One of the defining sights of Comic Con is this: fans dressed up in their favorite costumes. And it's not just comic book characters like Captain America here.
Can you guess who these guys are?
You're looking at rebel pilots from Star Wars, of course. And this guy is dressed up as Snake from the Playstation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4.
But not all costumes are as easy to identify, like this next one. And I have to admit we're not too sure what this costume is supposed to be.
So if you got an idea send me a tweet. I'm @klustout.
But what motivates people to dress up like their favorite movie character, or well, like a slab of bacon? Well, let an expert explain.
A thief with an affinity for leather. A gun-toting archaeologist. A megaphone-wielding psychopath.
I'm an assassin. I'm a Gear. Actually, I'm Meagan Marie, and I'm a cosplayer.
Cosplay without a doubt is a craft; it encompasses so many different forms of art--
painting, sculpture, clothing design... learning how to do all these different skills... it's a challenge, and it's something I absolutely enjoy.
When you put on one of these costumes, it is literally instantaneously empowering. It's such a high.
Anya is one of... well, she's one of the only female... she was one of the debut females in the game Gears of War.
And I was just always drawn to her by her latent strength. And she's just always this very multifaceted character.
Four years ago when I started coming to Comic Con more seriously, I decided to look for a makeup artist, and I found Hydred.
She puts that final little bit of polish on your costume and really makes everything pull together wonderfully.
I think that it's a disservice to work so hard on a costume and then just have a couple of snap shots from a... you know, with bad lighting from your camera phone of your costume.
You want to be able to show it to the world.
So I knew that there was a battleship, the USS Midway, right in San Diego Bay.
So we showed up there today. We tried to do some calling ahead and then showed up today for a photo shoot
and they let us on the ship and we got to pose with various props and against the planes and it was really... to date,
I've done quite a few shoots for my costumes; it was absolutely the most successful and the most fun and exciting to do.
I love comic books. I love video games. I've always wanted to be a superhero somehow, and costume play, cosplay, let's you do that.