Batman #3 – Matt Fraction, Writer; Jorge Jimenez, Artist; Tomeu Morey, Colorist

Ray – 9.5/10

Ray: Matt Fraction’s run has been off to a great start, with a tone that’s more chaotic than your average Bat-run. There is no main story so far, although it seems like Vandal Savage – in his role as police commissioner – is taking on the role of the main villain. Last issue saw Batman and Tim Drake barely escape with their lives from a pair of rogue cops, one of whom was killed by his partner. Now, Savage plans to use this death to authorize an anti-Bat killsquad. Tim, meanwhile, is recovering from a bullet wound in the hospital, which has raised some suspicions among his boyfriend Bernard – in a clever revival of a plot that dates back to the very first Robin solo series in the 1990s. There are a lot of other little interesting stories, such as Damian getting early admission to Gotham University and being pushed by Bruce to focus on his future; and an amusingly low-tech new Bat-signal being put together by Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock.

But there’s also a larger plot weaving through this issue, and it’s about mental health. The young doctor who was working with Killer Croc in the first issue has debuted a new invention – the Crown of Storms, an electronic device that supposedly regulates electricity in the brain and can help tame the twisted minds of Arkham’s inmates. She paints it as a humanitarian option, while Hugo Strange is strongly opposed – suspiciously so. This becomes a much more pressing issue when Riddler makes his next move – but as Batman answers his questions, it becomes clear that Nygma is not in a good place. He’s frantically rattling off weak riddles, trying to get his compulsion under control, and Batman winds up sedating him. So far, this run seems like it’s trying to get ahead of all the questions about how Batman operates and painting a picture of a more responsible, more human Batman for the future.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

GeekDad received this comic for review purposes

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Larger Than Life Cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

My wife Shannon, son Max (eight), and I are into cosplay to varying degrees. I am the only one with a cosplay page on Facebook (Larger Than Life Cosplay) and Instagram (LTLCOSPLAY). We like to do family cosplays with a theme, if possible, but we each have our favorite characters to portray. I’m 6’8″ and Shannon is 5’11” so we always stand out in a crowd.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

I got into cosplay long before it was called that in the early ’80s. My first cosplay outside of Halloween was probably a crude Darth Vader I wore for Return of the Jedi. I remember getting out of the car and hearing a huge cheer from the hundreds of people waiting in line to get in. It was quite a rush. Shannon was always into genre movies but didn’t do any cosplay before we met.

After we got married, Shannon and I would always dress up for Halloween parties with detailed costumes, and after Max was born, we started taking him to San Diego Comic-Con each year. I think that was the gateway for us to cosplay as a family.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

My favorite cosplay these days is Sandor Clegane AKA The Hound from Game of Thrones. Shannon’s is probably Wednesday from the Addams Family or Snow White. Max loves his Alexander Hamilton cosplay and his Tower of Terror Bellboy.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

We usually do our own thing, but we really enjoyed our Addams Family cosplay where I was Lurch, Shannon Wednesday, and Max

Pugsley. We also did a Harry Potter group of Dumbledore, Bellatrix and, of course, Max as Harry.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

We are more into getting into character than construction on our costumes so we usually get help from our friends who are professional costume makers in Hollywood. I usually work on the details of our costumes, distressing them, and Shannon is great making alterations or adding details. I think the armor from my Hound cosplay is the most detailed piece and really required a lot of work.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

I guess it would be sewing since we don’t do any casting or foam molding ourselves.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

When I was young I used to put together fantasy dioramas. I was especially good at painting small figures. Max is into LEGO. We are building a LEGO Titanic. Yes, there are similarities because it’s all about attention to detail. You want the same thing in good cosplay. Just having your costume appear to be mud stained can make a huge difference in how people react to the cosplay.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

I think the best thing you can do is just bring them with you when you attend pop culture events and see if it sparks their imagination. It’s interesting that my son really isn’t into the same stuff I like. I think kids want to have a sense of ownership around the cultural touchstones that are important to them. There is one exception–Max does like to dress up as a younger version of The Hound which we call “The Pup.” It’s adorable when we walk the cons together in the same costume.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

Everyone in the family is really into pop culture. We each have our own favorites. I’m into Game of Thrones, Shannon loves The Walking Dead, and Max is a huge fan of Harry Potter. As an executive for Legion M, the world’s first fan-owned production company, I’ve found my dream job. I actually get paid to immerse myself in geek culture and pop culture fandom and interact directly with the fans to see what movies and TV shows they want to get made. Shannon loves movies, especially heavy action films. Max is going through a “cool” phase so I don’t think he’d like to be considered a “geek” about anything.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

LargerThanLifeCosplay:

We always make it to San Diego Comic-Con, which is in July, and probably WonderCon this spring. We are super easy to spot, so I hope your readers will come up and say hi!

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. My goal is to talk to parents and families of all configurations and skill levels who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Junior Ghost Beaters. 

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

I wanted to start off by saying that I use this as a type of therapy for my son who has several traits of Autism and ADHD. I also use this to help me in large public place such as cons, because I suffer from depression and PTSD anxiety after my back-to-back combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army.

There are three members of this family that participate in cosplay: both my kids Xander and Anya, ages 5 and 4, and myself, 34. The kids actually have a cosplay Facebook Page called the Junior Ghost Beaters. It has a lot of information about them and pictures and videos of recent and past cons they have attended.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

We didn’t start doing cosplay as a family until our first con we attend in 2015, which was actually the first time the Walker Stalker made its appearance at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks in Oaks, PA. I dressed up as Rick Grimes (Season 1 sheriff outfit), and my kids dressed as zombies.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

Right now I take pride and joy in my Ash Williams cosplay from the classic horror Evil Dead series. Both Xander and Anya have both taken interest in cosplay as Ash and Kelly from the Ash vs Evil Dead series.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

When the three of us attend a con, we generally cosplay as a family, but that can change as they get older.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

The most challenging piece of my whole outfit was, of course, the Ash’s chainsaw, and Xander says his challenge was helping me build his chainsaw.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

It’s funny because I never went that far yet into our cosplay outfits, but from talking and seeing others doing all that above looks challenging and a lot of time spent but hats off to those.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

I think the best way to get kids involved is to let them help when creating their costumes and let them enjoy themselves.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

I am a geek about classic ’80s movies and TV growing up, older anime and video/computer games. The kids both enjoy sci-fi movies/show, video games, and pretend play.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Junior Ghost Beaters:

The Junior Ghost Beaters and myself will be attending a lot of cons in the upcoming months. The next con we will be attending is Ocean City Con on December 9, 2017, in Ocean City, Maryland. In the new year they will be at the Philly Comics and Cosplay Day 3 Comic Con on March 24, 2018, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Many Faces of Cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

The whole family (of three) are involved from making our costumes and props through to attending Cons and entering masquerade.

Family Prop Cosplay Page
Stephen McGowan Age: 46, Many Faces of Cosplay, Craigavon LeatherFace, Irelands Sloth
Kathryn McGowan Age: 36, Black Kitty Scout
Chloe McGowan Age: 13, JediChucky

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

Kathryn was into reading graphic novels, and her friend mentioned about a local Comic Con convention, and it all spiraled from there into what we are doing now. Prop making came a year later, as our costumes became reliant on props. With our own props on show, other cosplayers started asking us where we bought our weapons/props.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

Stephen: Ireland’s Sloth or LeatherFace 2003 Remake Cosplay

Kathryn: Pirate Harley

Chloe: TinkerBell / Hitgirl. (she can’t decide!)

