Coslife

I've been a geek and a nerd for entertainment culture my whole life. Whether it's my favorite music, film, literature, or even video games, I'm the biggest fanboy for the things I love. Growing up these were things I always had the most entertaining conversations about with family and friends. I always enjoyed talking about my favorite movies, TV shows, books, and comic books etc. Little did I know at the time that there was a sanctuary for nerds like me who enjoyed these things. These sanctuaries are called conventions and they go by names like Comic Con, Galaxy Con, Dragon Con, and Wonder Con. They happen multiple times a year and they take place all across the country with many fans and celebrities of entertainment culture coming together to celebrate fandom as one.

Like I said in the beginning, I could go on forever talking about my geeky love for film, television and literature. Whether it's Marvel Comics, Star Wars, or Harry Potter, I'm a proud fanboy for all of these brands and franchises. I think this fandom is a fun great thing and I'm grateful that there are countless more people like me in the world who share this same love. I was in my late teens when I heard about a convention called Comic Con. Comic Con is a multi-genre, non-profit entertainment convention that was created in the 1970's in San Diego, California. Though it's core home is in San Diego it takes place in countless major cities across the entire planet. Comic Con started off being primarily about comic book culture, science fiction and fantasy culture in film and literature, but in the 50 years since it was first conceived it has grown to be inclusive of all forms of pop culture impacting entertainment including: Anime, video games, card games and toy brands among many other forms of entertainment culture. Comic Con has also given way to other spin-off conventions in the same spirit like Galaxy Con, Wonder Con, Dragon Con and Horror Con, all of which share the same mix of similarities and differences in having a main theme, while at the same time being inclusive of every other theme.

When I first learned about these conventions that started with Comic Con the first thing that caught my attention was the people that would go to these conventions and how they were dressed up as the famous fictional characters of entertainment culture in such an elaborate manner. As I would learn, these people are called Cosplayers. Cosplay, which is short for costume play, is the activity of dressing up in roleplay as a specific character from a trademarked brand or franchise of entertainment culture. When I first laid eyes on these individuals I thought to myself "wow, those look like my kind of people." but I never thought I would get the chance to partake in something that seems so over the top, but cool at the same time. It wouldn't be until 2016 when I met a group of some of my best friends that going to Comic Con would become a possibility. This group of new friends was just as nerdy as me, that's how we all became friends to begin with and some of these friends had been to the conventions before and told me about how much they loved them, I knew then I would end up going one day.

Sure enough the opportunity to go to a convention would present itself in early 2019 when I learned that my hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina was having a weekend of Comic Con at the Marriot hotel in the downtown area of the city. I called up my friends and made it clear that we had to get tickets to go and they were all down for the ride. It was in late January of 2019 that I would go to Comic Con for the first time ever and it was an incredible experience that was almost too spellbinding to put into words. When we went to the convention we didn't just go as fans, we cosplayed as well. I dressed up as Marvel's Black Panther, one of my friends went as Black Panther's cousin Killmonger, and my other friend went as Marvel's Thor. The first few minutes inside the convention were almost overwhelming, it was like seeing a childhood dream come true. I'm looking at all of these cosplayers dressed up in everything from Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Anime, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, among so much more. For every person who I saw that also saw me it was just an excited greeting, with enjoyable acknowledgement for how great their attire was, and a must have of picture taking.

The most surreal thing about these people is none of them felt like strangers. It was as if we were all best friends who had known each other our whole lives, even though we were just meeting for the very first time. In a way we kind of already were friends. We all had the same love for the same culture and that love was what brought us together in that moment that day. What I also found most interesting was that there were people who were content creators of their own at the convention as vendors and they were able to promote their own artistic creations such as the ones we were celebrating. I learned then that these conventions were not just places where we celebrate the art and entertainment of what we love, but that they are also places that gives us the opportunity to showcase our own aspiring art and even giving us a medium to network with other aspiring artist such as ourselves and even support one another. This discovery made me respect convention culture even more.

Later in 2019 I would eventually take two trips to Raleigh with my friends to go to both Comic Con and another convention I had never heard of at the time called Galaxy Con. Though I had already experienced Comic Con for the first time in Greensboro just a few months earlier, I have to say that the Raleigh Comic Con was much bigger and more elaborate than what we had in Greensboro. I once again went as Black Panther and I have to say that this much bigger Raleigh Comic Con had me feeling like I was in the midst of true greatness. Because the Raleigh convention center where the convention was held at was a much bigger space, there were more cosplayers, with even more elaborate costumes and more vendors as well.

July of 2019 was where the convention nail was really hit on the head for me when I went to Galaxy Con in Raleigh. Though I saw all the other previously explored festivities of cosplayers and vendors at Comic Con here as well, something I saw at Galaxy Con that I had not seen at the two previous Comic Cons before was celebrities. I couldn't believe all the stars I was seeing at Galaxy Con. So many famous names like Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, the cast of the Power Rangers TV series, and pro-wrestlers like Ric Flair and his daughter Charlotte Flair were there. I even had the pleasure of meeting and talking to some of them. I was always a big Power Rangers fan and had the privilege of meeting to of the cast mates from the original days of the 90's Power Rangers cast including Nakia Burrise and Catherine Sutherland. I've always been a big X-Men fan and had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Cudmore, the actor who played the character Colossus in the film series. I’m also a big fan of the Fast and the Furious film series and had the pleasure of meeting the late great JJ Sonny Chiba, the actor who starred in the third film in the franchise, Tokyo Drift. The biggest moment for me was being able to meet and get a picture with Christy Carlson Romano who was the star of both of the Disney Channel original series' Even Stevens and Kim Possible. What I realized at Galaxy Con in the presence of all those stars was that this entertainment culture at these conventions is not only loved by fans, but the stars who put so many faces on this culture as well. They are all just as much a part of the fandom as we are and it's great to know they appreciate us as much as we appreciate them.

In September of 2019 I was blessed to explore Comic Con one last time on a sunday at the end of the year in Greensboro again due to the second day that we were supposed to go earlier that year when I went the first time being cancelled due to inclement weather and it was great going back as Black Panther once more and getting that good dose of fandom fun one more time before the year concluded.

Due to the pandemic it would be 3 years before me and my friends ever made it to another convention, but when we did it was amazing. This past week I finally made it back to Galaxy Con Raleigh and I was definitely blessed to be back in my natural habitat with like minded nerds and geeks. Even with all the challenges that had taken place in the world over the past couple years, our fandom and love for our culture was just as alive and well as ever. Once again we were networking with each other, having great nostalgic conversations, hanging out with many of the stars that made this culture so great and contemplating the future of great things that we know will come.

Much love to all the conventions and cosplayers. This is an amazing world where we can come together and reflect on the artistic world of entertainment that we love so much and build bridges with people from all walks of life who have the same spirit as the person in the mirror. I love going to Cons, I am a cosplayer and I'll always love Coslife.