By Dave Paone
Campus News
Campus News just loves cosplay. And having been featured in three cosplay stories (including this one), 23-year-old Abigail Loos has earned the moniker of the Campus News cosplay mainstay.
“When Abigail was 11, we were in Maine at a Chinese buffet in Portland,” her mother, Teresa Loos, said.
“Two girls came in dressed as Sonic video game characters that Abigail played. She quickly ran up to them to get a picture with them. The girls told her about the PortCon comic con that they were attending across the street.
“A whole new world opened up for her at that point. From then on, her birthday parties were cosplay birthday parties. All of her friends loved her parties every year.”
By 17 Abigail was hooked and started to go to conventions, or “cons” as they’re called in the industry.
That first con (where she won a competition with her first costume) kicked off something close to a full-time job attending them throughout the Northeast, all year long.
But Abigail doesn’t do it alone. Teresa has been a seamstress since she was a child, sewing on a machine that was powered by her foot on a treadle, and together they make the younger Loos’ costumes from scratch.
The mother-daughter-cosplay team travels together, often staying in hotels close to the venues for days at a time.
Their latest convention was the New York Comic Con in Manhattan last month. The costume party lasted four days, but the Looses stayed in a nearby hotel for five.
Although they’re from Long Island, they reside on the South Fork, so commuting for the duration was not feasible.
Over the four days, Abigail masqueraded as humans with superpowers, aliens, a humanoid and an Autobot.
Transformer Elita One was her most elaborate costume. It was assembled from 17 separate parts, plus a harness, and made from wood, EVA foam, Worbla, a Spandex bodysuit, and a modified chrome mask with battery-operated lights. It took months to build.
In addition to going to cons as an attendee, Abigail is 25% of a quartet that performs as the Fantastic Four. Naturally, she’s the girl. They were hired at a con last year to walk around and take pictures with attendees, boosting morale.
Teresa estimates the New York Comic Con was their 48th over the past six years and they have no plans to stop.
“I love cosplay. It’s a positive outlet for pretty much everything, including people who are on the spectrum like myself,” Abigail told Campus News on the first day there.
“I’m not going to stop. I love it.”
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