Family: Big Daddy, Nightb-tch, and Hitgirl from the film Kickass.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

When we do a weekend Comic Con, the first day we do our own unique cosplay character, and the second day we try and do a family cosplay. It allows us to enjoy the convention on our own time as well as with the family.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

With each cosplay costume and prop, we like to select a character that challenges us as a family to always think outside the box when thrift shopping. We love to recycle everything as much as we can from thrift shopping to using household recycled materials.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

Kathryn works a lot with materials for sewing of costumes whether making or amending/adapting. Stephen works with mainly wood or foam, sometimes plastic in making props and weapons.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

As a side hobby, Kathryn builds DIY Doll Houses, which takes time and patience, so as for similarities, patience is definitely something you need when creating a new cosplay. It sometimes takes us a year from start to finish with a costume build depending on sourcing/availability of materials, structure build, and prop build.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

Find the nearest convention and attend for a day of fun, see all the stalls and prop makers, take time to speak to the artists, sellers and manufacturers. After your first convention, get onto social media sites and join local cosplay groups to find out what your interests are.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

Kathryn is a big DC and Marvel graphic novel collector. She has built up a massive directory to keep track of all the titles. Chloe has just started collecting Warhammer models , which keep her quiet for hours painting and gluing all the pieces together.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Many Faces of Cosplay:

We are hoping to attend Showmasters Belfast 2018 and DCC 2018. As for Ireland’s Sloth, keep an eye on his Facebook and Instagram as announcements of where he will be are posted there.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Cheetah Girl Cosplay. Cheetah Girl Cosplay is the father and daughter team of Joel and Gabi.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

Being new to the world of cosplay, it’s currently just my daughter Gabriela (9) who has any finished projects to wear, but we’re definitely a team when it comes to process.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

I’m sure lots of people start the way we did, with a Halloween costume. Last year, Gabi settled in on Harley Quinn pretty early with Suicide Squad out in theaters. After being gifted the wig and the “Daddy’s Monster” tee, I wanted to add something to the overall look. I settled on the hammer because it sounded like a lot more fun to make than a baseball bat. It was a quick build as time was short, but I definitely want to give credit to DIY Prop Shop on YouTube for the basic material and process tutorial. I’m pretty handy in the wood shop, but working with foam and bottle caps was a new experience.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

We’re big Ghibli fans. During a family visit to Japantown in San Francisco about 3 months ago, we saw posters for the SF Anime and Cosplay Festival, which inspired us to take on our first true project, San from Princess Mononoke. I had been searching for something creative for us to do together, and having a deadline and goal kept us both motivated to keep things moving. So it was back to YouTube where we got some good direction to start from Chezlin’s DIY channel.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

So far, it’s just Gabi, but I also have a two-year-old daughter, so we already have visions of turning her into a tree spirit to go with the San outfit.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

Having never worked with many of these materials, there was a lot of trial and error on this because it was our first build. The toughest fight was working with the Crayola air dry clay we bought for the mask. It cracked when drying so ended up taking 3 coats, and I learned to cover it in cling wrap to slow the drying process.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

As we’re so new, right now, I’m just excited to learn new processes to get a better grasp of all the possibilities. I would love to get better at finishing techniques, as that’s where I see so much potential for detailing and individuality. I had to enlist a coworker on the Mononoke cape and hood, so I’d love to learn how to sew myself too.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

My background is in architecture, so I’m no stranger to model building. I think that helps in terms of having a good sense of what structure and assembly is needed, but I can’t say I’ve tried anything that complex yet.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

For me, I was just desperate to find something for her to do other than watch people play video games on YouTube. (I still think that is so bizarre.) Once I was able to steer her towards channels showing people making things, she started looking on her own. As with all things parenting, I’ve found the best results when you can guide them towards something and let them discover it on their own.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

I grew up in classic geek/nerd style for someone born in the ’70s–D&D in the basement, 8-bit video games all day, Star Trek TNG every night on cable. The geek gene is strong in Gabi, but the only things from my youth I’ve been able to remotely get her excited about is Thundercats, as she has a love for all things feline.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Cheetah Girl Cosplay:

We’re in the Bay Area, CA so we’re eyeing SF ComicCon. It’s six weeks away, which sounds like a lot, but Gabi wants to do a whole new Naruto inspired outfit so we need to get started. She’s also said that she doesn’t want to be the only one dressed, so I’m planning on going as Jonathan from the 1975 Rollerball film. I know nobody under 35 will have any clue who it is, but I think some of the older crowd would get a kick out of it, and all I need is a football helmet and some gloves with foam spikes.

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Thorne Family Costuming (whom I met last year at a maker meetup here in Seattle at SoDo Makerspace).

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Thorne Family:

Our whole family of seven is involved in our cosplay adventures. Everyone participates in varying degrees depending on their age and how busy they are at the moment. You can find us all at Thorne Family Costuming.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Thorne Family:

Mom and Dad started and quickly included all of our kids. We have three kids from Dad’s previous marriage and two of our own. Dad’s first cosplay was Marcus from Gears of War and our first full family cosplay was our Mass Effect family (with Normandy SR 0.5 stroller).

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Thorne Family:

Our favorite family cosplay was probably our Mass Effect family. The nicknames that each of our kids has gives away their own favorites: Teen Chief (Halo), Lil’ Palmer (Halo), Commander Shepard (Mass Effect), Teensy Jackal (Halo), and Stroller Ryder (Mass Effect: Andromeda). Dad’s favorite is Spartan Gabriel Thorne (Halo) and Mom’s is Cortana (Halo).

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Thorne Family:

We try to cosplay all together whenever we can, though finding something that everyone in the family is interested in doing, along with making all of the costumes fast enough that they still fit everyone, can be a challenge. So far we’ve managed to have everyone in Mass Effect and Pokémon cosplay and most of the family in Halo cosplay. We also make sure to let each of the kids pick other fun things to make and wear that they are interested in themselves, and Mom and Dad do some things ourselves. We have made other Mass Effect characters, Gears of War, comic book characters, and quite a few Disney princesses. Our “dress up” closet for the little girls is quite large.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Thorne Family:

Spartan Palmer’s chest piece was quite difficult, with many small details and complex curves. And getting the cape and mask to look just right on Batwoman was also a hard challenge.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Thorne Family:

Everyone in the family has found their niche as we’ve built many different costumes. Dad does most of the foam work, Mom does the sewing, our oldest son is our weathering and damage specialist, and all of the girls love to help with painting and sewing. Dad recently purchased a 3D printer, and our son is learning the 3D modeling programs needed to help out with more small details in the future.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Thorne Family:

Dad did a lot of scale modeling growing up. It has been helpful in knowing how to work well with superglue, some painting techniques, and if we’re putting together a model that someone else has already created in a 3D program like pepakura, or something we’ve 3D printed in multiple parts. However, with scale model building you’re usually just putting pre-defined parts together. When you’re making costumes, and especially costumes for kids, even when working from a model, everything has to be custom-sized or built on the fly.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Thorne Family:

Make sure to include them in as many of the decisions and building processes as possible. You’ll end up with pink sparkle pistols and dinosaur armor (Jackal from Halo), and kids that are really excited to wear them. The best part of costuming for our family is the time we spend together: time spent planning and building the costumes, time spent at conventions, photo shoots, or game launches, and time looking through all our fun pictures together. The fact that we can get our teenagers and our five-year-old to sit with us for hours and hours talking or watching something together while we make things together is incredible. And the memories we make and the feeling of pride I can see in their eyes when we’re getting stopped for pictures constantly at a convention is wonderful.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Thorne Family:

