A Kaleidoscope of Cosplay

 By Jan S. Gephardt

I had so much fun at SoonerCon 30 – not the least of which came from the kaleidoscope of cosplay that I encountered everywhere. I had many lovely moments at this science fiction convention. But the cosplay was in a class of its own. The sheer, rich, visual diversity of these costumes provided a weekend of riches, just by themselves.

Even more than most of the other “cons” I attend (short for the admittedly-unwieldy term “science fiction convention”), SoonerCon is part literary con, part media/comics con, and part Anime con. It’s the latter two aspects that really focus on cosplay, or “costume play.”

The people-watching at SoonerCon 30 was awesome! (all photos by author).

Costumes and Science Fiction: a Natural Match

The first science fiction cons (dating back to at least the 1930s) were literary cons, old-style fan-run conventions focused on written books, then later also the artwork that illustrated those books and the “fanzines” that connected often-isolated sf fans. Media conventions celebrate science fiction TV shows and movies, plus podcasts, music, and all manner of streaming media. Comics? Give you one guess. And then there’s the amazing and beautiful world of Anime, which originated in Japan, but quickly took the rest of the world by storm.

Every con has at least some costumed attendees, even if it doesn’t offer SoonerCon’s richly-varied kaleidoscope of cosplay. Costumes have been a beloved aspect of them since the dawn of sf cons. Compared to what walks in the door at the average science fiction convention today, those early costumes look amateurish, but they were pretty much always there. It’s like Halloween for kids of all ages, any time of the year. Indeed, many fans love Halloween more than any other holiday, including Christmas!

The passing parade never stopped, and the kaleidoscope of cosplay seemed endless. (all photos by author).

 

Taking Their Costumes Seriously

By this point in their evolution, there are some amazingly skilled costumers in our midst. More than you might think make a part-time or full-time living, creating costumes of all varieties. Some costumers specialize in Anime, some in American comic and superhero characters. Some focus on creatures, in the form of everything from a small puppet to carry on one’s arm or wear, to full-body suits. Furry fandom is a whole other, amazing category of its own.

Some costumers specialize in Star Wars, Star Trek, and other media characters, and some focus on Steampunk or other niche categories (I’ve found more Steampunk at DemiCon than SoonerCon, however). Some costumers specialize so narrowly that they mainly make hats, masks, or high-quality corsets. The professionals have serious skills, but there also are gifted amateurs or semi-pros who can give them a run for their money!

The “Star Wars” was strong with these cosplayers. (photos by author).

Solid Support for SoonerCon’s Kaleidoscope of Cosplay

One enduring feature of SoonerCon has been the presence of Bernina of Oklahoma City. This year they were a Patron Sponsor of the convention. They had a big space in the Exhibitors Hall, where they showcased their machines, helped mend “wounded” costumes, and if you had a long enough string of badge ribbons, they’d even stitch them together for you. They helped offer a high-dollar sewing machine for the Masquerade Contest prize, and a simpler model for the Children’s Costume Contest.

It probably won’t surprise you that the ingenious costumers of science fiction fandom also have branched into other allied fields. You can’t create convincing aliens from any of the “Star” universes, for example, without skillful use of makeup and often-sophisticated prosthetics. And accessories (including weapons) makes up one of the most exuberant sub-categories at the con.

The Bernina Center in the Exhibition Hall. (Photo by Tyrell E. Gephardt).

 

Accessories and Gizmos

There’s no match for a good blaster at your side (or other “ray gun,” complete with lights and sound effects). Unless maybe it’s your own light saber. Yes, we had light sabers for all ages at SoonerCon, too. A few weeks ago, you read about my friend Zac Zacarola, his dealers room table for Ziggy’s West, and his “Wall of Doom.” Weapons at conventions must be peace-bonded. But many fans cherish their swords, knives, battle-axes, throwing stars, Bat’leths, and other weapons. They often display them proudly in their homes.

Perhaps most astounding of all are the mechanized creations, be they animatronics or robots. One man at SoonerCon wore an astounding Iron Man suit with a faceplate that lifted up and a glowing “arc reactor” on the breastplate. There are R2D2 Builders Club members and chapters all over the world. We have one in Kansas City, and there's another in Oklahoma City. Norman, where SoonerCon is held, is the third-largest city in Oklahoma, but it’s also in the Oklahoma City metro area. So of course, we had one at SoonerCon.

The Ziggy’s West “Wall of Doom went up Thursday night. The Iron Man suit had a glowing “arc reactor,” and a faceplate that went up and down. R2D2 and the gonk droid led the “Star Wars” parade. (See credits below).

