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The Comic-Con 2009 Cosplay Gallery -- 600 Amazing Costumes

Norman Chan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:30:00 -0500

This is it – the post you've been waiting for. After four days of wandering the show floor, sitting in on movie studio panels, and epic line waiting, we've come out of Comic-Con 2009 with the mother load: 600 (yes, SIX HUNDRED) photos of the most intricate, sexy, and spellbinding cosplay that showed up this year. Star Wars and Superheroes were well represented, but we also snapped up shots of PC gaming icons, including several Team Fortress 2 teams and an amazing Left 4 Dead group. Legions of slave Leias weren't afraid to bare their skin and the forces of Cobra proudly showed off their guns. We even saw a bunch of familiar faces from last year's pictorial. Grab and seat, put your day on hold, and enjoy the best cosplay gallery from the best year of Comic-Con ever!

Bonus Gallery

Comic-Con 2009: The Costume Video

Florence Ion — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:55:49 -0500

Every year, thousands of folks make the trek to San Diego to show off the incredible costumes they've made. Hit the jump for a taste of the incredible work that goes into these costumes! We'll post our complete Comic-Con gallery later tonight!

Comic-Con 2009: 10 Kick-Ass Sights from the Show Floor, Day 2

Norman Chan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500

The first full day of Comic-Con is over, and we've returned to our hotel room shocked and amazed by the unbelievably cool movie panels and cosplay on display today. Once again, we've narrowed down our top ten sights from today's events for you to enjoy. James Cameron's Avatar, amazing Bioshock cosplay, and a hardcore Street Fighter fan are just a few of the sights that made the list. Just click the "Read More" link below this photo of Supergirl for the full story and more pics.

Believe the buzz. James Cameron's first studio movie since Titanic is the real deal. Cameron, joined by several members of the cast, showed 24 minutes of the film in 3D to fans. We waited 3 hours in line to get into this panel, and every minute was worth it. The story about a marine who meets and assimilates into a tribe of aliens inhabiting an exotic planet isn't groundbreaking -- think Dances with Wolves in space -- but the 3D technology and convincing CG actors certainly are. Cameron announced that Fox has rented out IMAX theaters on August 21st for the general public to catch a FREE 15-minute preview, but with this footage, they've already sold us on the film. Avatar comes out on December 18th.

The cosplay madness begins! We brought you 400 photos of cosplayers last year, and you can expect even more from our gallery this year. This group of DC super heroes was hanging outside the convention hall, drawing more attention than the booths inside the building. And for good reason, as you can tell from the pic below.

Seth Rogan and writing partner Evan Goldberg pulled the covers off the Black Beauty this morning, seeding the first bit of hype for their Green Hornet film. Michel Gondry has taken on directing duties, and the coveted part of Kato has yet to be cast. Who do you think should play the role?

The detail that went into this Blanka costume was impeccable. Notice the gravity-defying geled hair and the broken chains on his feet -- all that was missing was an electric shock.

The biggest sign that Comic-Con has grown beyond even the massive space of the San Diego Convention Center was the line for Hall H -- the main presentation room. Even with a 6,500 seating capacity, the line for Hall H was never fewer than 1000 fans strong. At 8am in the morning, we estimated that over 8000 people were already in line, braving the San Diego sun for a chance to sit in on the Disney 3D, Avatar, and yes, Twilight movie panels. We took unabashed glee when the event staff announced to the line that the Twilight panel had reached capacity -- over 250 people immediately dropped out of line after the announcement. But we could thank the Twilight presence for one thing...

... these Twilight cosplayers brought their A-game to the show. They posed for a full 15 minutes after the movie panel, expressing numerous variations of teenage longing and Vampire angst for their fellow fans. Self-loathing grimaces and furrowed brows are in vogue, we suppose.

We're not sure if this Big Sister was an official part of the Bioshock 2 booth at Comic-Con, but we couldn't help but admire the attention to the detail put into the costume. Bioshock 2's booth was a recreation of an Art-Deco era office, and the staff encouraged attendees to rummage through desks and cabinets for clues related to the game.

Bob Stencil, the unofficial king of Comic-Con, was kind enough to let us snap a photo of him. If you're not familiar with Mr. Stencil's work, we recommend that you check out his Comic-Con 2008 shennanigans immediately.