We are a very geeky family. Mom was a middle school science teacher for 14 years and shares her love of Harry Potter with all the girls in the family. Dad makes video games for a living. Our oldest son is already in college at 16 working on a digital art degree, and our oldest daughter reads any fantasy or futuristic novels at speeds that we can barely keep up with. Our house is full of geeky props, posters, and signs, and we love it.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Thorne Family:

We’re usually at Emerald City Comicon all together as a family and sometimes PAX West as well. Mom and Dad try to make it out east to DragonCon whenever we can. And any other small, family friendly conventions here in the Seattle area that we can find.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview The Scherm Family, who, you will see, are all about the Star Wars cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Scherm Family:

Mike Scherm (Dad)–Stormtrooper, Blackhole Trooper, Shocktrooper
Cassandra Scherm (Mom)–Tie Pilot
Maximus Scherm (14)–Shadow Scout, Kylo Ren
Leneah Scherm (12) AZ Mini TK–Stormtrooper, Rey, Tie Pilot, Princess Leia
Darius Scherm (9) AZ Mini Fett--Boba Fett, 212th Battalion Clone

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Scherm Family:

It all really started during the Star Wars Celebration II. I went to a panel on Boba Fett cosplay, now known as The Dented Helmet. I joined the group and started gathering all the information and parts I could. It wasn’t long before I realized that Boba Fett was probably way too hard for my first costume. I then went on to a Blackhole Trooper or TX. I was able to join the 501st Legion with that costume in 2008. I have since completed a Stormtrooper, Clone Trooper, and both versions of Boba Fett. My children started costuming in 2007 for Halloween. They shared best in show at our local trunk or treat for their Jango and Boba Fett costumes. In 2014, I purchased a child size Stormtrooper from Walt’s Trooper Factory and had it built to fit my daughter. She then became AZ Mini TK. After seeing all the fun she was having at the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondback games, my oldest son said he wanted to get involved again, and my youngest was now big enough to wear the Boba Fett costume. I purchased a Shadow Scout kit, again from Walt’s Trooper Factory, and built it utilizing the 501st Pathfinders website. All three kids then joined the ranks of the Galactic Academy, which is the 17 and under wing of the 501st Legion. The last one to join in was my wife, Cassandra. She finally gave in and allowed me to fit her into a Tie Pilot costume last year. Before that, she was our wrangler at different events and took all the pictures. Last year’s Phoenix Comicon was the first time all five of us cosplayed at the same time.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Scherm Family:

I really like my Shocktrooper. It was the hardest one to actually assemble, and the paint job was challenging, to say the least. However, I have more mobility in it than I do in my TK or TX. Cassandra agreed to the Tie Pilot due to the fact that she can still sit down and climb stairs with no problems. When I wear my Stormtrooper, stairs become my worst enemy. Maximus’ favorite costume was his Shadow Scout. Unfortunately, he seems to have outgrown the kid’s sized costumes now. He can still wear his Kylo Ren costume if he chooses. Leneah loved her Stormtrooper. She would outlast almost every other costumer at different troops we went to. She, unfortunately, has outgrown that costume and is now happy with her TIE Pilot. Darius just loves Fett. Anything Fett. Whenever we troop and there are other Mandalorians there he will always congregate with them. He steals all their thunder as everyone wants to take a picture of the Mini Fett.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Scherm Family:

We generally try and do most troops together as a family. If I’m on shift there has been a few times the rest of the family has gone out without me, and I have also done a few Hospital Troops without the kids as they would not be allowed in due to policies.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Scherm Family:

Again, I think building out the Shocktrooper was the hardest for me. I have always had some great help from Mike Culp, who is in the Dune Sea Garrison as well. He is masterful when it comes to building kits. The 212th Battalion Clone for my youngest son was challenging as there were no instructional videos or picture to draw from. It was also challenging for him to wear as he was not used to being so restricted while walking. It was fun to watch him waddle for the 1st hour trying to figure out how to walk in it.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Scherm Family:

Most of the kits that I have are ABS and only need to be trimmed to fit and glued together. This has been the case for both the adult kits and child kits. Darius’ Boba Fett jetpack is made out of foam that I cut and glued using templates on The Dented Helmet. My wife is the seamstress in the family. She has been able to modify all the jumpsuits and undergarments that we need. She has also been able to help many others with their costumes as well.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building, and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Scherm Family:

I grew up being a member of Revell’s modeling group. I would receive a new model each month. This was when I was 5-6 years old until maybe 12 years old. I’ve always been one to attempt to build and paint each model to the exact pictures on the front of the box. This has helped with my weathering techniques with the costumes. Building models also showed me the patience required to do the job right, not necessarily quick.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Scherm Family:

With my own children, I was able to get them involved in Star Wars at a young age. With the new movies coming out we have been even more excited lately. I gave them the choice of trooping with us. At first, they chose not to, but after seeing the fun that could be had they all joined in. After that, it was just a matter letting them decide what costume they wanted to troop in. My oldest son is now asking my wife to make him a Link costume from Zelda, and my daughter wants to be part of the new Inferno Squad TIE Pilots from the Battlefront II game.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Scherm Family:

My youngest son Darius is a car geek. He knows each and every NASCAR and the drivers, sponsors, and how many wins they have. He actually learned his numbers by playing with NASCARs. Now he plays Forza games and can tell you the horsepower and torque of almost every car out there. It is quite astonishing, really. Leneah is into Minecraft. She will play that game as long as we let her. We once caught her under the covers of her bed in the middle of the night playing. Yes, she was grounded from her phone after that. Maximus is into all video games. He loves Halo, COD, and Mario Kart. I can’t even play him anymore as he just takes me to school nowadays. Both the wife and I geek out for our family. We love doing things as a family–swimming, camping, boating, or cosplaying. Anything we can do together, we do.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Scherm Family:

We just finished the Phoenix Comicon last week. We are going to try and sign up for the Diamondbacks Star Wars Day that is later this month. We are planning on hitting the Tucson Comic-Con and Casa Grande Comic-Con later this year. If the Star Wars Celebration ever comes back to Anaheim or the West Coast, you can bet we will be there.

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview The Cosplay Kid and his parents.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

TheCosplayKid:

Casey “Mom” Sims (30). Martin “Dad” Sims (35), and Keaden Sims (7). We do not have a family page for cosplay, but Keaden has his own that his mom manages at The Cosplay Kid.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

TheCosplayKid:

We (Mom and Dad) actually met at an anime convention back in 2002. It was the first time seriously cosplaying for both of us, and we hit it off really well. One thing led to another and in a few years we got engaged at that same convention. It only seemed natural to include Keaden when he came along, and he was more than happy to be a part of it.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

TheCosplayKid:

We did a Legend of Korra group one year that went over relatively well; however, usually, we focus on individual interests. Lately (the past few years) we’ve focused on Keaden primarily because he’s so enthusiastic to help and makes a wonderful model.
Martin’s favorite cosplay is his Amon from The Legend of Korra.
Casey’s favorite cosplay is her Glinda the Good from the Wicked Musical.
Keaden’s favorite cosplay is his Keith from Voltron: Legendary Defender.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

TheCosplayKid:

We talk about doing group cosplay pretty frequently, but rarely does it come to life, what with how our interests vary so much. We do have a particular one planned for very soon, though!

