October November Live Magazine

HeatherAfter
COSPLAY
Welcome to Live Magazine, tell us
about the cosplay scene in Colorado...
Thanks for having me. I think that
the cosplayers here are extremely
talented, but also very laid-back.
Most people are very helpful, and
generous with their knowledge. It’s
a good place to be.
How did you get involved in cosplay
and when was that?
My first experience with cosplay
happened in 1996. I have always
been creative, and a longtime fan of
anime and video games. So when a
friend invited me to come with her to
Anime Weekend Atlanta and dress
up in costume I was 100% on board!
I attended the con as Devil Hunter
Yohko, and was delighted to find out
that there were lots of other people
who were into the same nerdy things
that I enjoyed. I didn’t enter the costume
contest my first time out, but
I still had a blast dressing up.....and
was excited to do so again!
And you met your husband at a
“con” tell us about that.
We met at DragonCon 2000. By that
time I had been cosplaying for a few
years, and was working as a spokesmodel
while going to school. Jason
was a guest of the con. He was one
of the comic book artists at Gaijin
Studios. A mutual friend introduced
me to the members of Gaijin Studios,and
Jason and I just “clicked”. It
wasn’t anything romantic at first; I
lived out of state and neither one of
us was looking for a relationship. We
just enjoyed each other’s company.
A few months later I finished with
school and moved back to Georgia.
Jason and I reconnected at his
birthday party, and he invited me to
collaborate with him on some of his
comic work. The rest is history! We
have been creating artwork together
ever since, and got married in 2003.
You’ve been quite successful with
your cosplay in that you’ve been
asked to freelance with some major
companies, how did you get started
with that part of your cosplay?
It started small at first... Early on I got
to be friendly with a number of convention
guests and vendors. Conventions
were much smaller back
then, so you tended to see the same
people over and over again in different
parts of the country. It wasn’t
long before some of my new friends
asked me to work their tables at the
conventions. I was delighted to help
out, and earn a little money over the
weekends. Plus I got to wear my
costumes! I also entered the cosplay
contests on a regular basis, and
won a number of major awards. By
1998 I had achieved Master rank,
and was one of the first cosplayers
in the USA to be invited to conventions
as a guest. I continued to compete
in cosplay competitions when
I was not attending as a guest, and
was approached by Sy Picon (CEO
and Owner of SyCoNet Productions)
after winning 1st Place at Master
Level and Best in Show at Animazement
2000. He asked me to be the
company’s official spokesmodel,
which was a dream job at the time.
Also you’ve been involved with judging,
can you tell us about judging and
perhaps share a few tips for cosplayers
wanting to enter competitions.
Judging has become a lot harder
since the cosplay scene exploded
in the mid-2000s! There are so
many incredibly talented people with
amazing costumes. I think it always
helps to have a professional-looking
costume. That is, take some time to
iron-out any fold marks, finish your
seams, etc. Also, if you can remember
to take photos during your construction
process, and bring them to
show the judges, that is always very
helpful.
The best thing you can do is to be
positive and have fun! Cosplay competitions
nowadays can be extremely
long and stressful. If you can