Liz Ohanesian

Doctor Who fans at Gallifrey One

See also:
*Doctor Who Fans Refurbish TARDIS Console From 1996 Movie for Gallifrey One Convention (From Gallifrey One 2012)

Last weekend, Gallifrey One, Los Angeles' Doctor Who convention, sold out its 24th annual show. That's 3,200 convention memberships scored before the day of the event. Back in 2006, when the convention first moved to its current home, the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, attendance was under 800 Whovians.

The convention's success, according to co-founder and program director Shaun Lyon, mirrors the growing popularity of Doctor Who in the United States. "I don't think it's ever been as popular as it is now here," says Lyon of the series, which broadcasts on BBC America. "It really was kind of a niche thing for a long time."

For the uninitiated, Doctor Who, the British science-fiction program, can be broken up into two categories. There's what Lyon and many other fans refer to as the "classic" show. Those are the episodes that originally aired between the 1960s and 1980s, featuring the first seven incarnations of the Doctor. Then there is the current incarnation of the program, which launched in 2005 and features Doctors 9 through 11, respectively. It continues today with Matt Smith starring as the eleventh Doctor. In between those two eras, there was the 1996 TV movie with Paul McGann as the eighth Doctor.

This is just the core of the franchise. There's also a lot of related media, like books and audio dramas, plus spin-off television programs like The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood.

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Gendy Alimurung

The many faces of Steve Zissou at Bill Murray Appreciation Day

See also:
*Slideshow -- Bill Murray Appreciation Day

The first Los Angeles Bill Murray Appreciation Day, or BMAD, happened this past weekend on a cold, drizzly Saturday evening. (Saturday was also Groundhog Day, of course.) How exactly did Bill Murray get his own day of appreciation, you ask? Credit goes to 27-year old USC graduate film student Christopher Guerrero and his producers Will Goldstein and Colin Reeves-Fortney. Guerrero really wants Murray to star in his thesis film.

Unfortunately, Bill Murray is just about the most difficult actor to track down. He has no publicists. He has no agents. For a while, the only way to contact him was via a 1-800 number connected to an answering machine. Guerrero hoped to catch the actor's attention by giving him his own holiday.

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Anime Los Angeles' Harassment Policy, from the ALA 2013 program

See also:
*5 Essential Cosplay Tips for Beginners
*Anime Expo 2012: Cosplayer Yaya Han Turns Her Hobby Into a Business
*Why Do People Cosplay to Begin With?

I was flipping through the pages of Anime Los Angeles' program guide when I stumbled upon this line: "Harassment of any kind, including physical, verbal or unwelcoming attention, will not be tolerated." There were a few paragraphs after that -- more on what constitutes harassment as well as the repercussions of such actions ("permanent suspension of membership" to the convention) -- and an illustration of one chibi-styled anime character pouncing on another.

This wasn't the first time I noticed a harassment policy. Equestria L.A. -- last fall's Brony convention, which shared some staff members with Anime L.A. -- had one in its guide as well. Regardless, it was nice to see this detailed on the third page of a hefty program. The statement is obvious, but sometimes the lessons of preschool -- for example, "Keep your hands to yourself" -- are lost on adults.

Over the past year, convention-goers have become more vocal about the kinds of harassment that exist on the show floors. There was Mandy, the Black Cat cosplayer who spoke up when she was pulled aside for a video interview only to be grilled about her cup size. There were the women at Defcon armed with cards to remind men when their behavior is becoming inappropriate. There was the cosplayer who wrote an open letter to the "butt photographer" at Comikaze. Nerd Reactor writer Genevieve LeBlanc recounted her personal experiences with convention harassment. Comedian Andre Medows went off on "creeper" photographers after one approached his friend. There's even a group, Con Anti-Harassment Project, that's urging conventions to take a strong stance against harassment. Most recently, a group of Australian cosplayers put together the video "How to Avoid Being Branded a Convention Creeper."

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Topless Robot, home for "nerd news, humor and self-loathing" is looking to immediately hire a new chief blogger and editor.

Yes, really!

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Shannon Cottrell

Bender spotting at San Diego Comic-Con 2012

Dressing up as famed characters from across the pop culture landscape for events other than Halloween is nothing new. Certainly, people were doing it well before the term cosplay came into being. But, with every passing year, the image of the superfan dressed in detailed, often complicated costumes becomes more prevalent.

Right now, it's safe to say that the cosplayer is the face of the fan convention, even if there are plenty of people at these events who don't dress up at all (myself included). Over the past few years, I've covered a lot of cosplay for L.A. Weekly, from a samurai rendition of Darth Vader to a gender-bent version of the Justice League, from professional cosplayers like Yaya Han to a Firefly fan who chose Jayne's hat as her first costume.

Still some questions remain unanswered. How exactly do people get into cosplay? What do cosplayers see as their biggest successes and failures? More importantly, why cosplay? Since this Saturday is International Cosplay Day, I posed some of these questions on Twitter and Facebook. The responses vary, but the passion for dressing up as someone else is always the same.