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

TheCosplayKid:

Gloves for Keaden’s Hiro Hamada, and the LED wiring in his Red Paladin armor for Keith. Those were both a pain, but we really were pleased with how they came out in the end.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

TheCosplayKid:

Casey paints and sews, Martin is the EVA armor builder/tech guy, and Keaden helps with drawing and making patterns, and he’s also quite a skilled mannequin.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

TheCosplayKid:

Aside from building Gundam Model kits and making terrain things for Battletech, not much in miniature. However, in building cosplay for a tiny human, we do have much respect for people who do small-scale builds!

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

TheCosplayKid:

Introducing them to books and shows you’ve been excited about while growing up can sort of help start the fire in them. It can even be a bonding moment with them that their parent(s) also like cartoons / animation / games. Also, showing them some amazing cosplay may get them thinking that they would like to be a part of it as well.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

TheCosplayKid:

Dad is into all sorts of IT and computer-based geekery; Mom likes Asian ball-jointed dolls, photography, and singing; and Keaden is absolutely obsessed with NASA and space.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

TheCosplayKid:

Anime Weekend Atlanta, Momocon (yes, that is Kaedan on the header image on the site), Kami-con, Magic City Con, and possibly even PAX sometime next year.

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Liam from Thrifty Props.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Liam:

We’re only just getting into cosplay. Right now it’s more accurate to say we all like dressing up. Jamie, my five-year-old son loves super heroes and ninjas. And while my three-year-old daughter, Nova, likes putting on a dress, she certainly isn’t afraid to wield a sword either. Then you have my wife and I who love a good fancy dress party.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Liam:

It all started when my son’s day care got involved in a local carnival. They were having a woodland animal theme and asked each child to dress up as one. My son wanted to be a hedgehog. I started looking online for a costume to buy but quickly realized they were all far too expensive, and there wasn’t a lot of choice. I decided to make him one myself. I went to the local thrift/charity shops in search of materials. I found a nice furry hooded top to use as a starting point, I then went and bought a glue gun and some brown felt. We were lucky enough to find a hedgehog mask, so I didn’t have to try make that. Then I set about my first costume build.

After that, I was hooked and asked my son for the next project.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Liam:

Like I said, we’re only really starting out, so I don’t have a lot to choose from, but I love my first proper cosplay, Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–the ’80s cartoon version, not the movie version.

I’m also super proud of my son’s costume, The Golden Ninja from the LEGO Ninjago TV show that I made for him last Halloween.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Liam:

Since my kids are so young, they can’t do their own thing, but my son and I went to our first con recently. I wore Shredder and he wore a turtle suit. That was a lot of fun to wear together, so I’d love to do more with my kids. Then, at home, the kids have a big box of dressing up things, so I’ll often find a Power Ranger battling a knight in one of their bedrooms.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Liam:

The Golden Ninja being my first piece was definitely my most challenging, not only because it was my first, but it’s not exactly an easy build.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Liam:

I love working with EVA foam as it’s so cheap and quick to work with. Having two kids means I don’t have a lot of disposable income, so keeping costs down is very important. I have also invested in a sewing machine so when the time comes it’ll get used too.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Liam:

I used to build and paint Warhammer models. I never played, just really loved painting them. I would usually modify the models or add more detailed bases.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Liam:

Oh yeah, for sure. I constantly just build for my kids. Once I’m finished with a project, I just ask them what would they like next. This teaches them that not everything has to be bought from a shop but also that these things take time and effort. I even got my son to design his own weapon when he was four. I really loved that moment. Now he understands the process and often makes special requests or comes up with more designs of his own.

His weapon was a lightning ax with an eagle sitting on a nest with eggs on the handle. An absolutely crazy design only a four-year-old could dream up. I loved it.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Liam:

I’m a programmer who works at a game development studio, so I’m a super geek about programming and video games. I don’t think I could get much geekier.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Liam:

I’m not planning on attending anything soon, but if you follow me on social media I’ll let you know. Just search for Thrifty Props.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Nerdy at Home Dad.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

Just my son and me. I make the cosplays, and he wears them. My wife helps us every now and then, especially when there’s something I just can’t figure out.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

It all started with Rocket Raccoon. J had watched an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man that featured Rocket, and he really wanted a Rocket costume. Sadly, this was before the movie came out so there was nothing in stores just yet, so I had to make one. I looked for an outfit that would look the easiest, so we went for the classic blue guardians uniform. After that, we made some friends who helped us get to where we are now.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

My favorite that I’ve made has to be his Cassian Andor and his Ezra Bridger cosplays. J was excited about those from concept to completion. His would be Luke Skywalker because Luke is his favorite Star Wars character.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

So far we haven’t done a group cosplay. I’ve been toying with the idea of making a K2SO cosplay to go along with his Cassian.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

His Rocket undershirt has to have been the most challenging. Sewing faux fur onto a long sleeve undershirt while having zero sewing skills was something I never thought I would do or complete.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

I’ve grown to love sewing. To me, it is a big stress reliever, and I always get excited when a new cosplay has a lot of sewing involved. I also love painting NERF blasters.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

I haven’t done small scale. I probably should. It would probably make crafting a lot easier.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

It’s all about making them cosplays that they want to wear. Yes, kids make a great canvas, but if they don’t like the costume they won’t want to wear it all day at a convention. J chooses every character that he cosplays, and it makes con life that much easier.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

We both are huge Star Wars and Marvel geeks. We also geek out pretty hard over Disney.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Nerdy at Home Dad:

We will be at Star Wars Celebration 2017 (it started yesterday) in Orlando and at Salt Lake Comic Con in September.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview  Derek Kat of Dkreations.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Dkreations:

Nicole and I are a blended family, each bringing a child to the family. Currently, three out of the four of us cosplay, Nicole (30), her daughter Maddie (12), and me (28). My son is five, and we are starting to get him into conventions, though his birthday is Halloween so he gets a few costumes to wear, and he also enjoys dressing up as pirates for medieval fairs. Only I currently have a cosplay page, but it won’t be long before Maddie has one.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Dkreations:

Nicole started it. Loving anime, she would dress up when going to conventions. Then soon Maddie followed in her mother’s footsteps with their first cosplay together being Sailor Moon and Mini Moon. I spent 13 years going to conventions and never dressing up until I met Nicole. Our love and passion for all things geeky brought us together and the itch to cosplay infected me, but like all my hobbies, I went full out for my first cosplay making a full Heathcliff armor from Sword Art Online which I then won a craftsmanship award at the Anime North Masquerade in the novice division.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Dkreations:

Nicole’s favorite cosplay is being dressed as Gun Sinon from Sword Art Online, and her favorite group cosplay was Sailor Moon and Mini Moon.

Maddie’s favorite group cosplay was the recent Skyrim which her costume earned her an honorary mention, and her favorite cosplay was being Asuna from Sword Art Online.

My favorite cosplay was my Commander Shepard Mass Effect/Dragon Age armor. It was the costume that elevated me into the Masters division skipping past Journeyman. My favorite group was our Sword Art Online cosplay.

Though Ryker hasn’t “cosplayed” before, he has been Batman, a spider, and a pirate all for events/birthdays and loves dressing up. He really wants me to dress up with him as just the Voltron cats (new show).

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Dkreations:

We usually try to match. But we each have our cosplay wish lists that don’t always overlap.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Dkreations:

Maddie’s most challenging piece to her recent cosplay was her shoulder pads and finding the right scale size.

My most challenging piece was my chest armor for Mass Effect. It was tough to find the right shape and resulted in many breaks.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Dkreations:

After using Sintra, Worbla, EVA foam, and styrofoam, EVA still dominates in our house for being the cheapest and most forgiving.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Dkreations:

Any of my modeling experience comes from Warhammer. When I was a kid, I enjoyed making and painting them over playing them.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Dkreations:

Find something your kids enjoy that you could dress up as or make a prop [from]. If they like Star Wars, making their own lightsaber, letting them pick the parts and where they go, and you helping them to make it. Let their ideas drive the project. They have better imaginations than we do. To encourage them to dress up, tell them tales of your adventures of dressing up. Let them know there are tons of geeks out there like us.