Another amazing costume was this Captain America, based on the Isaiah Bradley character from the "Truth: Red, White, and Black" mini-series. The first Captain America was actually an African American soldier, who received the super soldier serum as a human ginea pig before the government used it on Steve Rogers. This cosplayer carried a shield that bore the signatures of numerous comic-book writers and artists, too.

We're calling it now. Kick-Ass, a comic-book adaptation directed by Matthew Vaughn (of Layer Cake and Stardust), is the surprise hit of the show. This late-day panel filled up only half of Hall H, but showed footage unlike any superhero film we've ever seen. Kick-Ass puts its vigilantes in the real world, where they're more likely to get beat up and stabbed than perform heroic or superhuman deeds. One scene showed Nicholas Cage as a super hero wannabe, training his 8-year old daughter to fight crime by shooting her in the chest -- just so she knows how it'll feel. The clips we saw were funny, bloody, and uncompromising. Vaughn's still looking for studio to distribute the movie, which he hopes will be in theaters early next year. You'll definitely want to keep an eye out for this one.

Cosplay Gallery: Wondercon 2009's Sexy Costumes

Norman Chan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:30:00 -0600

Comic-book conventions are wonderful spectacles of geekery, and major Cons are the only place to get exclusive access to behind-the-scenes previews and sneak peeks at your favorite comic book or upcoming film. But for us, the biggest attraction at these sweaty gatherings is the Cosplay: fearless nerds showing off their love for genre characters with marvelous homemade costumes. This past weekend, we roamed the halls of San Francisco's Wondercon to play Cosplay paparazzi. The cosplay harvest wasn't as bountiful as last year's San Diego Comic-Con (where we snapped up four hundred photos), but we still found some delightful gems (and familiar faces) at this local event. Keep an eye out for no fewer than four Rorschachs from the upcoming Watchmen movie, sexy slave Leia, and the most amazing Transformers costume we've ever seen!

Comic-Con 08: Four Days, Four Hundred Cosplay Photos. Welcome to the Ultimate Geek Gallery.

Norman Chan — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:02:01 -0600

It was a herculean task. Team Maximum PC at this year’s Comic-Con International consisted of only two people, and there was no way we could attend every packed panel at the event. So instead of bringing you movie and television panel reports you’ve probably already read on SlashFilm or AintitCoolNews, we wanted to be your eyes on the show floor. And that meant showing you what stood out most in the 500,000sq ft space of the main exhibit hall: the cosplayers. Our quest to document as many unabashed costumed geeks as we could find yielding 400 photographs of comic-book, anime, fantasy, science fiction, and film characters. We saw dozens of jokers and batmen, numerous video game-inspired outfits, and even steampunk-era Ghostbusters. The impressive level of creativity and enthusiasm that we saw in these cosplayers was an awesome reminder of why we love geek culture. We hope you can appreciate it as well.

Bonus challenge: Can you name all of the characters?

Originally posted: 2008-07-28 09:00:00

PAX 08 Gallery: 100+ Cosplayers, Fanboys, and Boothbabes

Norman Chan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:00:00 -0500

This past weekend, legion of sweaty nerds – 60,000 strong – invaded the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle to celebrate video games, table top gaming, and nerdcore at the fifth annual Penny-Arcade Expo. Maximum PC was on site for all three days of the event to witness (and take part in) the spectacle and immerse ourselves in unabashed mass geek-out. And just as we did with Comic-Con, we’ve brought back a massive photo gallery of the 128 standout cosplayers from the convention, comprised mostly of video game and anime characters. And if you were that dude adorned in armor made entirely of Magic: The Gathering cards, you’re our hero.

Comic-Con 08: 10 Kick-Ass Sights From the Show Floor, Day 3

Norman Chan — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:15:00 -0500

Here’s something I noticed today while snapping up photos hundreds of cosplayers: they each have a unique pose prepared when other attendees or photojournalists ask to take their picture. It’s actually quite entertaining to watch, really. A dressed-up costumer will just be walking by, casually chatting away with their friends, and then they’ll suddenly execute a unique pose and mug for the camera if they anticipate a shutter click. I’d like to imagine that these cosplayers practice modeling their poses in front of a mirror before stepping foot in public.

