My First Cosplay: Wizard World Chicago

I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus. Between working my two survival jobs, running back and forth to auditions and callbacks, preparing for the upcoming rehearsals of the show I’ve been cast in, and preparing for what was the most awesome weekend of my entire summer, life has been pretty, as they say, “cray cray”. None the less, I am back and ready to share all of my adventures from Wizard World Chicago!

Photo resource www.fightersgeneration.com

Originally, I planned to cosplay Teen Titans Raven but after getting some downloadable content for Injustice and seeing her Regime alternate costume, I decided I wanted to make that a bigger project to tackle later.

Instead, for time and money’s sake, I chose to go with Zatanna and Michonne (The Walking Dead, comic book style minus the pets). I figured out exactly what pieces would be essential for each costume  then decided what I was going to make and what I was going to purchase. I feel like I lucked out, because one trip to the thrift store warranted me most of my costume pieces. For Zatanna, I found a really cool blouse/bodysuit as well as a black blazer that I later tailored to be cropped with tails. For Michonne, I found pretty much everything. I already had a green jacket, boots, and leggings in my closet.

All that was left was a blue shirt, yellow scarf, and pink skirt. All found at the thrift store. I decided to paint the zebra stripes onto the pink skirt instead of trying to find one that looked like it.

Photo resource www.wikipedia.com

After my thrifty adventure, I jumped on the internet to finish my search. Between Amazon and a new found site called TMart, I finished up both costumes for about $60. I was honestly expecting to spend a lot more money but like I said, I lucked out. For Zatanna, I got a really nice underbust corset, wig, top hat, bow tie, wand, fishnets, and gloves. For Michonne, a studded belt and bokken.

As far as being ready for the actual convention, we had already had our tickets for about a month and had booked the hotel room about a month before we even purchased our tickets. We were more than ready! The first 2 days of the con (Thursday and Friday) for me were spent walking around, taking pictures, and spending ALL of my money! Things tend to be WAY cheaper at cons (i.e. books, toys, figures, etc.) then they are regularly so I took advantage. I got this SWEET limited edition Storm figurine, along with the comic that inspired it for an equally sweet price. Saturday and Sunday were suppose to be my cosplay days. I say “suppose to be” because Sunday we got such a late start from the late night that we had before that I decided to not dress up. Still a bit sad about it, but this will definitely NOT be my last con so Michonne will make her debut elsewhere . So on Saturday I was Zatanna.

WHAT FUN!

As a first time cosplayer, it was super awesome to have people actually recognize who I was. I was a bit nervous about it with all the not-so-nice folks out there that like to put you on the spot if you're playing a character that is of a different race than your own. I’m super glad that my first experience was a positive one. I had an awesome time. I took a ton of pictures, met some of my new found Facebook cosplay friends and I even entered the cosplay competition. Holy crap! There were over 300 people in the cosplay competition! It was extraordinary and exhausting all at the same time. All in all, my first cosplay experience was wondrous and I cannot wait to do it again!

Jason David Frank and I aka The Green Ranger (Power Rangers)

Tony Ray and I as New 52 Static Shock

Marjie Southerland is an actor/singer/mover/shaker from New Jersey, living “The Dream” in Chicago,IL. Check out her website www.marjiesoutherland.com and ‘like’ her on facebook to stay posted on all of her adventures!