fingers crossed, this should result in more unusual items
and older comic books for that next sale. 

The schedule change also means I’ll have more time to put together
more of those ever-popular five-dollar mystery boxes my customers
love so much.  Be warned, even though I plan to limit the mystery
boxes to one per customers, they will probably still go real fast.
They’re just that much fun.

Besides the September 20-21 garage sale, there will be at least one
and perhaps two garage sales in October.  When the garage sales are
done for 2013, then I’ll make my decision as to whether or not I’ll
be doing any mail-order sales this winter.

My Fortress of Storage project for post-garage sales is a big one.
Because I need to figure out what’s in all the remaining boxes in
the Fortress - I’m looking for some important paperwork - I need to
remove everything from the storage unit, go through every box and
then rearrange the boxes so that I’ll be able to get to them much
easier for my 2014 garage sales.  More on that as we get closer to
when I have to decide if I need to hire some strong young people to
help me with this task.

As for this bloggy thing...

For the immediate future, I’ll be writing random columns like this
one and the other ones I’ve been writing.  I’ll also be tossing my
movie review columns into the mix.  But, rest assured, I’ll return
to comics reviewing, Rawhide Kid Wednesdays and those vintage
comic-book covers from my past as soon as possible.

That’s all for today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2013 Tony Isabella