But on to the kick-ass sights I saw today. Warner Brothers held a large panel to promote the upcoming Watchmen movie; director Zack Snyder brought the entire starring cast to answer questions from fans and show off never-before-seen footage. The cast really looked and sounded like they loved the material and immersed themselves into their roles. Confirmed: Patrick Wilson’s Nite Owl will indeed be balding, fat, and impotent when he’s out of costume. Matthew Goode, who plays Ozymandias, also pointed out that he played the character with the idea that Veidt was the son of Nazis.

The aforementioned Watchmen panel. Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan) talks about how difficult it was to act with dozens of motion-capture balls glued to his face every day for five months.

This is actually the same Wolverine cosplayer we saw on Day 1 of Comic-Con, though he’s switched out his yellow spandex costume for military garb. He told us that he actually has several more Wolverine getups. That’s determination.

These TIE-fighter dudes were ridiculously awesome.

We're not exactly sure what's going on in this scene, but it's hot.

Nightcrawler kid had a few dozen poses ready for the camera. He wouldn't stop posing even after we took a few shots.

Check out the next page for more photos!

Look who it is! Ex-PC Gamer magazine editors Greg Vederman and Billy Harms! Billy was at the Top Cow comics booth signing copies of his new comic series, Impaler.

Nick Fury and Spiderwoman welcome attendees to the main exhibit hall. Look out Fury, she's really just a Skrull!

It was probably a bad idea to not let the guy with the chainsaw into the main panel room once it filled up. We can definitely see some rage in those eyes. Maybe a little bit of sadness, too.

We found these three Star Wars cosplayers outside the main hall, swarmed by photographers and turning more than few heads.

Sure, we were impressed by Heath Ledger's Oscar-worthy portrayal of the Joker. But this guy probably has the "crazy" market cornered.

Keep an eye out for even more photos we'll be posting up this weekend!

Comic-Con 08: 10 Kick-Ass Sights From the Show Floor, Day 2

Norman Chan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:37:04 -0500

Who knew geeking out could be so tiring. The first full day of Comic-Con is over, and our legs are already worn out. But before we collapse in fatigue, we wanted to share with your some more awesome sights from the show floor. We spotted hundreds of cosplayers (don't worry, we'll be posting photos of them ALL after the event), B and C-grade celebrities (Captain Sisko from Deep Space Nine!), and even some surprise announcements from the movie presentations (Tron 2 is in the works, starring Jeff Bridges). Some quick impressions of the Max Payne footage shown today at the 20th Century Fox panel: the movie looks like it's taking the story seriously, and bullet-time shots are definitely different from what you've seen in the Matrix or John Woo films. The film apparently utilizes a camera that can shoot at 1000 frames per second -- one scene we saw slowed the firing of a single shot down to over half a minute. Another big surprise from that panel: Hugh Jackman made an unannounced appearance to show off the first footage from the Gavid Hood directed Wolverine movie. Gambit and Deadpool are confirmed to appear. Awesome!

Jame Bond's Aston Martin. Looks cool on film, and even more awesome in person. We tried to lick it, but Sony's goons intercepted too quickly. Maybe tomorrow.

One thing we noticed is that cosplayers tend to stick to the booths that feature their character inspirations. The DC Comics booth, for example, was swarmed with Batmen, Jokers, and Supermen.

Cory Feldman! This half of the Cory duo appeared at the WB booth for a signing session to promote the Lost Boys 2 movie.

The original Batcycle. Not quite the Bat-Pod that's in the new film, but it sure looks like it's a more comfortable ride.

Woohoo! A Team Fortress 2 costume! This guy was actually a little surprised that anyone recognized who he was dressed as.

A gathering of Ghostbusters. Statistically, streams are likely to cross.

Three cast members from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, along with some random dude. We'll just say he's Odo in disguise.

Solid Snake found his way into the con using his cardboard box. We saw this guy actually crawling around inside the box in front of the Capcom and Konami booths.

Crush from the new American Gladiators. MMA star Gina Carano is also the model for Natasha for Red Alert 3.

Yes, we know they're booth babes. But can you blame us for posting this photo? In fact, we think the one on the left looks a little familiar.