Top 10 Cult Stars of 2011

Shannon Cottrell

Kit Quinn as Superma'am and Tallest Silver at Batma'am

Kit Quinn and Tallest Silver are well known within the cosplay community. In fact, Quinn was the 2010 recipient of Comic Impact's Cosplay Girl of the Year award. While this duo's collection of cosplays is certainly impressive, they upped the ante last summer with their large group cosplay, Gender Bent Justice League. I included them in this year's "Best of the Cons (Part 1)" list, but they deserve another mention here.

With GBJL, Quinn, Silver and friends swapped the genders of Justice League characters. Quinn was Superma'am. Silver was Batma'am. Wonder Man, Power Guy and several others were in the mix. The catch was that the girls remained largely clothed. The guys, on the other hand, were scantily clad by male superhero standards -- illustrating the difference between male and female characters in comic books.

Read more in "San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay Spotlight: Gender Bent Justice League."

Shannon Cottrell

Members of Shibuya Girls Pop pose with Caro, who put together "Magical Girls."

Last spring, Shibuya Girls Pop, a mostly female Japanese art collective, held their first proper L.A. show inside Meltdown Comic's gallery. Titled "Magical Girls: The Art of Shojo Manga," the work was inspired by Japanese comics created specifically for girls.

With an opening weekend full of packed events, "Magical Girls" was more than just an introduction to this group of talented artists. It was testament to the fact that there is an audience for girl-friendly comics and that those titles can (and will) go on to inspire more artists.

Read more in "Shibuya Girls Pop: Cute Rebellion."

Liz Ohanesian

Kevin Eastman inside his Meltdown Comics studio.

Kevin Eastman is the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That alone makes him a cult star. But Eastman has done much more than help conceive of the pop culture icons in a New England studio decades ago.

Eastman has owned legendary fantasy art magazine Heavy Metal since the early 1990s. He has a stack of other projects in the works, too, all of them on display at Meltdown Comics this month in a massive career retrospective. Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of Heavy Metal, Eastman has opened up a pop-up shop inside the comic book institution. Here you can find rare artwork, a studio based on the one where the artist works and, if you show up at just the right time, sometimes Eastman as well.

Read more in "Kevin Eastman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Co-Creator, Takes Over Meltdown Comics for 35 Days."