Maybe my focus was on a potential brush with greatness, a possible gallery-soirée with Stan Lee. Yet, to my eyes, cosplay this year at San Diego Comic-Con (S.D.ConvCtr 21-24 July 2016) appeared less prevalent than in years past. It seemed a hipper, more mellow element pervaded the Con. A cool, lackadaisical mood lingered on the floor, like an après-surf, red Solo cup party in Long Beach rather than a meticulously planned, high-energy, kitschy cocktail party in West Hollywood. If I had to associate a drink with the vibe, it would be a craft IPA, served by a chap uninterested in eye contact and sporting a well-worn Overlook Hotel tee, a Turnberry tweed cap and mutton chops.
Note: This blasé attitude does not include anything associated with Hall H, Rotten Tomatoes' Your Opinion Sucks! panel or SyFy's Will Arnett broadcast. This is strictly a floor observation.
This year's populace felt so casual it bordered on loitering outside Apu's Kwik-E-Mart. It felt like going to a Hallowe'en party, over which you've been salivating for weeks and a friendly surfer and his buds shows up with six-packs of Sculpin, Stone and Sierra Nevada, and no costumes, except the one guy ironically wearing a rubber unicorn mask. Somehow, even though it's a Hallowe'en party, they're so damn cool, you end up feeling like the dork because you were high-strung enough to play dress-up. Being the designated dork doesn't change your good-timin' frame o' mind, but you still feel slightly stoopid and a little awkward. At times, Comic-Con felt like that: like you're Forrest Ackerman and Myrtle Jones at the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. (Right? Am I right? Ha! Cosplay humour.)
Without a doubt, at least from the perspective of Yours Truly, the scales tipped from intense cosplay to graphic tees and jeans. Even so, there was still enough cosplay to fill The Drunken Clam; yet, with a noticeable dip in mass participation. If you swung Jar Jar Binks by the ears, you'd hit less cosplay than not. As SDCC has reached such a phenomenally coveted stature, it has become a top-shelf entertainment score. A badge of honour, as it were, attracting A-listers, H-townies and their more desperately-casual following. As much as we love the "It" crowd, sometimes, unknowingly, they mow over the IT Crowd.
*True story, kittens. Straight out of a scenefrom the hi-larious novel, The Darlings of Orange County, Moi, minding her own business, observing this and that on the Con floor, was literally knocked over by four veritable jocks in A&F and Hurley tees on their way to snap a pic of one of our quintessential Babes of Comic-Con. Whilst I do not blame them, for she was quite a treat, a little Pardon Me, or help picking up my bags might have been gentlemanly. Other than that, admittedly, it had to have been a comical sight.
Of course, safety, not just feeeeelings, are of prime concern for the organizers at Comic-Con Int'l (CCI). Like the joined forces of JLA and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., CCI and the SDPD - not to mention Captain America and Agent Carter - did a superhero job of keeping all of us geeks, hipsters and jocks superduper safe. Cheers, all you superstars of law enforcement! We so appreciate you!
Perceptively astute or not, I did still see enough cosplay to keep our Dr. Lucy and her Canon EOS occupied for five days. Many of the better quality costumes were less popularly known characters than inventive creations of individualistic style. Whatever your taste, be it stylish Goth chicks or classic Marvel superheroes, please, enjoy Dr. Lucy's Famous SDCC Slideshow, or, see her whole catalogue of SDCC 2016 pix (and past years') at her Twisted Pair Flickr feed!
Aside: As I do every year, I choose a fave vendor as Miss Hannah's Pick of the Con. With so much fabulosity from which to choose, I had to pick two this time!
- Loungefly Star Wars collection and my fab, new, giant Ewok wallet.
- Akumuink and my last-of-a-kind Miss Black Widow tee, complete with parasol, bustle and red lace trim. Love it? So sorry. Huzzah! I got the last one!
Cheers, Miss Hannah's 2016 Pick(s) of the Con and Abyssnia all around town!
BTW, kids! Didn't attend Comic-Con, or did, but didn't save your official 2016 Souvenir Book, fret not! Miss Hannah (aka author Jennifer Susannah Devore) had her sixth SouvBk article published! This year: 75 Years of Archie Comics: Betty & Veronica, American Girls. Read it here!
Abyssinia, kids!
