By Dave Paone
Campus News
There were superheroes and supervillains. There were Ghostbusters and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. There were wizards and warlocks and princesses of the Leia and Disney varieties.
It was the New York Comic Con at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, and once again, college students and recent grads were there in abundance, cosplaying for four days in October.
Sophie (who preferred to use just her first name as did most attendees we met) came dressed as Neve of the video game “Goddess of Victory: Nikke.” She studies art at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
So why Neve?
“I like polar bears and she gets a little polar bear hood so I was like, ′Why not be a little polar bear girl for a day?′” said the 23-year-old. “And I love wearing platforms so it was an excuse to wear platforms.”
Since Sophie is a New Yorker, she took the subway to the Javits Center – dressed as a polar bear in platform shoes.
Campus News met her on Saturday, which she said was the best day to commute because the trains had plenty of other attendees in costumes on them.
Thursday was another story.
“Thursday was weird. I got a lot of looks. Probably someone took my photo, I don’t know,” she said.
Olivia is a 21-year-old English and education major at Stony Brook University and came dressed as Boosette of “Super Mario World.”
For Olivia, the convention was a family affair.
When we met, she was accompanied by her father, Ken, dressed as Chewbacca. However, he could not provide us with a Wookie howl, even though we requested one.
“I can’t roll my Rs,” he said.
The family affair didn’t end with her father. Ken gave us the roster of who was there:
“Two parents, two daughters, one son, one son-in-law, one soon-to-be daughter-in-law […] a niece and nephew and a brother-in-law,” he said.
Donna attends Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan and came dressed as Lady Deadpool.
She’s 26 years old but this was only her third convention.
Donna’s undergraduate degree is in sociology from Barnard College in New York City and she feels going from sociology to law “definitely is a natural progression.”
She thinks a career in international law is in her future so her ability to speak Spanish and Hebrew will likely help.
Donna wasn’t the only sociology-law major we met.
Nikhil graduated from New York University in May as a sociology major with a focus in law. He currently works as a paralegal at an intellectual property law firm in Manhattan.
He came dressed as Kenjaku of “Jujutsu Kaisen.”
“Obviously the legal profession is a lot more strict in what you can and can’t wear, so this kind of gives me the opportunity to branch out, to be a little bit more wild between fashion, taste and the things that I like and really just be myself without having to fit into the box of my job,” he said.
Nikhil attended with his significant other, Trinity, who is also an NYU graduate. She dressed as Saturo Gojo, also from “Jujutsu Kaisen.”
Trinity currently works in the marketing department of a children’s book publisher.
She’s the new girl at the job and her coworkers were “actually surprised” when they found out she was attending the con. She describes herself as “a little shyer at work.”
She planned to show them photos the following Monday.
“They’ll probably be a little shocked because when I’m in the office I’m in big sweaters, heals and trousers, so this is clearly very different,” she said.
Additionally, Saturo Gojo is a guy, so that may add to the shock.
Besties Jill and Mai came dressed as characters from the 1988 feature film, “My Neighbor Totoro.”
Totoro is a rat-like creature… or possibly rabbit-like. It’s hard to tell.
Mai is a recent grad from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and wore an elaborate costume of the eponymous character. It stood well over five feet high and was almost just as wide.
“Jill and I made it together,” said Mai. They made it from chicken wire, fabric, and “some Gorilla Glue.”
“But it’s mostly kept together by tape,” said Jill, a recent grad from NYU.
James is a 2024 grad from St. Joseph’s University on Long Island with a BS in marketing. She came dressed as Rayla of “The Dragon Prince.”
She specifically picked this character because she was scheduled to attend a panel for “The Dragon Prince” later in the day and the show’s creators would be on it, and they’d be showcasing the first episode of the new season.
James is 22 and started cosplaying three years ago. While in high school she felt a lot of pressure to be conventional and never dreamed of dressing up as animated characters at cons.