 

Imagination and Playfulness are Key

Whatever they specialize in, the costumers who created the kaleidoscope of cosplay at SoonerCon have two things in common. They take crafting an eye-popping costume very seriously. And they don’t always take themselves seriously. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so good at playing. And one running theme throughout the convention was having fun. Among the Gaming Events, one could choose Muggle Quidditch, LARPing (Live Action Role Playing), and Nerf Wars, among other things. Style points for playing in a (durable) costume.

Folks in hall costumes often didn’t hesitate to deliver a speech in character, perform a skit, or just ad lib through their encounters. They staged impromptu parades. Throughout the convention center cosplayers banded together for group photos or posed for photographers who wanted to capture their individual costumes. With a kaleidoscope of cosplay all around them, it’s easy to see why everyone had their cameras out.

A “showdown” in the Atrium of the hotel, and a real-life dragonrider (Kenneth Moore, Jr.) offer examples of the creative fun with costumes at SoonerCon. (See credits below).

 

IMAGE CREDITS

Jan took most of the photos in this post, and made all of the montages. She’s also deeply grateful to Tyrell E. Gephardt and his Canon camera for others. Ty spent a lot of his weekend taking individual shots of cosplayers, as well as candid hallway shots and general convention pictures.

One of Ty’s photos, the pic of the Ziggy’s West “Wall of Doom” going up, anchors one end of the post’s 5^th image. Next (L-R) comes the photo of the Iron Man costume, by Brian Hook, courtesy of the SoonerCon Cosplay Facebook Group. Jan took the photo at far right (R2D2 & the gonk droid).

For the sixth and final image of this post, we owe massive thanks to the SoonerCon Cosplay Group. They published the “high ground” meme, by Warguts, Inc. They also provided a forum for Ariel Mayumi Wolf’s photo of Kenneth Moore, Jr., riding his “dragon.”

Many thanks to all!

My first original video

What more auspicious day to post my first original video on my own YouTube channel, than on Star Wars Day?

What's my first original video about?

It's a reading, of the kind I love to do--and attend--at science fiction conventions (Ah! Remember back when it was safe to hold science fiction conventions in person?). The video is about 27 minutes long. It features me, reading Chapter One of The Other Side of Fear.

Here's the information that accompanies my video reading.

I owe Virtual DemiCon, and the amazing Joe Struss, a lot of thanks. They premiered this video during their event. 

They also got me off my butt! I've known I probably should do a video reading for a long time, but it's hard to get off "square one." Especially when it's your first foray into a new medium. They provided the needed motivation. Thanks very much! You guys are awesome.

While Virtual DemiCon is still available, please do yourself a favor! Check in, then take in as many of the events as still remain online!

Thank you to DemiCon for this image.

What makes Star Wars Day appropriate?

By Source, Fair Use

The original Star Wars movie made a huge impression on me when it came out in theaters in 1977. I may have lived in Kansas City for more than 40 years, but I didn't move here till my marriage in 1978. So I managed to miss MidAmeriCon I in 1976, where there was a big display and all the stars came to talk about this movie they were making.

In 1977 I lived and taught in tiny Lockwood, MO. I'd watched and enjoyed Star Trek reruns on TV by then. My soon-to-be husband had turned me on to Frank Herbert's Dune, and the librarians at the Ash Grove Library had by then gotten me intrigued in science fiction stories from Poul Anderson and Isaac Asimov. 

But I had never seen anything like like that movie before. 

I paid the at-the-time-exorbitant price of $3.00 for a ticket multiple times to see it over and over again (No VHS, no Betamax--not on my horizon till years later! No Blockbuster Video, and certainly no Netflix, Hulu, or Disney Plus, back in those ancient days!). 

I didn't go back again and again for the plot. I didn't go to critique the space physics. No, I went to bask in the spectacle (Artist. Visual creature. I drank it in.)

And not long after that, I started writing my first science fiction novel. I still have the typescript somewhere--typed on a manual Underwood in the evenings, after I finished my lesson plans for the day. It's horrifying dreck, but it's the first novel-length fiction I ever actually finished.

A 1952 Underwood "Rhythm Touch," like the one I used. Many thanks to Machines of Loving Grace for this photo.

Does that make me a "Warrior," not a "Trekkie"?

Well, no. As time went on, I came to enjoy lots of different science fiction stories, shows, and films. I love Star Trek, too. And--sorry, diehard "Warriors"--a lot of the Star Wars movies make little to no "real-world" sense (don't get me started on things I find cringeworthy). 

