It obviously wouldn’t be Comic-Con without the amazing sci-fi and fantasy costumes out in full force. This is nerd Mardi Gras where everyone is given (and a surprising number proudly accept) license to let their freak flags fly. And fly they do. I loved it, although it is such a rich-pageant overload that, over time, it loses a lot of its impact. There are so many costumes, and so many cleverly constructed and lovingly detailed costumes, that after awhile, this all becomes the visual norm. But the costume overload didn’t keep me from appreciating that people had made such an amazing effort and they were all so proud to show off what they’d made. I was also struck by the diversity of fictional worlds being expressed, from old and new TV shows, to sci-fi and fantasy books, comics, and films, to game characters. And my favorite: when people just make up their own kooky characters. Here are just a few of the costumes I captured over the course of the con:
This costume was made entirely out of painted-white cardboard and plastic. The main body is a disposable painter’s jumpsuit.
This fully animated head drew huge crowds and was an amazing build. I tried to talk to the guy but he couldn’t talk through the head and the security folks kept him moving, lest he cause a traffic jam on the floor (there were A LOT of costume traffic jams on the floor). There were like eight computer fans on the back of the helmet. I bet it gets really hot in there.
Made entirely out of junk, this Japanese anime robot costume was surprisingly well engineered so that the wearer, Kristof Erkiletian, could move around fairly easily.
And perhaps my favorite costume of the whole show: Catwoman making a late night phone call
What’s truly amazing is that I looked around at some of the other Comic-Con costume posts and saw none of the above costumes and none of the others that I shot or saw — and I saw hundreds. For example, here’s a gallery at HuffPo.
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