“I thought that I had to fit in with everyone else and had to be quote-unquote normal so I never really explored anime or cosplay or any of those interests but I found that it was a really good creative outlet for me and I found a really amazing community of friends online that I was able to connect with and now we go to conventions all the time and make content together and make cosplays and it’s just really great,” she said.
What began as “online friends” turned into real-life friends.
“In college I actually had a really hard time making friends,” she said, and “never really found a group there.”
“But I did find a group online and it just turns out that a few of them actually lived really close to me – like within driving distance – so immediately we became super close […] and have been going to conventions ever since then,” she said.
James said she “actually thrifted the entire costume,” meaning it wasn’t storebought but assembled by hand on the cheap.
“I made everything myself from cutting up shirts and pants and leggings and random things I found in the thrift store,” she said. “The boots are even thrifted.”
James stitched all the pieces together herself, even though she doesn’t know how to sew. “I can barely use my machine,” she said with a laugh.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of her costume is the props, which she made with the help of her father.
Rayla carries two knives and James told him she needed “two butterfly knives” so he took out his for inspiration and together they made a pair of working, 3D-printed knives.
The rule of thumb at conventions is weapons cannot be real, nor can they look too real. A weapon that passes inspection is called “con friendly.”
Since James’ knives are all plastic (with the exception of two metal tacks), she was allowed to carry them.
James attended with her gal pal, Lindsey, who came dressed as Peach Princess of “Super Mario Bros.”
She graduated from the University of Richmond in Virginia with a BS in biology, but actually works at the school now as an admissions counselor.
Lindsey is one of James’ online-friends-turned-real-life-friends.
Emily Almeida is currently an architecture major at Queensborough Community College and dressed as Jem of “Jem and the Holograms.”
She also works a job in construction as an abatement supervisor, meaning she removes asbestos, mold, lead and other toxins from buildings, while attending college full time.
She originally started college as a criminology major at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, but said, “architecture stood out to me,” so she changed majors and schools.
Emily is a Queens resident but unlike Sophie, opted to drive to Manhattan in costume instead of taking the subway.
“I got many funny looks at the red light but it’s OK,” she said.
Twenty-two-year-old Ashley Beepath attended the con with Emily, and came dressed as DC Comics’ Poison Ivy.
She immigrated to the US from Trinidad at 16 and is currently a grad student at John Jay, majoring in forensic mental health counselling.
Her undergrad degree is also from John Jay in forensic phycology.
The final pair of BFFs we met were Addy and Chelsea. Addy came dressed as Felicia Hardy of Marvel Comics’ “Black Cat” and Chelsea as Marvel’s “Scarlet Witch.”
Addy is a recent grad from Penn State and works in advertising. When one thinks of “Mad Men,” traditional suits and ties may come to mind.
However, Addy works in the social media department, so things aren’t as formal.
Her coworkers are well aware of what she does.
“The people at work know that I love nerdy things and cosplay and they know that Comic Con is kind of like my Super Bowl,” she said.
And just as Emily did, Addy and Chelsea drove to the convention, rather than risking humiliation on the subway.
“We took an Uber today. We were a little nervous to be on the subways in our outfits,” she said.
Addy doesn’t know what the driver thought of them.
“We avoided eye contact,” she said. “The people on her side of the sidewalk were laughing and smiling.”
Chelsea currently attends Parsons School of Design in New York City as a fashion design major. This was her very first cosplay convention.
Campus News has been covering cosplay conventions for several years and the sentiment of the attendees is always the same:
“For a lot of my life I kind of had a mask up of pretending to be something that I wasn’t,” said James.
“And it wasn’t really able to deconstruct that until I met my friends online through anime and they were like, ′You can do whatever you want. You are here to be happy and be true to yourself and if you like anime and want to cosplay, then you should do that, it shouldn’t matter what anyone else’s opinion is.′”
James and everyone else we spoke to did just that.
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