Confessions of a Cosplayer: Episode 1 – History & Knowledge

1:29 pm HelenLJohnson 0 Comments

(This blog post was originally published on the Liverpool Girl Geeks Blog in March 2015)

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Some people call us strange, some call us childish, others think that cosplay a glorified sex act that loners gravitate to. Is making a costume and pretending to be someone else childish when it is away from the confines of a stage or performance? Perhaps it may seem that way, but what we do as cosplayers is one of the most involved performing arts that exists. We make or buy a costume to bring something that is represented in the pages, coding or film reel of our favourite characters into real life situations. It sounds simple, but to understand how fabric and props work in reality takes a lot of creativity and a knowledge of variety of techniques. Cosplayers are the definition of a ‘jack of all trades’ working to put together a jigsaw puzzle on a human that not only has to move but also sit down, breath and at times appear to defy gravity and physics.

Although Japan is renowned for their high quality creations, and is the place where the World Summit is held, cosplay actually started in America within Sci Fi conventions. One in man in particular, Forrest J. Ackerman, could be considered the father of cosplay when he turned up at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) 1939 in a “futuristicostume”. Fellow attendees thought he was a ‘little odd’, but they enjoyed the enthusiasm he had for his
8875105ce0d3745f6ba965b1f7425da0f583c467creation. In the following years, attendees costumes became part of a masquerade ball with prizes and dancing. Within the 1950s, costuming to conventions became quite a common site with photographers testing out new advances in photographic technology on the huddles of fantastic beasts and otherworldly humans.

Despite this, the first few San Diego Comic Cons attracted very few costumed attendees. It is hard to imagine that the now global event that attracts in excess of 130,000+ people, started as 300 comic aficionados who didn’t care much for costumes. It would be around the 1980s when superheros began to emerge beyond the then more common Sci Fi characters.

In 1984, the word Cosplay was coined by a Japanese publication to describe the costumes seen in America with great emphasis placed into introducing the word into Japanese lexicon. There is no other word that better fits this art form as it is more than simply putting on a costume. It is also not acting in the traditional sense, with the persona of a character in the ‘being’ rather than performance. I once described cosplay as one of the most fluid artforms I could think of. While costumes can be captured on camera to unbelievable results; most of the time it is the experience in person that has the most effect on people; to view the costumes in their truest forms. That is on a living, breathing human being that has brought fiction to life. However this means that one particular costume may only be seen for a few hours a year and then it is gone. Some people may have seen it and remembered it, remembered the person behind the creation, while others missed it completely even though that was what they were looking for.

As mentioned previously, once you start making your own cosplays you fall into a black hole of techniques that cross many disciplines. Most cosplayers are self-taught, with the rise of tutorials on video sharing sites and blogging aiding in learning new skills. I tried to put as much as I could into a mind map to show the variety of techniques that cosplayers can utilise, however I know I have missed some off!

Without a doubt, cosplaying is not cheap but can be done on a budget, the possibilities are only halted by your imagination.

Fantastic resources to find out more about cosplay:

75 Years of Capes & Cosplay
Leaving Mundania: A Cosplay Documentary
Sneaky Zebra – Perhaps the best cosplay music video creators around
Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope – A film about SDCC by Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me)

Or as always if you have any questions tweet me at @Lady_Scion :)

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Romancing the Wolf: The Use of Romantic Interests in Tomb Raider

12:30 pm HelenLJohnson 2 Comments


Happy Valentine’s Day, or Happy Birthday Lara depending on which one you would rather celebrate! I think it is particularly fitting that the original backstory placed Lara’s birthday on a day that is known for relationships and a consumeristic ideal of romance. For many, Lara appears as a lone wolf, particularly in the original series. She would have no time for a relationship other than one for business.

Yet for the past twenty years, there have been characters who have tried to instigate something with Lara, or there has been a spark of something that fuelled the pens of many a fan fiction writer or deviant artist. The depictions of Lara do change depending on which medium is under scrutiny. Within the first volume of the comic series in the early 00s, Lara could be extremely flirty to get what she wanted while the games kept that side mostly under wraps until later editions. Even then, it was more so to taunt rather than to use her femininity to progress her underlying objective.

