Comic-book conferences and dressing up offer a break from reality for teens
COSTUMES were for ‘fancy dress’ parties and Halloween, but now teenagers at comic book conventions, or cons, are donning elaborate costumes in homage to their favourite characters. Passions for sci-fi and Japanese comics are just parts of what ‘cosplayer’ Amy King (29) says is a huge creative outlet for young Irish people.
“For me, cosplaying {costume playing} at the conventions is about the arts and crafts of making your own costume. You can portray a character from 2D to 3D. It’s similar to impersonating someone, but your look is based on fictional characters. It’s a very creative hobby,” she said.
Amy says this geek culture is a welcome change from our dominant pub culture. “It’s really something great for the new generation to take up. In Ireland, we have a reputation for teenagers drinking at a young age, and pubs and nightclubs are sometimes the only social outlet. We’re such creative people, but we often don’t have any channels for it. Now, people can create beautiful costumes in their free time and wear them to the cons.
“It’s a whole fantasy thing. Sometimes, college or work can really grind you down, but the cons just allow people that escape time. They’re like music festivals for costumers,” she says.
Ireland hosts a dozen comic cons each year. UK con giants, MCM, recently brought their world-renowned convention to the RDS, an event that attracted thousands of fans.
Our home-grown conventions are just as popular, and a labour of love for pioneers willing to boldly go where no event organiser has gone before.
Karl Walsh (28), from Dublin, is a film buff with a passion for props who now runs Dublin Comic Con — an event that drew 8,000 people last summer.
“I started off collecting film props. Through a collectors’ forum, I met a load of like-minded people and we noticed a gap in the con scene in Ireland. Lots of cons are specifically for anime or gaming, but there wasn’t anything catering to film fans.
“Running a con is definitely a labour of love. Especially when you start out with very little capital,” he says.
Most people associate geeks with weedy bodies and jam-jar glasses, but Karl says many comic-book nuts are thriving in the world of warriors and vikings.
“Con culture has a lot to give back to the Irish economy. One of my friends, who owns a comic stop, also makes the swords for Game of Thrones in his bronze foundry.
“One of our speakers, last year, was the head make-up designer for the TV show, Vikings. People don’t realise all that talent is here. That’s one thing the cons try to do: promote Irish talent,” Karl says.
While swords and shields might bolster the economy, one man, Jim Gorman (40), from Dublin, says the costuming can give something back to communities and help Ireland’s vulnerable.
A member of popular Star Wars costume club, the Emerald Garrison, Jim and the club’s 80 members spend their weekends dressed as Jedis, raising money for charities.
“We’re a way for people interested in costuming to get together and exchange tips and ideas. We morphed into a charity group, after we noticed the great reaction we got when we wore our costumes. We kept getting invited to events and that’s when we decided to try and do something to help people,” he says.
But Star Wars costumes are not cheap, with a stormtrooper starting at €1,000, and Darth Vader’s menacing look going for €6,000. Most of Ireland’s budding costumers spend hours researching the most affordable ways to create the perfect costume.
“It’s usually after someone’s joined us they’ll start creating their costume. We have a committee, who vet the costumes to make sure they are up-to-scratch. We get together a lot, and people bring the costumes they’re working on to get feedback. I think people generally have an interest in Star Wars, but it’s the ‘wow’ factor of putting on the costume and seeing yourself as a stormtrooper that people love,” he says. The Emerald Garrison, which runs family-orientated, Star Wars- themed events, say their popularity is growing annually. The group focuses on performance and recreating Star Wars scenes.
Last Friday some of troopers visited Seaview Primary School in Belfast to help them celebrate their 80th Anniversary. pic.twitter.com/Rbt6GRiLgB
— Emerald Garrison (@EmeraldGarrison) May 19, 2014
“We run a Force Academy, where some of our members will take kids — and the odd adult — through force training. At the end of the training session, they fight one of the bad guys. We also run clone training for kids who want to be the bad guys. It’s part of our Galactic training and it’s brilliant fun,” Jim says.
This colourful subculture is a nice alternative to the pub for many Irish teens and adults. And, as comic cons bloom, Irish businesses flourish, providing props and talent for TV shows.
Karl says the numbers attending the conventions are overwhelming.
“Last year, we had to close the road, because so many people came to the convention. This year, we’re accommodating more. The response has just been phenomenal. Geek culture has really taken Ireland by storm,” he says.
Short for “costume play”, is a performance art or hobby in which participants wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character.
someone who plays video games or board games, can be casual or professional.
An event in which fans of a particular film, television series, comic book, actor, or an entire genre of entertainment such as science fiction or anime and manga, gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and each other.
The productive creative activities engaged in by fans.
