comic-con 2002

adam, jonathan, sumir, and vince on 08/09/2002 12:19:48 -0700

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The Masquerade is a con tradition in which some con-goers dress as their favorite characters and parade themselves on stage in order to be judged by a celebrity panel. At the end of the event, various awards are distributed for craftsmanship, creativity, and other such criteria.

On Saturday, after lining up for more than three hours, we finally got into the very large auditorium where the event was actually going to take place. We were treated to several movie previews that were of interest to the audience. The Master of Cermonies was Robert Trebor, better known to Adam as Salmoneus in Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Overall, Trebor did an excellent job as M.C. and handled the audience, which was rough at times.

The costumes covered a wide range of areas, including comics, games, anime, as well as other, much more obscure sources. The costumes delved into the obscure; many of them were not particularly relevant to comics. Some of the more interesting costume ideas are discussed below.

To exemplify the deviance from comics but the essence of masquerade, was Bill, from Schoolhouse Rock. He gave an excellent performance of turning into a law.

"Hidden Talent" was one of the funnier and more memorable acts. Despite encountering technical difficulties during "Viva Las Vegas," the act still drew chants of "Elvis" from the crowd.

"Moonsync: Attack of the Cones" was a skit that did a good job of exhibiting the personalities and relationships of the characters portrayed via pop songs. It was also hilarious, because Jack from Jack in the Box made a cameo to a song of the Meaty Cheesy Boys.

One of the most crowd-pleasing sketches of the night asked what would happen if the worlds of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings met. The results were nothing less than hysterical. The overall concept was extremely well done, and it was evident that many hours of work had gone into creating the skit. This was the one act that actually drew a standing ovation from the crowd.

A recurring theme of the masquerade was the appearance of Final Fantasy X costumes. Two women dressed as Lulu, the black magician, while one dressed up as Yuna paired up with Yojimbo. The Yojimbo costume was by far the best, which earned it two awards by the end of the evening. They were both well deserved, as the design for Yojimbo's costume was intricate and detailed.

... and this guy had to pull up his crotch a lot.

Sumir's personal note: I was somewhat taken aback by the conduct of some of the fans during the Masquerade.  I felt they were overly critical and downright rude to some of the contestants.  There is absolutely no need to boo someone who obviously put in at least SOME work in their costume.  Some of the people were just plain stupid - when a somewhat overweight woman wearing a Catwoman costume arrived on stage, the rather large gentleman in front of me began groaning and elaborating on how she should not be up there.  I felt like saying, "Hey, buddy, I don't think you should be judging her - if you flew Southwest, you'd need to pay twice what most everyone else here would pay."  The point is, many of these people put in real effort.  Let's be appreciative and not dicks.  We're comic book fans gathered in a big city on a Saturday night watching people dress up - are we REALLY in a position to criticize others?

Jonathan's personal note: The fans were, in many respects, a lot better than at Anime Expo.

- Adam, Jonathan, Sumir, and Vince

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