For me, growing up my father passed his loved of sci-fi and video games onto me just by spending time together watching Star Trek and playing Mario Golf on N64. Back then it was still tough to be a nerd growing up, and I learned to surround myself with others that have similar interests. This is where kids and adults can thrive, feeding off of others’ geeky and nerdy passions. Look for events at your local comic book store, find a local group on facebook for a show you love, and go from there.

Ultimately, kids just want to have fun. If they see us having fun, they want to do what we are doing.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Dkreations:

For myself, I am the ultimate geek. I love everything–comic books, video games, sci-fi, anime, board games, D&D, Heroclix. My favorite show growing up was Stargate SG1. I even have my own Stargate tattooed on my leg.

Nicole enjoys a little bit of everything geeky from the Andromeda to the fantasy world of Eragon to Justice League and X-Men, but anime is her passion.

Maddie is a geek when it comes to Minecraft, LEGO skills competitions at school, watching anime, and medieval fairs.

Our entire house is decorated with signed photos of actors we have met, maps from Game of Thrones, and even swords. The geek is strong in this family.

Ryker loves to help me kill dragons in Skyrim, playing Minecraft, and watching Star Wars: Rebels, How to Train Your Dragon, and Pokemon.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Dkreations:

We hope to be able to attend Kitchener Comic Con, Anime North, Otakuthon, and Fan Expo.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview the Vollmer Family (and GeekMom’s own Patricia Vollmer).

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?.

Vollmer Family:

The two times my family has cosplayed in public, it was my husband, me, and our two sons, who are now 14 and 12. We last stepped out as a family in costume in 2015. We are hoping to get out there again at our local Denver Comic Con this coming June.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Vollmer Family:

The whole “cosplay” thing didn’t really start out that way. You have to rewind about 20 years to when my husband and I were at our first military assignment and we ended up in a circle of friends who enjoyed Civil War reenacting. It was a really popular hobby in our little pocket of western Louisiana, and thanks to Mom teaching me how to sew, I was able to put together numerous dresses, from flannel campsite dresses to full-fledged ballgowns, even made of drapery upholstery (I’m not making this up!)! After about five years of reenacting all over the United States, we stopped when our sons arrived.

Then in 2011, I had the challenge of coming up with a fun, running-functional costume for the 2012 Disney Princess Half Marathon at Walt Disney World. My absolute favorite Disney Princess in the whole wide world is Mulan, since she’s a military brat (me) who surprised everyone by running off to the military herself (again, me). But no, I didn’t singlehandedly save my country… While most folks think of Mulan in her pretty long dress, there was no way I could run in an outfit like that, so I found an easy solution with those shorter running skirts. I wrote all about constructing that first costume for GeekMom back in 2012.

As soon as I had finished that first Disney race, I immediately proclaimed to the family “You HAVE to do a Disney race weekend!” And right away, we knew exactly who to be all together.

The Incredibles.

We weren’t quite set up to be the Parr Family. After all, I have two sons and no daughters. None of my kids were infants. But we decided we could roll with it just the same. My youngest, with his dirty blonde hair, immediately claimed “Dash,” which left my dark-brown haired oldest son to be a male version of Violet. He didn’t mind.

The plan was to prepare the family cosplay for the February 2013 Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend, but we were presented with an opportunity to attend Dragon*Con in Atlanta in summer 2012, so we accelerated the schedule and made up the costumes early.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Vollmer Family:

The Incredibles was most-definitely our family’s favorite experience. All four of us feel that way. Since we were at Dragon*Con, which by design doesn’t have many kids, we got a lot of attention for being a cosplaying family. There was apparently another cosplaying family floating around, a rendition of the Weasley family from the Harry Potter series. So many people asked if we had run into each other yet. By the end of the day, we had.

The other family cosplay we had done was at Denver Comic Con in 2015. We were characters from Big Hero 6: Hiro, Fred, Aunt Cass, and Dr. Callaghan. We thought we looked great, but not enough people recognized who we were. So the kids didn’t feel the same joy as in 2012.

My oldest son gives an honorable mention to his Harry Potter cosplay, which earned him an honorable mention in the Dragon*Con Harry Potter cosplay contest. Oh he was so cute! And that earned all of us VIP access to the Dragon*Con Yule Ball event!

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Vollmer Family:

Our sons absolutely love the idea of us all cosplaying together, although we have each spent some time “doing our own thing.” My youngest enjoyed being a Steven Universe, a Jedi knight, and Jack Sparrow, while my oldest most-definitely cashed in on his young Daniel Radcliffe haircut and presented as Harry Potter for several years.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Vollmer Family:

To be honest, I end up doing most of the legwork for our costumes. My husband is great with the ideas and problem-solving and definitely has the tool shop for his model railroading, which is great for working on emblems, jewelry, and fine accessories.

The Mulan dress was definitely my favorite, although it isn’t really accurate. I think I got enough of the details in place for other racers to know which princess I was representing.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Vollmer Family:

I’m a not-so-bad seamstress, having worked with Civil War uniforms and mid-1800s ladies’ fashion before we had kids. Since most of our cosplay has been of humans in regular clothing, the sewing machine does most of the job for us.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Vollmer Family:

My sons were great with the ideas when they were younger. For example, when my oldest expressed interest in his Harry Potter cosplay, he helped us find accurate glasses and didn’t want his costume to look too much like a Halloween costume from Party City. My youngest has been more imaginative, and more likely to follow his own passions. In past years he has asked us to help him make up an accurate Finn (Adventure Time), and, as mentioned above, Steven Universe.

Now that they’re approaching their teen years (my oldest is 14), they’re beginning to gravitate towards more unique looks. I predict my oldest might start exploring Call of Duty-type cosplay, and he’s going to have to do a lot of that research on his own.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Vollmer Family:

Dave is a Trekkie through and through. Not necessarily traveling to cons, but as a physics professor, he truly appreciates how well the Star Trek world adheres to science. Dave and I frequently argue about the science of Star Trek vs. the good vs. evil tropes that define Star Wars. He also geeks out about trains, and part of why we have maintained a 21.5 year marriage is the space he gets to truly geek out with his model railroads in the basement. He’s about to embark on his 7th or 8th model railroad since we’ve been married: he can’t decide what he likes the best, so he has tried all kinds of times, locations, and genres.

I (Patricia) am a huge Star Wars fan, thanks to my Dad’s influence when I was growing up. In fact, my Dad introduced me to so much science fiction as a kid, but Star Wars has always held a special place in my heart. In addition to science fiction, I enjoy literature of all kinds, and lately have been reading dystopian-themed books along with my sons. I also used to be really involved with fiber arts–knitting, crocheting, and sewing–but as of late it’s been focused on working on cosplay components. Which reminds me, I guess I should be preparing for Denver Comic Con soon!

Our sons enjoy a variety of geekery: both of our boys love video gaming, especially first-person shooter games, but they also love playing Minecraft, building with LEGO, and going outside for Nerf blaster games. My oldest son enjoys building, and has dabbled in our local maker community through robotics clubs and Science Olympiad. Our youngest loves solving Rubik’s Cube and has been working on his 3×3 time, trying to get it below 30 seconds. (He’s so close!)

