GET YOUR GEEK ON, CALGARY
Comic Expo hits full stride
It took more than two and a half hours Thursday morning for Lindsey Bladon to transform into The X-Men's Mystique.
It involved gluing 85 tiny pieces of blue silicon onto her face, applying contact lenses, fitting an orange wig and then “blue paint everywhere.”
“We were a little late getting here because I spilled all of my glue,” said Bladon, lining up alongside thousands at Eau Claire Market Square to participate in the Parade of Wonders. “But you have to overcome the challenges. It's really worth it when I get the whole outfit together. It's really fun to show it off and to have people see it and enjoy it and recognize it and know what movie it's from.”
While Calgary Expo officially began Thursday night, the Parade of Wonders kicked it into high gear Friday. Expo organizers say 11,000 people were on hand to check out 2,200 cosplayers parade through downtown Calgary.
It made a surreal scene as hundreds lined up at Eau Claire Market to register for the march. There were dozens of storm troopers, Wookies, Ewoks, at least four Wolverines, two feisty Pikachus, a Judge Dredd, Steampunkers and an appropriately solitary and joyless Ghost Rider.
Some took the cosplay idea a step further. Jesse Varley and Melissa Jaroszenko got up at 4 a.m. to transform themselves into peculiar Star Wars/Harry Potter hybrids. Varley was a blue Chiss Jedi who wore the Ravenclaw House colours from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Jaroszenko was a green Jedi Miliran wearing the Slytherin colours.
“We threw it together last minute,” insists Varley. “We were up at 4, but we had to rush it,” Jaroszenko said, promising Saturday's getup would be even more elaborate.
Members of the Alberta Ghostbusters and the Ghostbusters of British Columbia prepped with custom cheers. (“We're the best, we're the beautiful, we're the only Ghostbusters!”) They also have a booth at Calgary Expo at the Big Four, where they will be raising money for the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation.
“Ghostbusters is the best cosplay out there,” said Jay Ross. “You got the gear, you got the movie, you got the humour, you got the car ... We don't actually have the car. We're looking for the car. Someone parked it. We can't find it.”
Sometimes you choose the character, sometimes the character chooses you.
Edmonton's Greg Stone was decked out in an elegant white suit and scarves with Spider-Man's mask sticking out of his pocket. He was basing his look on the comicbook version of Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Daredevil and Spidey's hulking, baldheaded nemesis Kingpin.
But he was a spitting image of actor Vincent D'Onofrio's interpretation of the character in the new Netflix series.
“I just happen to look like the guy from the TV show,” says Stone. “The resemblance is ... uncomfortable sometimes. I did this costume in Edmonton one time and someone walked up to me and said, 'I'm not sure if it's more scary that you look like him or you could be him. But I just went old-school with a look from the comic books.”
According to Expo spokeswoman Emily Expo, the four-year-old parade has grown along with the event in general, with more people participating and more effort from participants.
The 2,200 participants eventually gathered into appropriate sections — volunteers held signs that read TV, Sci-Fi and Zombies to help people get organized — and the whole group eventually made its way down Stephen Avenue to Olympic Plaza.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi led the parade, joining celebrities such as The Walking Dead's Tom Payne (Jesus); Star Trek alumni Connor Trinneer, Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill and Doctor Who's John Barrowman, who sported a Calgary white Smithbilt hat for the occasion.
At Olympic Plaza, Nenshi cheerfully proclaimed himself a nerd, attempted a mildly suggestive joke (" ... by the way I always thought cosplay meant something completely different”), and said something about his shoes before helping Emily Expo officially open the show.
“I am a proud nerd,” Nenshi said. “If being a nerd means being passionate and excited and cool about something you love, then let's all be great nerds together.”