However as her original backstory suggests, she was engaged to the Earl of Abingdon prior to the plane crash in the Himalayas. What can be sourced from this tiny piece of game manual information. This was not a situation that Lara wished to be in, she used the plane crash as a way to escape what was planned out for her life and set about travelling the world as a lone wolf. It is no surprise that perhaps she wanted to distance herself from anything that may tie her down or create complications between her goals and morals.

This is where the films create an interesting side to Lara. Although not widely held in a positive light and are certainly not canon to any timeline; they show a side of Lara not commonly seen in either the comics or the game. In the films Lara has a history with both Terry and Alex, as the stories develop they both have a certain degree of respect for Lara despite what their ulterior motive may be. While the romance side is explored in greater depth with Terry in The Cradle of Life, it is relationship between Alex and Lara in the first film which appears more genuine and interesting. Two looters living just underneath legitimate society with logical reasons why their paths may cross and why they may both be able to use each other.

What we must remember with romantic interests within the Tomb Raider franchise, is that they may not always mean romance in a typical setting. Due to the lifestyle narrated by the series, relationships are more than likely going to be dynamic and chaotic. As suggested by Angel of Darkness, while it is not specifically suggested that Lara and Kurtis are anything more than an accidental pairing, the way both of the characters are written distances itself from other games in the series. At the start, it was certainly bordering on voyeuristic with the slightly disturbing scene in the Louvre. Yet, it became dynamic between the two characters; when one became dominant the other fought to overcome the ties until they both appeared to fighting for the same cause. It is a shame that the planned two games after Angel of Darkness was scrapped, as these may have shed a more definitive light on how Lara approached suggested romantic advances and how she copes with potential loss. It is fantastic how fan fiction writers have taken these two characters and explored their relationship in multiple different readings. It suggests that the source material had made a step forward in character development that, in my opinion, was unfortunately lost until the reboot in 2013. Read here for a more detailed explanation on Angel of Darkness and Tomb Raider 2013.

Within the reboot there are two interesting situations of how Lara approaches romantic circumstances. The first being Alex, not to be confused with movie Alex, Alex Weiss declares his attraction to Lara via notes that the player can find. When he knows his life is to meet an untimely end, player choice is not allowed and Lara kisses Alex on the cheek. Compared to a similar scene in Life is Strange where the player has three options to decide what level of intimacy is granted to the character in peril. While it is incorrect for me to say a dying character is deserves anything from the pivotal character, the removal of player choice from this scene suggests the motives of Lara overall. Intimacy and romantic options are always second place to survival in the reboot and adventure in the original. Even if the player lays their own readings on to the franchise, we don’t have the choice to explore these options via the games because it appears to take away from the perceived core of the franchise.

This is a little sad, to me anyway. Away from the games, intimacy has been explored in a few ways, yet the same quote appears almost every time a discussion of Tomb Raider and relationships appear. That Tomb Raider was never meant to be that and Lara is perfectly fine by herself. I do agree with that, to a degree. As I have previously suggested before, a relationship as a traditional entity probably wouldn’t fit within the franchise. However a chaotic, more suggestive rather than explicit relationship would possibly work.


Taking Sam as an example, the audience was never told that they were in a relationship or had an attraction. Yet some players read into the narrative that this was the underlying motivation for Lara to survive. I have yet to play Rise as I am waiting for the PS4 version, however from what I have heard Sam does not appear in the game. In the novel and comic series leading up to the game; Sam retains her position in intimacy purgatory because what would happen if Lara developed greater feelings for someone else? Would this mean the end of Lara as we know it? I believe this is why Lara and romance is often brushed over or ignored. As consumers (and at times developers) of the franchise, we are scared of un-Laraing Lara Croft. With twenty years, Lara has developed many layers of personality; the beauty is that as we play through the games we create our own Lara. In the end, if that means Lara is the quintessential lone wolf, then that is a perfectly reasonable option. Let’s just explore the relationship options a little more before we decide on that trait.

I know I have only touched upon the top of this subject and there is certainly more to it to warrant a deeper analysis. If you want to discuss anything hit me up on twitter or in the comments below. Or if you have wrote something similar, share as I love reading other people’s analysis of the Tomb Raider franchise :)




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My Experience with Cosplay Culture Magazine

1:00 pm HelenLJohnson 3 Comments

via cosplaculturemagstore
Disclaimer:
All the issues I have had with Cosplay Culture Magazine have now been resolved. I am not encouraging anyone to cancel subscriptions or unfollow their social media if they enjoy the content produced. This blogpost is simply to describe what happened to me. As I suggest below, I wasn’t angry at the company, rather I was disappointed in them because I was very much looking forward to receiving copies of the magazine.