But the visuals, the droids, other-world creatures, the exotic vistas, the sheer spectacle of the Star Wars movies--those, I still enjoy. They attracted me in formative ways, during my early days of writing sf. And they bring a nostalgic smile to my lips to this day (well, some of them. Give me Darth Vader in a TIE fighter, but leave Jar-Jar in the closet where he belongs).

So my first original video--my own "mini movie"--that opens a glimpse of my science fictional world, is an appropriate thing to release on Star Wars Day. It's not too long on spectacle. But I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless.

Give me that quintessential villain Darth Vader in his TIE fighter! Many thanks ImgFlip.

IMAGE CREDITS

My video may be found on my YouTube channel.  I created the information card with the Cover for The Other Side of Fear,  plus copyright information, etc. Many thanks to Virtual DemiCon for the "CONTAMINATED" design, to Wikipedia, for the original 1977 Star Wars movie poster image, and to Machines of Loving Grace for the photo of the 1952 Underwood "Rhythm Touch" manual typewriter.  Many thanks also to ImgFlip, for the photo of Darth Vader in his TIE fighter.

But a Merry Christmas I wish you anyway!

A little science fictional glee seems appropriate right now . . .

IMAGE: Many thanks to Buzzfeed, via Shoebox Greetings, and I'm pretty sure cartoonist "Brian" is my Westwood, KS semi-neighbor Brian Gordon, of the ever-wonderful Fowl Language cartoons about parenting. Of course, I NE-E-E-E-EVER feature his cartoons on my blog . . . :-)

Art and Religion--in Space!

Vacation Bible School starts at my church tomorrow (June 13, 2016), and runs through Thursday. This year, they’ve chosen a Star Wars theme, and titled it “Journey of the Jedi.” 

My initial reaction, based on the general fannish idea that “The Force” is a religion of its own, and the background understanding that Star Wars was based on the Hero’s Journey as outlined by the vehemently non-Christian Joseph Campbell, was, “Say what??” 

George Lucas based the first Star Wars movie
on "the Hero's Journey" archetype, as described
by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 book.

And I suspect I wasn’t the only one in the congregation who didn’t immediately put it together. But our Senior Pastor Dr. Michael Gardener addressed any such concerns head-on, in his sermon today. 

He pointed out, quite correctly, that the basic themes of the underlying story—good versus evil, the existence of  an all-pervasive force in the universe that exists beyond human (and nonhuman) comprehension, the “pull toward the light,” the value of self-sacrifice for the greater good, and the potential for redemption for even the lowliest and most unlikely, are highly compatible with the Christian message. 

He also discussed the role of the arts—literature, cinema, music, etc., in translating those concepts into something we can relate to. “So if this is a way that kids can connect" with these deep-level ideas, he told us, it is an appropriate tool for the teacher’s workbench of techniques. I heartily endorse this approach.

Science fiction is an art form that helps us stretch our imagination so we can take in new ideas.

I would add that this function of artistic expression to make ideas meaningful in new ways works the same for humans of all ages, not only kids. 

The arts—and that includes science fiction—are the bridge of meaning-making that we build between the unknown (perhaps the un-knowable) and our own understandings. It can work that way with the great truths of philosophy, faith, and all aspects of human existence, just as it can create bridges between different cultures. 

I’d like to turn my focus to the value of science fiction as a bridge of meaning-making that is compatible with religious thought. 

I just do not buy the idea that religion won’t travel with us into space (if you wish to be strictly literal, it already has). 

Anyone who believes that confronting the universe will not inspire spiritual thought hasn't considered either the universe or humans.

I say this, because there is a persistent school of thought in science fiction that says once humans have become rational, scientifically sophisticated creatures and evolved beyond the need to create “self-comforting myths” about a force greater than themselves in the universe, they’ll leave “superstition and religion” behind. 

I call bullsh*t. 

There IS one part of that idea with which I can agree: the only way humans will lose their innate need for spiritual expression is for them to evolve into something else. Whether that’s a higher or a lower life-form, I’ll leave you to decide. 

Here's a little perspective on our importance in the universe.

But there’s no way in hell (and I use that term advisedly) that we’re going to venture forth into the vastness of the universe, traveling in fragile little metal tubes that are the only shield between ourselves and certain death, and NOT say frequent and fervent prayers to some power greater than our puny selves. 

As John Young put it, "Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen-oxygen fueled system in the world, knowing they're going to light the bottom, and doesn't get a little worried, does not fully understand the situation."

The old adage, “there are no atheists in foxholes” applies fully. The very best way to realize you aren’t quite as powerful and self-sufficient as you thought you were, is to meet a force of nature in one of its more dangerous and powerful aspects. 

