The Cosplay of ALCON 2010

It was “The Jitty’s” first time at ALCON 2010, and we weren’t sure what to expect. Bratpack volunteered herself to write up an article on the event herself, whereas I was so stunned by what I saw, I opted to do an article on the Cosplay phenomenon. Our first introduction to ALCON came by way of a, a, well, I’m not entirely sure what it was, but it looked amazing! As we were on the way to register and get our press badges, a member of staff dressed in a full “fursuit” was on hand to give us directions, the outfit was stunning and pretty much set the tone for the whole event. You see, for the most part, and prior to ALCON, I’d met with various groups of gamers, young people and so on, and the Cosplay clique came in for some unfair criticism and ridicule.

Having spent the day with these people I can honestly say that they are 100% bona fide wonderful people. The first “fursuit” I encountered put an immediate smile on my face, and I don’t think that smile was gone from my face for any lengthy period of time whilst at the event. It didn’t matter if you were black, white or asian, there were no preconceptions based on religion or sex, disabilities were largely ignored (in a positive way) with everyone being treated as equal. In a rather weird furry, wigged, steampunked way, this was almost a Utopian society. Everybody tremendously helpful and friendly, hugging random strangers, and happy to pose for photographs literally every two minutes.

Our formal learning of Cosplay started with the very useful ALCON 2010 convention guide (Conbook) and it’s “Cosplayer’s Guide to Posing” (by CosplayPortrait), the “Cosplay Survival Guide” and the “Epic Fail Cosplay Moments” piece (penned by “Nanao-chan”). Interested on learning a bit more we opted to spend a few minutes at one of the many talks scheduled during the event. The talk was entitled “The Beginners Guide to Cosplay” and was an extremely informative professional “lecture”. I did chuckle to myself somewhat though. Picture the scene – it’s a University Lecture Theatre, and there, down the bottom, instead of a bearded lecturer is someone in full costume, and instead of dozing students, are furries, pirates, ninjas, Mortal Kombat characters. I don’t think any of my University lectures were ever this surreal or interesting! Bizarre doesn’t quite cut it, and I so wanted to take a photo from the viewpoint of the lecturer but I felt bad enough having to leave 5 minutes in to the session, so wasn’t about to be that cheeky!

The first day was really about getting as many shots as possible of the event and the characters in the hope that some of pictures would turn out ok. Day 2 though, I had the opportunity to speak to some of the Cosplayers to get a bit more of an insight into what it takes to do this. The first two unfortunates to get my attention were Gemma and Sarah, who were willing to give up a few moments of their time to speak to me, whilst they nommed their breakfast.

How did you hear about ALCON and how did you get into Cosplay?

Sarah: This our 3^rd ALCON and we first found out about it literally by Googling for anime conventions in the UK. I’ve loved to Cosplay for years and so it was at the very first ALCON that I first gave it a try. So yes, I just trawled random websites!

Did you drag Gemma along or was she a willing victim?

Gemma: I think it was actually me that found the website for ALCON! I had a friend at High School who was very much into Manga, Anime and Japanese Culture and she kind of influenced me, so I ended up liking it to. We decided we wanted to find a convention and go along, so we just googled for them and found ALCON.

So, silly question, but what character are you dressed as, and why did you choose that character/outfit?

Sarah: My character is Robin Sena from an anime called Witch Hunter Robin, the main character. I’m not sure why really, I just really like the character because she’s so calm and collected!

I think I recognise your character.

Gemma: Most people recognise mine because it’s from a Final Fantasy game (X and X2), Rikku, and I’ve kind of been going on a theme of female characters from the Final Fantasy games for the past three years.

So you have quite a few costumes.

Gemma: Yes, but last year there was a bit of problem so I didn’t get to Cosplay, but the year before that I was Yuna, so I’m gradually working my way through them!

Your costume how much work went into it, and was it fairly expensive to do?