In August 2015, I decided to finally take the plunge and subscribe to Cosplay Culture Magazine. What tipped me over the edge was the beautiful Heartseeker Ashe Yaya Han cover and interview that would be inside. As I live in the UK, rather than paying separately for each issue, I decided it would probably be more economical to buy a yearly subscription for $48, around £33. A substantial amount and a similar price to my Elle Magazine subscription. There are a few cosplay magazines popping up now and Cosplay Culture appeared to be the most professional one with recognisable cosplayers contributing and print options available. As much as I love my technology, I’m the kind of person who would pick a hard copy of anything up, even if that option is more expensive! So that was a big plus for me.

I bought my subscription; and waited…and waited. The Yaya issue was replaced by the next and I got in contact with Cosplay Culture via Twitter asking where my subscription was up to. I assumed I would be a few weeks behind because of international shipping, however we were now approaching the latter end of October. I was informed by one of their representatives that my subscription would start with the next issue, so not to worry. I was a little annoyed that I wasn’t informed which issue I would have started with, a common practice in publication, but I had failed to check myself so I wrote it off as a miscommunication and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I sent a few more Twitter DMs to Cosplay Culture Magazine asking where my first magazine was as the Riddle cover made way for the LeAnna Vamp Star Wars themed one. As mentioned previously, all very well known cosplayers were cover models who participated in, what appeared to be, specific shoots for the magazine. It was coming up to Christmas, I had lost my job and had no problems if Cosplay Culture intended to send magazines as I had bought the subscription in greater affluent times. However I was growing tired of the back and forth with no answers of any great substance. So by mid December I asked for my money back if they were no longer intending on sending me any of the publications. I was disappointed rather than angry; I was very much looking forward to reading quality articles about my favourite hobby.



via cosplayculturemgstore
Cosplay Culture Magazine informed me that I needed to contact their subscription provider, something else I wasn’t aware of until now. I contacted the subscription provider via email in addition to Cosplay Culture, again! Both did not respond. It was now the week before Christmas and I just wanted my money back. I sent Cosplay Culture one final message requesting my money back on my behalf from the subscription provider, or I would contact my bank. By this time, it had been four months since I started my subscription with no magazines of cosplay goodness popping through my letter box. They didn’t respond again, so I took the issue to my bank and they escalated it to the fraud team.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pay on my credit card, which would have been a lot easier to get money back from undelivered items. I had also left it too long to get anything back via my debit card which is why it was escalated to the fraud team, however I would have to write full statement of why I had left it beyond six weeks. It was never any guarantee I would get my money back. I informed Cosplay Culture of my actions and waited.

Thankfully, this time the fact that a bank was now involved seemed to pushed them forward to resolving the issue. By the end of the first week in January the £33 was back in my account. I never had to send off my fraud form.

As previously stated, I was more disappointed than anything. I felt I was being reasonable, especially being an international customer I expect delays. However the way in which it was dealt with by Cosplay Culture was at times clinical and prolonged unnecessarily. I wasn’t offered any form of compensation, be it they’d send me copies of the magazine that I had missed or extended my subscription to cover missed time. If Cosplay Culture could have honestly told me they would ensure I would get my subscription, I would have been more than happy to keep it. Would I have renewed my subscription? Probably not; the fact of the matter is I wanted the magazine that I paid for not so much the money. However Cosplay Culture left me with no other option.
via CosplayinAmerica
What I felt rather strange was that I felt this might just be a problem with my subscription. I searched high and low on the internet to see if anyone else had the same issues as I had with the publication. I couldn’t find a one. This is the main reason for writing this blog post, so if anyone else finds themselves in this situation. They know what to do.

So to end this post, I just want to say, please don’t take my experience to stop you investing in niche publications and projects. They need our help more than ever but be careful and wise in your choosing as even the most professional looking project can hide some nasties below.
As always you can reach me on Twitter and Facebook or the comment section below.



I promise, it will be a cheerier post next time!







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