Cosplay and stars at Comic Con
Crawling with heroes, villains and half-man-half-dragon superfans, this year’s festival in Cape Town had nerds bonding over weird hair and clip-on horns. Everyone got to meet their favourite stars too. By
Fans turned Cape Town’s International Convention Centre into a real-life comic book during the five-day Comic Con festival this year. Each day had a unique line-up and meet-and-greet sessions with local and international artists.
Comic Con is one of the globe’s biggest, most popular festivals, and the Cape Town edition did not disappoint – Capetonians sure know how to liven up a party! Tickets for the first two days sold out fast as fans scrambled to get through the doors and sample the merch, meet the stars and judge each other’s cosplay game.
This year’s festival included a kid’s section with cooking and baking classes, movie screenings, a temporary tattoo station and a gaming section.
I even made a stop to have a quick session with the great fortune teller, Zoltar (for a cheeky R20). Fans played board games or video games while others added to their collections by purchasing items from vendors.
On the evening of 30 April, attendees were treated to a pyjama party, where everyone came in their onesies to dance to tunes by international DJ Elliot while feasting on greasy food-truck snacks.
Three 23-year-old best friends and Comic Con fans came to the festival in full cosplay: Nadia Human was dressed as Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle, Logan van Zyl was in a full Pumpkin OC get-up, and Alma Human came as a Sim. The besties all enjoyed the costume play the most.
“The biggest highlight of the festival has to be the cosplays, hands down. It has been interesting to see the most popular outfits that you see around. The first two days were very busy – there was basically not much space to move around, but it was very fun to interact with everyone,” said Nadia Human.
Meeting the stars
This year many local artists attended the festival, including ND Mazin, David Baron, John Layman, Celeste Loots, Chioma Umeala and Bianca Oosthuizen. International stars Veronica Taylor, Sean Gunn and Lesley-ann Brandt travelled across the world to celebrate pop culture with their nerdy tribe.
Two of the Blood & Water cast members, Arno Greeff, who plays bad boy Chris Ackerman, and Leroy Siyafa, who plays the gorgeous Sam Nkosana, were guests on the last day of the festival. Greeff and Siyafa mingled with fans, sharing the success story of their hit series and talking about South Africa’s film industry.
“We were incredibly lucky with the first season of Blood & Water coming out right after the start of Covid,” said Greeff. “Lots of people were home. It was a combination of the perfect timing and the perfect show for that time. At the same time, if the production was not good and the actors did not perform, the show would not have seen the same success.”
The seasoned actor also attributes the success of the show to Netflix’s excellent marketing team. “The support of the team really changed the show. That was the first time that I experienced a level of attention to detail with marketing. We had interviews lined up and we had weeks of doing marketing, whereas in my previous shows they did not put as much effort into it. This is definitely what every production should invest in – really good marketing,” said Greeff.
Having joined the winning team on the second season, Siyafa said booking jobs in the film industry is a challenge as Mzansi tends to reuse the same actors over and over.
Although he is grateful that his journey to stardom was not as challenging as most, there are a lot of factors that could kill an aspiring actor’s dreams, such as a slow industry that at times does not have enough roles to give everyone good work.
“But I think that the opportunities do come, and when they do, you
have to give it your best shot.
“The Blood & Water producers were very intentional about opening up the industry. You see a lot of young actors performing for the first time on the show, so I am hopeful that things are changing.”
Siyafa believes South Africa has the potential to have its own Hollywood. “But only if we stick to who we are and produce our own flavours like how India, Nigeria and America does. We are still trying to figure out our own flavour and niche and how we are going to show the world our culture through cinema and good storytelling.”
The two actors are grateful that there are spaces like Comic Con where fans get to unleash their creativity and also mingle with some of their favourite celebrities and influencers. “The significance of this festival is that we can come here with our show and connect with the fans and have a great session with them,” said Greeff.
A very drained Carla Massmann, the director of the festival, spared Daily Maverick a moment to chat after sprinting around to make sure all was in good shape for the event.
“It is all I do really,” said Massmann. “People often ask if this is all I do for work and, yes, it is what I love. It is such a big show and we put in the work to make sure that the fans have the best experience possible. It really is all about the fans.”