Gemma: It was about £70 to make which is quite cheap for a Cosplay, and about 5 days of solid work from dawn to dusk. I’m really bad for leaving things to the last minute! But had a really busy summer, as anyone turning 18 will know, moving out and so on, got to about 2 weeks before the convention, realised, and thought “aarrrggghhhh”. So yes, 5 days of long hard work!

Sarah: I think the material itself cost about £60, and the wig was £20, and that was pretty much it for the costume really, oh wait, the pendant was £25 too. It was custom made out of a resin/plastic, and I had to paint it too. Time wise I started my costume in June, I’m completely the opposite from Gemma!

Gemma: Much more organised!!

Sarah: My mum helped me with some of the sewing because this is the first costume I have made from scratch, so it’s probably about 4 or 5 sessions of 4 hours or so. There was just so much material to work with, you just have to do that really.

What do you think to ALCON?

Sarah: Yeah it’s good. It’s a bit different from last year, as we have different facilities, like the Tescos, that used to be a bar, and that used to be really nice inside, nice and bright. But this year, the student union bar, it’s big, and it can be quite dark in there, it’s great, it’s cool, but there are times you can’t see anything!

Gemma: I’m really liking the fact as ALCON goes from year to year it gets better and hasn’t fallen prey to some of the things that other conventions fall foul of. As it’s got better we’ve got more guest speakers, more panels which is really good, and at the same time there are sooo many people here! I just can’t keep track of them all! The first time we came to ALCON, it had about 150 people at it.

Sarah: 250

Gemma: Really!? Was it that many!? Ok, well now we have about 500 here, actually he sold more tickets so it’s something like 700 tickets. So as a result it’s something of a culture shock even for us as we’re so used to attending conventions, with so many attending.

As I thank Gemma and Sarah for their time I bump in to a couple of former members of The Jitty, most notably Wolfboy, and it’s great to catch up with him and have a brief talk on how he’s doing as we walk outside to get a group shot.

After getting some great shots of Gemma and Sarah, I head back in to the Queens Building and as I do so I spot Laila and Alex, with Laila dressed up as Chun Li, one of my all time favourite Street Fighter characters. I found that by just bashing the buttons even with little knowledge of what I was doing I would often emerge victorious. Luckily Laila had a few minutes to chat.

Can I ask you why you picked this particular character, and how much have you put into this outfit?

Laila: Well I cheated with this outfit actually, it’s Chun Li, I had to buy the outfit as I failed at making it three times! In my defence I still had to do some stitching on it as it wasn’t quite the right size. I’ve been an avid fan of Street Fighter since I was 4, and I played Street Fighter 2 on the Playstation. Watched all of the anime conversions of streetfighter, so I would say it’s been 18 years of avid anime / manga and gaming.

Why anime and gaming, why not football, or shopping?

Laila: I was pretty much raised by my older brothers and was as a kid introduced to all these computer games. I wasn’t going out and playing with dolls or dressing up as such, other then dressing up as characters from games. I liked dressing up to be fun, I didn’t want to “dress up” as in going out / every day thing, wearing loads of makeup. This is a nice occasion where you can hang out with your friends.

And what do you think of the people attending these conventions?

Laila: I think they’re really talented, they’re brilliant. You get a lot of people who do artwork, like I draw manga, and you get those who can sew or they can make props, and you just think, well these people might worry about getting undermined by others because they’re dressing up as a “cartoon character”, there’s real talent behind this! It’s brilliant, you to a convention like this, and they’re aren’t people getting thrown out for fighting, everyone here is calm, relaxed, they’re being fine doing something they love. Everyone sort of co-exists with each other, for one day you can actually up to someone, a complete stranger, hug them, say hello, take a picture without being seen as a cretin or criminal. Who wouldn’t want to come to one of these!?

I thank Laila for her time and get some shots, and ponder a while on what she said, and she is absolutely right, here we have around 700 people, no fights have broken out, all silliness is harmless, and you actually can go up and hug a perfect stranger at these things.

Next I find Eleanor and Matty who I had spoken to very briefly in passing on the first day, and they too very kindly spared me some of their time.