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Vollmer Family:

We are planning to be at the 2017 Denver Comic Con at the end of June. We haven’t started planning for this year’s family costume yet. We’ve discussed attempting something nuanced from The Simpsons for several years. Maybe this is the year we’ll give it a shot!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Camillia Courts of Camillia Courts Photography. You may have seen her and her daughter recently as they’ve been quite popular on the Internet in recent weeks!

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Camillia Courts:

Just Layla (7) and me! My son, Aidan (10), agreed to be in one photo as long as it was Star Wars. We do like to go to Cons and Expos in cosplay, which Aidan dresses up for!

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Camillia Courts:

We started after the first photo I took of Layla in a princess dress. I was aware of cosplay but not that knowledgeable. We started striving for more screen accuracy and that’s when I discovered these incredible communities. My first time making armor was for our Ursula/Ariel session. I want to make more!

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Camillia Courts:

My favorite is Ursula!

Layla: Ariel! Because I liked the tail.

Aidan: Matt the radar tech from SNL.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Camillia Courts:

Layla and I cosplay together as Disney princesses and villains. Aidan is a bit of a lone wolf but will get involved if we are heading to a Fan Expo.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Camillia Courts:

Ursula/Ariel was definitely a challenge. I spent my whole summer knee deep in craft foam (when I wasn’t shooting a wedding)!

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Camillia Courts:

I think I’m really getting the hang of foam. I’d like to try my hand at worbla sometime. Also, I’m dying to learn more sewing skills. I’m having to recall my sewing classes from high school.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Camillia Courts:

Oh my gosh, no. I wish I had, though. I’ve always been interested in making things, whether it’s been art, drawing, sewing, or dance. I am always rushing to the final product which is a bit of my downfall.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Camillia Courts:

Pick something that interests you and your kids! My daughter loves Disney, and that’s why we stick to the princesses and villains. If Star Wars is your thing, do that! It’s really just a fun way to spend time with your kids and make some awesome memories. Your kids love to see you having fun.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Camillia Courts:

Camillia: Oh man, I’m such a Potterhead.
Aidan: Video games!
Layla: Minecraft!

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Camillia Courts:

They can see us at Kelowna Fan Xpo this Saturday the 25th and at Penticon on July 8th!

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Julian Andres Escobar of That One Cosplayer Guy. I met Julian and his daughter at Emerald City Comicon this past weekend and they came straight out of the movie. So much, in fact, that it drove me to go see Logan after con ended for the day!

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Escobar:

I have daughter named Adriana!

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Escobar:

It all started in 2011. It was a Halloween, and I was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. I bought clothes from my local thrift shop and made a pretty okay costume. I ended up winning the costume contest. I got a lot of great feedback and people thought I should walk around to conventions with it. My first con was in 2012, by that time I was in a Jack Sparrow Community, so I was helped by a lot of them to get my Sparrow cosplay to the perfection that it is today, and ever since then I’ve been making my way around cons!

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Escobar:

Wolverine. Final answer. I’ve done about, maybe, five cosplays total. Wolverine has always been my bread and butter. Now that they introduced Laura/X-23, my daughter is loving that cosplay.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Escobar:

Laura and Logan is our first cosplay together. Adriana also has a great Rey cosplay. She digs Star Wars.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Escobar:

I’m usually more of the “clothes” type of cosplayer guy rather than building armor. However, I do have an armored wolverine chest piece that is made out of EVA Foam. I will not do yellow spandex EVER!

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Escobar:

I’ve never dipped my hands in that type of work, but it’s always nice to learn new things!

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Escobar:

Tell them it’s like Halloween every day! My daughter didn’t really get interested in cosplay until last year when she went to a con and was feeling left out that she didn’t have a costume. I told her that next year it’ll change, and it did! She wanted to do Rey from Star Wars, and when we found out Logan was going to have a daughter in the new movie, she really was on board for that one.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Escobar:

Wrestling! I happen to be a huge WWE fan, and my daughter and I watch it every night!

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Escobar:

It’s still up in the air, but if you follow me on Instagram I’m always updating my followers!

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Don Booth of Crunchums Custom Cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Don Booth:

Currently my five-year- old daughter, Allie, as well as myself are competing. My wife Shannon is our handler. Future plans include our two-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, participating in cosplay as well. She is currently in training for the cosplay world. I have made several “test run” costumes to help introduce her.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Don Booth:

The television show Heroes of Cosplay sparked my interest. I started out with solo competitions, taking my oldest daughter with me to help introduce her at the age of three. Shortly after our first few conventions, she came to me and wanted me help her make a costume for her to compete with. I helped her do a Pikachu costume then an Elsa from Frozen. I brought up the idea of “playing dress up” together, and she wanted to compete with her daddy. My first solo cosplay was Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Don Booth:

My daughter’s favorite costume to date is her Diablo III Crusader. Her favorite part of the costume was “her boots and spiky ball.” She enjoyed helping with spray painting, gluing the rivets on the shield (wiggle eyes painted), and mod podging the shield and the armor. The family favorite to date is our group with the World of Warcraft Wrath Warrior Tier 2.This cosplay has won several awards and competitions. It took one month of development for my own costume as I made my own templates. It only took four days for my daughter’s costume.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Don Booth:

We do our best to compete as a group currently. The only time we are forced to compete individually is when the rules of the convention do not allow group competition. My daughter usually will pick from several different options, and I will follow suit.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Don Booth:

It was a challenge to scale down the patterns from the Wrath Warrior to fit my daughter. Her biggest challenge is painting without leaving brush strokes.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in?

Don Booth:

I enjoy sewing but feel more comfortable working with EVA foam. I feel the foam gives better results as it makes a clean-cut and the seams are easily camouflaged. Whenever necessary I will incorporate both or other methods.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Don Booth:

I used to build and paint Warhammer miniatures as well as scenery for games (Warhammmer 40K and fantasy), which helped me learn about shading and weathering techniques.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Don Booth:

I stated out by making a basic set of play armor for dress up at home. I let her paint it whatever color she wanted and design it how she liked. It was her own creation out of my basic design. Asking your child to suggest favorite characters from books, movies, games, etc. and helping them find their own way of bringing the character to life. Cosplay has to be fun for all parties involved otherwise it will come across as forced and that is never a positive thing. If your child gets frustrated half way through because things are not going right, take a break, explain that sometimes things don’t go as planned and that’s okay. It gives you an opportunity to brain storm together for a different solution. Encourage your child to come back to the project with a cleared mind.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Don Booth:

Growing up as a child I enjoyed the television show Inhumanoids. As a teenager and into young adulthood I began my current collection that is 99% complete. I am only missing one thing which is not obtainable (prototypes of toys never released). Also at a young age my parents bought me an original NES, and my video game love grew from there through the years, and currently I play Everquest, League of Legends, Diablo III, and World of Warcraft. I still like to visit the nostalgic days of SEGA and SNES.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Don Booth:

Steel City Con in April (Monroeville, PA) and Replay FX (Pittsburgh, PA) in July. I will be posting on my Facebook page as I hear of them and can confirm I am going.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Cos.n.Fx.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Cos.n.Fx:

There are four in our family who cosplay. My wife and I and our six-year-old twin girls.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Cos.n.Fx:

I have been into Halloween and horror movies my whole life, and when I found cosplay it all just blew up from there. My first cosplay was a set of Halo Armor.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Cos.n.Fx:

For me, it’s my newest Locust costume from Gears of War.
My wife’s is Jade from the cartoon Shadow Raiders.
For the girls, the newest costumes we made–the Iris and Kjersti from Monster High.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Cos.n.Fx:

We kind of do our own thing.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Cos.n.Fx:

The most challenging thing so far is sculpting the face for my daughters Iris mask. I am new to sculpting for the most part so it was a challenge getting everything to look just right.

