Robert Frank, founder and administrator, Sophia Alana Elwell, administrator and lead event organizer and Mike Gilbert, event coordinator, all of DC Cosplayers East, spoke with Cheddar News about the costumes seen at the New York Comic Con.

<div class="block">Robert Frank, founder and administrator, Sophia Alana Elwell, administrator and lead event organizer and Mike Gilbert, event coordinator, all of DC Cosplayers East spoke with Cheddar News about the costumes seen at the New York Comic Con.</div>

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On The Scene: Dressing Up for New York Comic Con

Well, on the convention floor at New York Comic Con, you'll see dozens of people dressed as their favorite comic book movie and TV, characters still is on the scene to get a look at how one group puts their incredible looks together. Yes, it isn't a New York Comic Con without cosplayers. I'm here with Rob Sophia and Mark. We're going, they're members of DC Cosplayers East. So Rob, I know you're the head of this group. Tell us more about DC Cosplayers East. Well, we're northeast, most biggest DC Cosplayers group. We welcome everybody to our events and it could be many different things. We sometimes do shoots, we sometimes do events at stadiums and we even staged some personal photo shoots of recreations of comic books. Now, I know that you're a member of this group, but you're also a member of a female only group. Can you tell me a little bit more about the bombshells? So I joined this group in 2017, actually in New York Comic Con and I met a fellow Cosplay in the group as well. We both loved DC. The DC bombshells especially. We were cosplaying as bombshell. Raven A bombshell Batwoman. And so we said, hey, why don't we just start a group together? We have a found love of something that we all, we all enjoy. And her and I said, let's just try. Let's see what happens. We've been a sister group of DC Cosplayers East ever since then. And her and I are both co admins, co-founders. We do side shoots as well. So we've done a few shoots here and there like in the city, for example, uh just recreations of that particular era which you don't see nowadays. Unfortunately, there's not a lot enough love for the bombshells anymore. So we still try to bring that spark and passion to what we do and to cosplay as well. Now, mark what draws you into Cosplay and how do you pick your character? It's Mike, it's Michelle. But how do I pick my character? I've been a, I've been a comic book fan since uh since I was, you know, just a little kid. I've been collecting all those years, comics and toys. Uh I got into Cosplay. I've always been a, I was always a fan of Halloween. Uh My mom and grandmother used to make all of our Halloween costumes, so I got into that a little bit and it's just uh each year started with a Closet Cosplay, which is where, you know, you find quick material stuff that you might wear every day and modify them. Uh I've been doing Cosplay for about 15 years, I think now and I pick my characters, I kind of refer to myself as Captain C List because I like the more obscure characters that, that you kind of have to be a deep cut fan to recognize. Hence this my Captain Carrot back to Captain Carrot. But let's start with you, Rob. Tell me who you are and how you put this outfit together. Sure, Doctor Midnight from the Justice Society of America. We are the very first DC team that came out before the Justice League. The way I created the outfit, it was invented about 1940. So it's based off of a pirate swashbuckling type. So I would recommend if you want to do an outfit like this, go on like a pirate or a Renaissance fair type of cosplay site and you can get the gloves, the boots, the tunic and for the belt, it's actually a Santa Claus belt because it's got the big buckle and you don't have to spend a lot of money to, to come up with a good cosplay. You could even go to a sporting store for the hood, which is called the Balak and the goggles. They're just regular swimming goggles. Doctor Midnight also happens to be the very first blind superhero. So his special powers are that he could see in the dark and he uses blackout bombs to deter his enemies when he takes them on. I'm glad you have the owl too. Now, let's talk about Captain Carrot. I'm not as familiar with this DC character. So tell me how you put together your outfit and a little bit about the history behind it. Ok. Uh Well, the outfit came all together. Uh, so the boots are, uh, riding boots like, you know, that horse riders wear and I extended them with uh, oh, mat foam like you exercise mat, children's playroom, mats. Those are covered with a velvet, the same material that the cape and the, the hood are. Uh my wife helped me with uh making the pant with the pants and the shorts. I made the little cotton tail, the sale and the mask is uh you can see it's a little grid plastic with fake fur uh attached to it and velvet uh hand stitch the, the three finger gloves. Uh da da da and I created this all from a making a copy or created a pattern for his chess symbol. The carrots are functioning pockets that's like super. Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the great things of cosplay is like making portability as easy as you can. Well, thanks so much for your out and we're going to stay tuned here at Comic Con because there's tons more to see back to you in studio Kristen.