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Paul T. Bradley

Hardwick, suited up, gets things running

"Wait, isn't a parsec a unit of distance and not time?" you ask.

"Who gives a shit?" we say -- because it's all for charity. And also a reference to a fictional universe.

But try telling that to all of the nerds, nerdists and nerdettes who showed up this week for the Course of the Force. Chris Hardwick and Peter Levin's lightsaber relay from Santa Monica to San Diego, which began on Saturday, ended yesterday at the main event, the con of all cons, San Diego Comic-Con. Raising money exclusively for the Make a Wish Foundation, and ending with a surreal performance by the Dan Band, the Course was peppered with "Conivals," or Con Carnivals of cross-marketing sponsorship things.

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Liz Ohanesian

Yaya Han at her Anime Expo 2012 booth

See also: "Anime Expo 2012: Tiger & Bunny and Puella Magi Madoka Magica Draw Huge Crowds at AX"

On Sunday afternoon at Anime Expo, I met Atlanta-based cosplayer Yaya Han at her booth inside the exhibit hall, surrounded by cat ears, unicorn horns and pegasus wings.

Han is part of a growing number of what she calls "cosplay entrepreneurs," people who have turned their hobbies into businesses. She sets up shop inside the exhibit hall of anywhere from 20 to 25 conventions a year, selling the cosplay accessories that she makes along with glossy photos of herself portraying a number of famed heroes and villains, calendars and T-shirts. There's almost always a crowd around Han's booth, more so when she's working it. On this day, as she tried to make her escape, she was stopped at least three times for photos. Han sweetly fulfilled all the requests.

Han was dressed as Chun-Li. More precisely, she was dressed as an Art Nouveau rendition of the butt-kicking Street Fighter heroine, based on a design by artist Razvan-Sedekiah. It took her 10 days to make the costume, not long considering that she included embroidery and other details.

"Every day I'm crafting, so I think that sped up my costume-making process," she says. The results were impressive, so much so that Han couldn't walk much more than five feet without someone asking for a photo. Every time she posed, a handful of others jumped in on the shot with professional cameras and cellphones. Maybe some were just taken by the video game character come to life, but others clearly knew Yaya Han, at least by her reputation as one of the best cosplayers in the U.S.

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Shannon Cottrell

Kit Quinn as Superma'am and Tallest Silver at Batma'am at San Diego Comic-Con 2011

See also:
*"Kit Quinn and Tallest Silver: The Great Pretenders"
*"14 Essential Items to Bring to Every Fan Convention"

Every once in a while, I think I might try my hand at cosplay. I'll read a comic book or watch an old TV show and get an idea for a great costume. Sometimes, I'll message one of my friends that we really need to get together a group to re-create Bewitched or Wacky Races or whatever other retro show I'm obsessing over at the moment. For a few days, I'm ready to face the challenge of making a costume so ridiculous that it can't be bought.

But then I start to think about how much time this project will take and how much of a pain it will be to have to transform myself into someone else before hitting the convention floor. And, let's face it, there's a certain level of awkwardness that comes from interviewing people while dressed as Cousin Serena or Penelope Pitstop.

Regardless, there's always a thought that, maybe someday, I'll show up somewhere in costume. With that in mind, I turned to some cosplayers I know for advice. Here's what they told me.

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Kevin Scanlon

Two of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here.

Kit Quinn and Tallest Silver keep their legal names off the record. The best friends' fear is that, as their images circle the web, boundaries blur. Online, strangers want to get too personal. And they've already been recognized at stores and amusement parks.
Quinn and Silver are 23-year-old cosplayers, showing up at such conventions as San Diego Comic-Con dressed as pop culture icons in stunningly accurate detail. Silver, a pretty redhead, does a mean Poison Ivy. Fittingly, Quinn often plays Ivy's best friend and fellow Batman nemesis, Harley Quinn.

At conventions, photographers swarm as though they're celebrities. "Some things are more socially acceptable in that situation," Silver says, "but when you step away from it, that would have been really creepy and not OK" in regular life.

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Shannon Cottrell

Helmetgirls at San Diego Comic-Con

See more photos in "2011: The Year in Cosplay." Read more in this years "Best of the Cons," Part 1 and Part 2 and "Top 10 Cult Stars of 2011."
While some conventions attract more people in costume than others, there's no denying that cosplay has become a very important aspect of the fan convention circuit. From how-to panels to masquerade events to impromptu meet-ups, cosplayers are everywhere.

This year, we put together a slideshow of 50 great cosplays from events like Anime Los Angeles, Anime Expo, San Diego Comic-Con, Dragon*Con, Comikaze Expo and Pacific Media Expo. Here, I'm giving a shout out to five that stood out either because they were unusual or they saw an unexpected surge in popularity this year.

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