For my wife, it was probably patterning the collar of her Akasha armor.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Cos.n.Fx:

Foam for both of us, I would say. It’s super easy to work with, and you can pretty much do anything with it.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Cos.n.Fx:

I have built a lot of model cars as a kit and now love to build Gundam models.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Cos.n.Fx:

Just find something they love and roll with it. Never push them away when they ask how this or that is done and make sure to feed their love for art. My girls have their own clay and love to draw and paint all the time and, as much as a six-year-old can, they help us on the costumes. I think because they see us having so much fun wearing and making things, they want to be a part of it.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Cos.n.Fx:

Cars. I love working on old cars and watching shows about building and fixing them up.
My wife’s love is art. She draws comic books and portraits, and this was her passion before she started cosplay.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Cos.n.Fx:

We are thinking about Connooga and Momocon. DragonCon for sure, but we normally don’t bring the girls yet to larger cons.

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Keely Graesser from Mutants, Maidens & Munchkins Cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Keely Graesser:

Myself and my three kiddos–Peter (8), Sarah (6), and Luke (4)–all cosplay. My husband doesn’t, but he’s supportive of it as long as we’re having fun! It also helps that he’s willing to stay home with the kids for the few conventions I go to without them.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Keely Graesser:

I’ve been cosplaying since 2003 when I found myself as Art Director for the convention Oni-Con in Houston. Working for an anime con inspired me to try cosplaying myself, and my first costume was Kiyone from Tenchi Muyo. I took a break for a few years when I had Peter in 2008, but soon found that the kids enjoyed conventions and wearing costumes too, so we quickly got back into doing it in 2011 or so.

Our first family group cosplay was our Doctor Who group in 2014.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Keely Graesser:

My personal favorite as a group is probably our Aliens costumes. Individually for me, I think it’s my Jetgirl (from Tank Girl).

Peter’s favorite group is Animaniacs, and his individual is Carl Grimes from The Walking Dead.

Sarah’s favorite group is also Animaniacs, and her favorite individual is her Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Luke’s favorite group is the kids’ Pokemon and his Squirtle.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Keely Graesser:

We usually do a group cosplay, but it really depends on the interests of the kiddos and if they want to join. Sometimes it starts out with just one of us wanting a costume and the others decide to join in later. Like when Peter wanted to do Owen from Jurassic World and talked me into doing Claire. Then the younger two decided to do Lex and Tim Murphy from Jurassic Park to match.

Other times it’s split. I’m currently working on a “Princess Kitty Pryde” for Sarah to match my “Princess Phoenix.” Obviously, the boys don’t want to join in on that one! And Sarah doesn’t want to make a Walking Dead costume (which is KILLING me because she would rock a Lizzie so much!) with us, so she’ll likely wear her store-bought Elsa when we do those.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Keely Graesser:

My Ripley “Alien Stomper” boots are probably what I’m most proud of. I made those completely by myself (along with the boys’ Colonial Marine armor and the rest of the Aliens costumes), and it was my first time really making anything that complicated.

I’m pretty partial to my Lyra Erso (from Rogue One) that I’m nearly finished with as well simply because I’ve been making it from so few reference photos that it’s proven challenging.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Keely Graesser:

I mostly sew our costumes. In fact, I often source clothes from thrift stores and alter them, although I’ve gotten more into sewing from scratch lately.

I’ve also used EVA foam (the Colonial Marine armor) and do quite a bit of painting on props and for details.

I also take advantage of our hugely talented local cosplay community here in DFW. Many of our props are 3D printed by local friends, Robots and Rayguns (Sean made our Han Solo and Rey blasters as well as my Black Widow belt buckle, the hardware for Peter’s Han belt, and is currently working on the comlink for my Lyra) and Chaks Productions (Charles made the “tracker” watch for my Ripley) and much of our leather work is from Leather Clad Legends (the Rey and Han Solo belts).

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Keely Graesser:

No model building, no, but I do paint a lot of toys and decor for my kiddos. I’ve repainted wooden trains for them and it seems like I’m always working on custom decoration for their birthday parties and other events! Most of which is pretty geeky.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Keely Graesser:

Yes! I actually run a panel at many of our local cons called “Cosplaying with Kids.” You can see the slideshow presentation in PDF format.

My top 3 suggestions would be let the kids pick their own costumes, simplify the costume when you can for the kids’ ease in wearing, and make the costumes LARGE so they can be worn longer.

I’m just now teaching my oldest how to make some of the costume pieces himself. He thinks it’s awesome to learn how to sew and has been working on making dice bags as a learning exercise.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Keely Graesser:

We’re all pretty big into comics, sci-fi, video games, and board games, but those are all pretty standard “geek” fare. As far as “outside-of-the-box” fandoms, I’d say mine is probably graphic design and typography. Peter’s is actually football (we ARE from Texas after all), Sarah’s is art and fashion, and Luke’s is turtles (not just the ninja variety).

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at? And where can people find you online?

Keely Graesser:

Dallas Comic Show on Feb 11

All Con March 16,17, 18 (“Cosplaying With Kids” panel time TBA)

Fan Expo Dallas March 31 & April 1

Texas Frightmare Weekend May 5 & 6

Our social media links are:

Mutants, Maidens & Munchkins Cosplay Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr
Pinterest

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Chihiro and Chieko.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Chihiro and Chieko:

It’s usually my twin daughters, Chihiro and Chieko, but sometimes me (Bey Chua–dad) and my wife (Ging–mom) join our daughters.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Chihiro and Chieko:

Me and my wife started making costumes back in 2005. We made a Halloween costume that looked like I was being carried by a zombie. Then when we had the twins in 2007, we started making costumes for the whole family, and we would all be dressed up in theme every Halloween. In 2014, my mother-in-law, my wife, and I made Queen Elsa and Anna costumes for WonderCon 2014. A lot of people took pictures of our daughters dressed in their Frozen cosplay, and that made us inspired to attend more comic conventions and dress them up.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Chihiro and Chieko:

My daughters like all their costumes. But if you ask us which costumes are they known for, it’s the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Chihiro and Chieko:

We used to dress altogether on Halloween before. Now it’s just them as it is hard to go to conventions carrying a lot of stuff like their other costume props and some of my camera gear.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Chihiro and Chieko:

The most challenging costume we did was the classic anime robots Mazinger Z and Voltes V. It was our first time making a full robot costume. We did a bad job connecting all the parts. We were walking around the convention (WonderCon 2016) and the arms and leg parts were falling off. We learned that if you are going to wear full armor costume, you really need to strap everything as gravity will surely pull everything down.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Chihiro and Chieko:

We use a lot of EVA foam.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Chihiro and Chieko:

Have them wear something that they like. A character from a TV/movie/comic that they like. If they dress their kid with a character that they don’t really like, they’re not going to enjoy wearing their costumes. I guess we are just lucky that our daughters enjoy wearing costumes and going to conventions. We all have the same interests. I suggest that if their kid sees another cosplay kid, maybe have them play with each other and be friends with each other. My daughters always look forward to going to conventions to meet their fellow kid cosplayers. They enjoy seeing their friends.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Chihiro and Chieko:

My daughters love reading and love to draw.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Chihiro and Chieko:

Gallifrey One 2017 and WonderCon 2017 are for sure. We’re still not sure what other conventions we’re going to go to.

