I emerged from my solitary bubble of pins and thread after
countless hours of costume making on the other side of the world - at the San Diego Comic Con!
I really didn't quite know what to expect when I went but
found myself with an hour or so to hang around before I could enter the
convention centre. The atmosphere was buzzing with all sorts of folk eager to
get in there and soak up the geekery. As Geek
In Training (GIT) I dutifully
wore my Cereal:Geek t-shirt to advertise the magazine and
within the first couple of hours had a couple of people ask about it. For me,
the preview night helped me gauge which day I was to be my alter-ego Jem and which day to transform into Sweet Bee of She-Ra fame.
GIT
Jem was
to come first. Mainly because I couldn't wait to be a bright pink 80's rocker,
but a little bit to do with having a huge meal the evening before and feeling a
bit like a whale the next morning. There's no space for feeling bloated in that Sweet Bee costume!
The evening before, I sprayed my shoes from tasteful beige 4
inch heels into er, 'tasteful' sparkly pink rock star heels with some spray
paint I'd bought at Michael's in LA. We did this in the dark in the car park of
the Motel 6 with baited breath - if it didn't work then, well, I'd have
mismatched shoes. And we can't have that can we.
Discovering that the journey from the Motel 6 in El Cajon to
the convention centre was much longer than we'd first thought and that I'm no
morning person by any measure, I decided to take the Jem costume along with me and get ready
when I got there. I felt like sticking on Blondie's 'Call me' a la Tiffany's makeover scene in The
Bride of Chucky. Not that I was feeling at all murderous...
Apparently, if you dress up for a day at SDCC you become some
kind of celebrity, especially if you are Jem.
I was so surprised not to see a flock other fellow Jem's considering there is a
movie coming up though social media tells me there was at least 2 others, one
of which I only met on the last day of the convention.
It was great fun being Jem and
I received many compliments on my costume including one from a woman who said I
was everything the 7 year old her wanted to be and one saying it was the best Jem costume she'd ever seen. Win win!
There were also comments from 70 year old men such as 'I should get my wife to
wear that outfit...' - not so win win.
It certainly did make taking a quick trip to the pretzel
stand into a half hour trek though. Every 30 seconds or so I would be stopped
for a photo or have someone excitedly shout 'Jem!' - which by the end of
the week I began to automatically answer to.
I met some other awesomely dressed people on the way too.
Some of my favourites included the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lichtenstein
characters, Indiana Jones, Edward Scissorhands and the Joker. I was however
surprised and slightly disappointed to see a lack of Rocky Horror fans, though
I did meet a Columbia who looked damn awesome!
Day 2 was my Sweet
Bee day. After wriggling into
my yellow Lycra bee warrior skin I fluffed up my hair, stuck on
my antenna's and went off for a wander to check out the Sweet Bee
figure at the Mattel booth. Not so many seemed to recognise Sweet Bee though when I wandered through the
booth one of the men working there who was rushing off somewhere stopped me to
excitedly point out that I should enter the Princess of Power costume
competition. So I did. I'd thought this was reserved just for She-ra's but apparently not! So
here I am, contestant number 19...
After wearing this costume for 9 hours I was super pleased to
find that it stayed up and didn't embarrass me AND that I didn't break any of
the seams. My wings stayed in tact too, which was impressive since they were
created at 4.30am the night before the flight! I've decided if I wear the
costume again I'm going to make the wings much bigger - due to suitcase
restrictions they had to be quite small!
Overall I had a superb time dressing up at SDCC, it was a
great experience and I'm so pleased Mr. Eatock gave me the opportunity to join
the adventure! I met some great people and a particular highlight for me was
seeing the vast selection of art on display. Especially, Zero Friends and J.Scott Campbell - who I got to
meet and sign the print I'd bought of Tinkerbell sitting on a cotton reel
surrounded by sewing and craft paraphernalia! He even agreed with James that I
resembled the style of drawing he produces in the eyebrows and nose! Score!
.JPG)
Here's me... Meeting me
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