Um... History's first... WHAT?
Ah, leave it to Uncle Scrooge to cleverly and succinctly lead us into our topic... (Of course, that was back when Uncle Scrooge REALLY DID speak both cleverly and succinctly, unlike the way he does now.)
...But, I legendarily super-digress!
The phenomenon of the behavior we now call "cosplay", at least in the context of its invading and overrunning what were once "Comic Book Conventions" in actuality - but have now largely become "Comic Book Conventions" in name only - pretty much occurred before my very eyes.
In the early eighties, when I first discovered comic-cons as a treasure trove of back-issue wonders, cosplayers were a very small subset of the overall number of attendees.
They were dressed largely in homemade Star Trek uniforms or, a little closer to the con's reason for being, comic book superheroes and villains. While we comic book readers and collectors may have looked at them slightly askance, they were an unobtrusive sort who kept to themselves - and almost no one photographed them!
Now, they would seem to be more of a "majority" than the people like me who actually READ comic books and accumulate them for the sheer joy (not profit) of it!
And all that should be fine with me as I am generally a "live-and-let-live" sorta guy, who objects only to things that make life personally more difficult, bothersome, or distasteful to me.
But, the sad fact is that cosplayers do exactly that, in their (absolutely unintentional, I must add) actions that hinder my focused quest for comics!
Perhaps few folks photographed the people-at-cosplay in Ye Olden Days, because it meant that you actually had to PHYSICALLY BRING A CAMERA to the comic con - and, if your aim was to "enter light" and "exit heavy" (with lots of back issue comics), you didn't need to increase the load, by carrying a camera.
Now, everyone has a camera, via their cell phones, and the "stoppage of traffic" to photograph cosplayers has become an epidemic! Aisles are choked to capacity. Traffic doesn't move without great effort, and heaven help us if an emergency should break out!
The cosplayers themselves, with their over-large, unwieldy, and unnecessarily dangerous props like swords, battleaxes, and even inappropriately broad wingspans, only add to the inconvenience and the hazard.
Now, if you think this means I want cosplay banned, you're wrong. That "live-and-let-live" thing remember?
BUT, here's the solution that's good for everyone... Designate an area - a LARGE area - for cosplay! Plenty of room for prop 'n' costume preening and, most important of all, photography! Even partitioned cubicles for dressing, so that you may peruse the rest of the con in the greater comfort of civilian clothes.
Have it it folks! Pop those flashes, or whatever cell phone cameras do, until your batteries drop dead of exhaustion! Live your dreams, without interfering with my comics shopping!
...Ah, but who's gonna listen to an old curmudgeon! ...Even a legendary super one like me!
9 comments:
Here's at least one positive aspect of cosplay--which you yourself inspired, Joe!
It was through this blog that I first became acquainted with the term--and the practice--of "cosplay." Now, very recently, I was working on the writing of a play which was part of an overall story arc in a series of short plays that paid tribute to classic films. I had already done one as a tribute to "The Maltese Falcon" and another to "The Wizard of Oz". My next film to target was "Some Like it Hot". So my play "Miami Mix-Up" was set in a Florida hotel which, like the hotel in the film, bears more than a passing resemblance to the Hotel del Coronado in California. I had my main characters arrive at the hotel in pursuit of the young thief who had stolen Marilyn Monroe's ukulele and planned to fence it at the Classic Films Convention being held at my fictitious hotel. My difficulty occurred in trying to figure out how to populate the hotel without having to create from scratch a variety of eccentric characters to interact with my regular characters.
That's where Joe and the references to "cosplay" came into it. Since my setting was a Classic Films Convention, I could bring in a whole boatload of cosplayers masquerading as various classic film stars--and each in a specific film role. So I had an Errol Flynn as Robin Hood for one of my characters, along with Olivia de Havilland as Lady Marian, Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, Judy Garland as Dorothy, Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Vivien Leigh as Scarlett, and so forth. These characters mainly acted "in character" as either their classic film star or their classic role, or both, but occasionally the mask dropped and the person revealed a little of his or her true identity. This way I had some ready-made supporting characters to serve as underscoring and counterpoint to my main characters and main plot.
It was an artistic/creative problem that I could never have solved as successfully without the inspiration from this blog and the information over the years regarding what "cosplay" was all about. So I say "hooray" for "cosplay"! And, yes, it would be nice if in real life they could have a large space of their own!
Scarecrow:
THAT IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!
I just hope that somewhere in your play, there’s room for cosplayers of Edward G. Robinson as Rico (“Little Caesar”) and James Cagney as Tom (“The Public Enemy”) Powers... And they “take care of” anyone who clogs up the aisles trying to photograph them… in their… um, “usual way”!
Seriously, though… The amazing effects that all of us can have on others is staggering to consider! Thank you for this!
Uncle Scrooge still speaks cleverly and succinctly...depending on which book you’re buying! Look for the symbols of quality, like the Dell logos, Gladstone “G”, the Gemstone logo and the Fantagraphics “FB” on the spine.
Right you are, Deb!
…But, let’s not forget the Gold Key… er, um… “Gold Key”! …And IDW (2015-2018)!
In all of those, he does indeed speak… AS HE SHOULD!
Even a cosplayer playing Scrooge would speak more in character than he does in some of those newer comics from “publishers we didn’t name”!
Speaking of the Gold Key… er, um… “Gold Key”…
Funny, with all that said, I just finished reading WDC&S # 280 from late 1963/Cover Date: January, 1964 (literally moments ago), and everything about it was darned near perfect! Why are the people in decision-making positions today so unable to duplicate this simple, tried-and-true formula?
I’d be there each and every month, if they would!
When internet fan news sources spend more time talking about cosplayers than the actual comic books, you know cosplay is taking over. Makes you think that someday it’ll just be a movie, TV and cosplay convention without the comic books. Kinda sad thought... https://designyoutrust.com/2019/10/40-jaw-dropping-cosplays-at-comic-con-new-york-2019-by-photographer-ali-reza-malik/
Or, making lemonade out of castor oil, the comic books may have their OWN separate conventions once again?
HERE is Deb’s link for your ease of reading. When this sort of thing so dominates your event, in both media perception and (unfortunately) reality, how can it continue to be called a “Comic-Con”? Let ‘em have their own “Cosplay-Cons”! Everyone would be better served!
And, since I mentioned it in my last comment, HERE is the GRAND COMICS DATABASE (at which I’ve become an indexer and full member) entry for WDC&S # 280.
As I recall from having read it ages ago, it was nothing more than an average, good issue in its day. Now, it’s a (to borrow part of an inappropriate phrase – in quotes) “legendary-super” miracle, topped by a sugar-plum dream, by comparison!
If you read the notes that I contributed to the Mickey Mouse segment, I believe I may have made a somewhat important find in Gold Key history. You all decide!
Playwright, are you, Scarecrow? I never knew!
Joe, that's obviously a fantastic idea. If only con-organizers would read this blog…! I'm sure they'd enjoy it, too. Who wouldn't? …On another note, you know something? You've made such a running ag of that darn super pick-ax that at this point the line does make me chuckle (by association) when I see it.
So, quite ironically, and from a considerable distance, I’ve actually “improved” that train wreck of a story? How about that!
It makes me chuckle too, for what it’s worth. Even if only ruefully!
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