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Michelle from Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

We all do cosplay. My name is Michelle, and I am 35. My husband is Toby, and he is 42. My oldest is Seth, and he is 14, Nadine is 9, and Gage is 8. I do have a new page I just put together, Sweet Destruxion Cosplay, so there is not much on it, but I am working on trying to find past photos for it.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

I have been putting my kids in costume since they were born. I have always loved to dress up and make my own costumes. I talked my husband into it, eventually, to match my costumes. And then we had the kids and the cosplayer in me was like, “Hmmmm, the perfect cosplay accessories!” They love to dress up as well, and while I love doing family cosplays based on the same theme, I do not force them into any of them and let them go off into their own fandom or not dress up at all if they so choose. With my oldest son, he would go along with us until he turned 12, and then all of a sudden he was too cool to be seen with us. Ha! Now he is 14 and will cosplay, but he makes his own or does a theme with his friends which is totally fine with me. My daughter is 9 and younger son is 8, and usually they go along with whatever or cosplay together, but they still have their times they want to do their own thing too. Our first cosplay together at an actual convention was from the show Legend of the Seeker because I am a huge Terry Goodkind fan, and some of the actors from the show were going to be at DragonCon, as well as some of the members of our Goodkind fan group. I had about four days to put something together, so I made us all costumes from the show. I loved the convention scene and was automatically hooked. We then went on to do cosplays from other shows and cartoons together.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

I am on a Black Butler kick right now, so mine is Grell Sutcliffe. I have made every version of her so far and a few of my own. Toby usually gravitates to Captain Hook from Once Upon a Time. Seth really liked his Sans from Undertale. That was a literal last minute cosplay made the night before a convention that he worked on that was made from paper mache and had a LED light in the eye. Gage’s is his Kylo Ren and Nadine said any of her evil costumes, haha! She is like me and always wants to be the villain. My personal favorite of a group cosplay was our Once Upon a Time cosplay. I was evil queen Regina, Toby was Captain Hook, Seth was Henry, and Nadine and Gage were Hansel and Gretel. We got to meet a lot of the cast at a convention, and they really loved it.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

I like to cosplay together, but if the kids want to do their own thing I will help them make whatever costume they want. I think it is something that should not be forced on anyone to do. If they don’t want to join that particular fandom cosplay then they can be their own thing, or even not dress up at all.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

I think the most challenging costume was Captain Hook. I had never worked with leather before, so I had to read a lot and get help from a leather working friend of mine. Plus all of those grommets! My hands were sore for a week from putting all of those in for the lacing. But it was totally worth it.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

I sew all of our costumes. I have done a few things with resin casting and foam, and even learned a little metal working for a small piece of a costume. My favorite part is the sewing, though.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

My oldest son was actually interested in scale modeling for a while, and he put together a few things.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

Take any show or book or game they like and show them how they can bring it to life! Let them help with the building or sewing or painting. My oldest son has made several cosplays himself using foam for armor and paper mache, and you can tell he is very proud of his work and enjoys his cosplay more than if I just make it and tell him to wear it. My kids love going to conventions and getting to see all of their favorite characters. My daughter really gets into it and gets people she likes to pose with her, like the Pac-Man cosplayers that she wanted to “chase” her and the Sugar Plum fairy that she wanted to make scary faces with. You really just have to consider their interests and what part of cosplay, or any geeky interest, they like the most and go off of that.

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

My main thing is cosplay, but I guess sewing would come into that as well. I see an outfit on a show or cartoon and I am like, “I need to make that now!!!” So I guess fashion design would be something I geek out about. My oldest wants to be a video game designer and is already taking classes in school to help him with that. My daughter loves to draw and mostly loves drawing manga type art and she does very well and has even had her art entered into art shows.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:

We always do DragonCon–that is a must for us. We usually do Conooga, and this year we are doing Momocon and Heroes and Villains Atlanta. Maybe AWA and a few small ones that will pop up. And even though it is not a convention, we always do the GA Ren Fest in Atlanta as well.

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview The McInnis Family.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:

How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?

McInnis Family:

Family of 4; Mom Jen, Stepdad Carrick, Alice 7, and Aurora 4. We don’t have many pictures of all of use together in our costumes as I’m usually behind the camera getting tons of photos of the kids and Carrick. I love capturing and sharing the pictures with everyone. We have tons of images of the kids cosplays and some progress pictures on our Instagram @alicenaurora.

GeekDad:

How did you and your family get in to cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?

McInnis Family:

It all started with our oldest Alice attending her first Comic Expo three years ago with Carrick. She has always been really into all things Batgirl, and Ninja Turtles. So when the time came to attend her first Expo, she really wanted to dress up. I (Mom) threw together her first cosplay costume using what I had around the house. She went as April O’Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The costume was simple to create, and she loved everything about it. After that experience we just jumped in all together after that. Our first cosplay as a family was (Mom): Dark Phoenix, Carrick: Deadpool, Alice and Aurora: Batgirl.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

McInnis Family:

Carrick: Deadpool

Mom: Batgirl

Alice: Harley Quinn

Aurora: Poison Ivy
Our Favorite Group Cosplay would have to be when we went as a “DC Family.” Carrick was Jason Todd Red Hood, I was Batgirl, Alice was Jester Harley Quinn, Aurora was Poison Ivy, AND the girls’ cousin, Mattea, joined in on the fun as Batgirl. We also had the girls’ best friend Havyk, who we consider family, join as the Joker to really complete the “DC Family”. We really love to highlight the kids in all our family cosplays.

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

McInnis Family:

We do a bit of both. Carrick is a huge Marvel fan, myself and the girls are really into DC. However we do really enjoy cosplaying together. It really brings that much more excitement and bonding. The kids love it way more when the whole family dresses as the same theme/universe. Since we have a Marvel, DC mixed family we started a tradition of taking turns picking the theme/universe for that year. 2018 will be Marvel. Carrick is pretty excited for that year.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

McInnis Family:

Carrick: The Chest piece for my Red Hood Cosplay. First time creating a chest piece and working with EVA foam.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

McInnis Family:

Carrick: Sewing, Worbla, Prop/Weapon making, and EVA foam. I am currently working on a weapon for our next Gotham By Gaslight Cosplay.
Mom: Sewing and EVA foam.

GeekDad:

It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?

McInnis Family:

Carrick: I use to build airplane models as a kid but nothing exciting or intricate.

GeekDad:

Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?

McInnis Family:

Carrick: Show them comic books, TV shows, movies, and any medium that they maybe interested in. Get them to pick their favorite character, and their interest in helping with the costume should come naturally.
Mom: One could always start by bringing their little one to an expo or con and let them see for themselves all the amazing cosplays, the positive atmosphere, and creativity. They may even get to meet their favorite character. Which could really get them into wanting to BE that character. The excitement and experience alone could even inspire them to want to create something for the following year!

GeekDad:

Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?

McInnis Family:

Carrick: Video games, Movies, Comic books, anything Deadpool, and cooking.
Mom: Movies and comic books.
Alice: Comic books and Monster High.
Aurora: Anything Nightmare Before Christmas related.

GeekDad:

What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?

McInnis Family:

Being from Calgary, Alberta, we always attend the Calgary Expo, participating in the “Pow Parade,” and then we go the whole weekend, since there is so much to see and do. The girls participate in the “Kids Showcase” that the Calgary Expo has before the Costume Contest. They have so much fun being on stage with their cousin, Mattea, and best friend, Havyk, showing off their costumes with the music and of course the chocolate medals they receive afterwards. It is really cute. We will also be going to the Edmonton Expo and, possibly, the Red Deer Expo this year.