Walking around ComiCon is like stepping foot into every fantastical universe imaginable at the same time. They come alive through cosplay, where fans dress up as their favourite characters. Some people even create their cosplays from scratch. The creation of these costumes are an art in itself, taking hours of creativity and craft to bring fiction to life.
I headed to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to check out some of these cosplayers. As someone who regularly goes to nerd conventions, this year’s ComiCon had some of the best costumes I’ve seen yet. And one thing’s for sure - there’s something so satisfying about watching Batman get a hot dog.
“The entire costume took about a month to finish. My favourite part of it is the Lekku, which is the head piece. I made it out of stretched fabric, leggings to be specific, and stuffed them with cotton. It took a couple tries to get it right.”
Darth Talon, Star Wars comics
Yazawa Nico, Love Life
“It didn’t take long to assemble this, but finding the right material and pieces to put together took some time. I have been searching off and on for a while. Even now, this isn’t completely finished, but I’m such a perfectionist that I’ll always see improvement areas. My boots are definitely the highlight. I made sure the details were almost exactly like Nico’s.”
Lara Croft, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
“I’ve been doing this for a while, and I find that the more you get into this stuff and get better, the more time you tend to spend on completing a piece. This probably took about 100 hours to complete. But, this is also what I’m trying to do professionally too. I want to make cosplay pieces for people. My favourite component is my holsters. They were very simple to construct, and the placement is just right.”
Madara Uchiha, Naruto
“I really like cosplay because it lets me not be in the normal world for a bit, you know? Like I get to pretend I’m a badass ninja this weekend, and not just another student. It’s like Halloween but way better. This all took about a week to do, but most of it was my armour. I got some foam, made it smooth, and painted it red. Then I strung it together, which was such an ordeal.”
Sally, The Nightmare Before Christmas
“My makeup took ages to do, like a couple hours, but I’m super happy with it. All in all, getting into this took over 5 hours. I woke up super early because I wanted to get here right when it opened today. My leggings are a highlight for me. I literally took a needle and thread to it.”
Harley Quinn, Batman Series
“I’m so thrilled about my hammer! It took a whole night to do. Everyone has been asking for a video or picture of me hitting them with it, but it’s less sturdy than it looks! But I guess that’s a good thing. Oh, also I’m happy that the shade of red in the ribbon I used to decorate the hammer is actually the same shade as my outfit. That’s important!”
Batman, Batman Series
“Oh yeah I have like a million variations of my set. I pretty much only do Batman. Sometimes, I just don the Bat-Gear and make random appearances. People love it. I’ll admit, I spent a fair amount since I started seriously doing this. See these shin guards? These are actual hockey guards. Those aren’t cheap! My helmet has got to be my favourite, hands down. I had it custom molded by a specialty shop.”