Meanwhile, if anyone greets me with the words, "May the Force be with you," I plan to smile and reply: "And also with you."

* * *

A footnote may be needed: There are people in the science fiction community, and also in the wider public, who make certain false assumptions about me, when I tell them I am a practicing Christian. So, for the record: 

NO, I do not believe everyone who does not believe exactly the way I do (or is LGBT, or divorced, etc.) will automatically go to Hell. (I also do not personally believe that the God of love whom I follow hates or destroys earnest, thinking people who struggle to live honest, ethical lives but were reared in, or chose, other-than-Christian expressions of spirituality or belief). 

NO, I do not believe that the Earth was created 4,000 years ago, or that a study of science requires one to be an atheist.

Along with my artist friend Lucy A. Synk, I believe that evolution is "a means God uses in the ongoing creation of the universe."

NO, I do not believe that God created women and persons of color as second-class citizens.

NO, I do not believe that I have any right deny someone the legal right to have an abortion (or use birth control, or get a tattoo, or . . . your body is YOURS to control, okay?)

NO, I am not a social conservative. I am, in fact, a liberal whose focus is social justice, because of my Christian faith.

NO, I am not the only Christian who feels as if my religion has been hijacked in the public discourse by loud, often crazy, terrorists. 

Disagree with me in the comments if you feel the need to do so, but please keep the discourse succinct and civil.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Old Mission United Methodist Church, for the "Journey of the Jedi" banner, to Wikipedia, for the first-edition cover photo for Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, to Wall 321 for the sfnal beach image (artist unattributed), to Science Fiction Quotes, for the Ray Bradbury quote (again--artist unattributed!), to Getty Images via HNGN for the images of earth, the Moon and the universe beyond, to Space Answers for the image of the astronaut in the EVA suit, (and also for the John Young quote), and special thanks to Lucy A. Synk, for the use of her image Evolution.

Space Station DIY: Where to start?

That's no moon . . . 

I needed to create a space station. 

I had a cast of characters, the makings of a plot, and a big-picture concept of how my universe had turned out as it did. 

But now it was time to get down to creating the habitat space station on which my characters would live.

Where does one start?

One goes back to the 1970s, I discovered. That was the era when I first learned the concept of a "space station," much less that people were seriously thinking about how one might actually build one someday. 

My earliest book on the
subject, with a great
John Berkley cover!

I was a college kid when I went to a movie called Star Wars, for the scandalously high price of three dollars per ticket. My then-boyfriend Pascal (now husband of 37+ years) and I went back to see it over and over again, as often as we could afford to (pre-video tape--but then, I've already admitted I'm older than dirt). 

I didn't know it when I was bankrupting myself at the movie theater, but just a couple of years earlier a bunch of rocket scientists and other geniuses had gotten together at Stanford University for the 1975 NASA Summer Study, to try and figure out how it might be possible to build a space colony. 

They came up with something the shape of a bicycle wheel, with mirrors mounted on the hub. Artificial gravity was to be created by centrifugal force inside the outer ring. Being scientists, they didn't call it a doughnut or wheel-shape, but a torus. It is still known as the Stanford Torus.

This is Donald E. Davis's rendition of the exterior of the torus.

According to Wikipedia's article about the project, it was based on earlier ideas proposed by Wernher von Braun and Herman Potocnik. The concept was known to science fiction writers, but the scientists really got going on it in 1975.

The idea of using centrifugal force to create gravity in a wheel-like structure also was suggested in the 1957 Russian film, Road to the Stars, which is fascinating to watch. Indeed, we're still speculating on some of the same things they did, and a lot of the speculation doesn't seem to have changed all that much. The entire 49-minute opus is available for viewing on You Tube. If you have time, take a look.

In 1957, Pavel Klushantsev's film Road to the Stars included a space station with a torus of sorts, that produced artificial gravity.

If you look at the list of contributors to the 1975 Summer Study, it really did take a village to work out the myriad of details to arrive at something that might actually work. It's now all freely available online. 

Although it's been used in many movies, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Elysium, the "classic" Stanford Torus isn't the only prototype space station shape from which the would-be sf author can choose, however. In upcoming posts from this "DIY Space Station" series, I'll look at Bernal and Dyson Spheres, the O'Neill Cylinder, and Bishop Rings.

IMAGES: Many thanks to TurboSquid for the picture of the Death Star, and to Abe Books for the cover art for Colonies in Space. The wonderful Don Davis painting of the torus, NASA Ames Research Center (ID AC76-0525), is now in the public domain. I got it from Wikipedia. The image of Klushantsev's proto-torus design is a screen-capture from Road to the Stars, as seen on You Tube.