Hi Matty, can you tell me who you have come as today:

Matty: Pit from Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Why that character, and how much work went into the costume?

Matty: To be perfectly honest me and my friend were going to do lots of different characters from the same game, but they all dropped out, and because I didn’t have any other real ideas I thought it would be a bit of challenge, so I continued with it anyway and it’s been lots of fun, even though I mostly glued the outfit together, which you probably shouldn’t do! I’m lazy, and really slow at sewing, so that’s what I did!

And Eleanor, which character have you come as?

Eleanor: I’ve come as Mello from Deathnote.

And why that character?

Eleanor: Basically, I have a bit of a thing for black leather, and so with my character, yes, go for it. I’ve been working on it on and off for about a year, so it’s taken some time. The most difficult part was the top which I made from scratch, and the rest of it is items that I’ve bought over time and have customised and altered.

And what is it about anime and manga that you like?

Eleanor: That’s quite a difficult question, because lots of anime/manga fans themselves might not really know. There’s just something about it.

Matty: Something that draws you to it.

Eleanor: Possibly, lots of people here are interested in alternative scenes, and there’s a universal …

Matty: It’s an automatic friend almost, you turn up you automatically have something in common, especially if you know who the character is, you can go along, be really friendly, be yourself, there’s no social barriers. You just go along, hug someone, and they have no idea who you are, and it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a new friend instantly.

Eleanor: That’s quite a rare thing/interest.

Matty: Not anymore *looks around*

Eleanor: That’s the thing, it’s growing, I think that’s quite good. Lots of people here are creative. Some people are so skilled…

Matty: Some of the fursuits you see around, when they’re made from scratch by the person, and they have to walk around with this massive piece of fur on all day that looks really good, it’s amazing!

Eleanor: It is amazing how they do it.

Matty: It makes me feel a bit pathetic that I had to glue things.

Eleanor: It doesn’t really matter whether your highly creative and you’ve got skills to cut hair, or skills to make clothes and all that kind of thing. Even if you chuck on a white T-Shirt, get a black wig….

Matty: There’s no judging or anything

Eleanor: The atmosphere is so friendly because you instantly have something in common because it’s quite a rare interest. The Japanese culture is very distinct. And of course having people understand the same things that you do is good.

I thank Eleanor and Matty, who have been great to chat too, and grab a few more shots of their costumes before I catch a hold of Stephen, who I had noticed the previous day also.

Can you tell me who your character is?

Stephen: My character is Horatio Quicksilver, of the HMS Bona Venture. He’s a character from a novel I’m writing which is all based on a steampunk version of Hong Kong, magic versus technology, and so on. I’ve been cosplaying as him and as various characters from the novel for the last couple of years just to get my own ideas across. I find it’s easier to make the outfit, make the character and know how they respond.

First time at ALCON and what do you think of it?

Stephen: It’s my second time actually, first came in 2008 where it was my first attempt at making an outfit. ALCON, loving it, but hating the fact they closed the bar and made it into a Tescos! It’s always a great environment around here. It’s so friendly and there’s so much going on. You can almost get away with anything. There was even a guy walking around as an SS Officer which isn’t in the best of taste, but it wasn’t meant to be offensive, but purely a character, and if Harry can do it, why not.

And how did you get into anime / manga?

Stephen: I’ve always like cartoons and always liked animation. Anime was just such a great thing to see, when Akira first came out here on the Mega CD, early 90’s I just sort of became obsessed. Sought it out ever since! When this started up had to come!

I thank Stephen and wish him luck on putting his novel together.

Whatever their reasons for getting into anime / manga, whatever time they put into it, one thing that is common is their friendliness. I’m quite taken with how non-judgemental they are, how open and willing to talk and share their experiences, and how creative some of them are too. I can honestly say that whereas I may never turn up in costume to ALCON (although I won’t discount the possibility), I can now say, I get it, I understand.

I would like to thank Mike at ALCON for granting us entry to this wicked event, and we would like to thank Gemma, Sarah, Laila, Eleanor, Matty and Stephen for their time too.