Why I Admire Cosplayers So Much

I remember a blog that shut down just as I was getting started 11 years ago. The guy posted the best cosplay photos at the time and also made his own little figures. Like ghosts and other easy creations to mold. I dug his creations and his blog.

Then one day he grew up and had a family and a great new job and he was going to have to shut down his blog and end this chapter in his life. I was crushed. He taught me alot about blogging about the things you love and care about and it will never stop being fun.

It was him that got me interested in the world of cosplay. Imagine that there are people out there who love a pop culture character so much that they spend months perfecting not only the live action costume, but the make-up, the hair, the setting, the attitude. I mean there are so many variable that making the translation from 2-D art to 3-D living human is very hard to get right. Those with the courage and the talent and the imagination are those that I admire the most. They never stop learning about their craft. They learn from others who they encourage (for the most part). The best one get to a level where anything they want to cosplay as is possible.

It's the whole 10,000 hours thing. If you do something you love for 10,000 hours and you do it with passion and love, then you become a MASTER of that thing. You all know something you do REALLY well because you would do it for free. You enjoy it that much. That is what YOU are a master of. Then there are these cosplayers. Most do it for fun but the best ones that I collect have put all the elements together to create the perfect image - costume + model + photographic post effect (optional) + hair and make-up + and most important, pose and attitude. When you see all those things in the efforts of one person it's as close to magic as it gets for me in my pathetic life.

I wish there was an award attached to all these conventions that awards the super fans of cosplay like me. I was Luke Skywalker once at that was legendary but I do not have the skills to be anything but a guy in a gorilla suit. But I love this lifestyle. I love the people who do it. I wish I could interview them on This Week From The Cave Of Cool but I could never ask. Plus a show about cosplay needs to be seen and not heard. And I could never ask. That kind of stuff scares the shit out of me. But I make sure I compliment the people who share their work online. I want to built them up because when they get better, so does my admiration for the results. I love the process of creation and those who also love it are someone connected to my brain through the Universe. But not to close to my brain which of course would drive anyone mad lest they peek inside it's dark and evil chasms.

 

 

When I think, I only think of Tink.