Comic Gong 2022

Back again after three years! Wollongong's very own comic and pop-culture event took place once more this past Saturday, and once again Catherine and I were there, costumed up and ready to enjoy it. It was nice to see it as busy as ever, and it's even expanded into a new location (partially so the hall with the traders/artists wasn't so packed, which makes sense in these diseased times).

Anyway, I don't have many photos to show off this year; once again Catherine and I volunteered and, once again, we spent the day registering entries for the various cosplay competitions, which kept us pretty busy. We enjoy doing it, though, as we get to so most of teh great costumes close-to, and chat to some lovely people.

We did low-key cosplay this year - Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson from 'Elementary', which has been some of our favourite viewing so far this year. Despite my love of all things Holmes it's the first time I've attempted a cosplay*, although Jonny Lee Miller's look is pretty easy to do.

Since we didn't feel our costumes would be obvious to the casual observer, even one that's seen the programme, we added a prop. Once advantage of sitting at a desk all day is that we could have a static prop that would otherwise be a pain to carry around. And here it is - Clyde the tortoise.

A lot of children asked if he was real, which makes you wonder if they've ever seen a tortoise before ...

Maya cosplayed as well. I can't remember the name of the character they did, but it's someone from the game 'Animal Crossing'.

I didn't get any other decent pictures of the other cosplayers - as I say we were pretty busy. We were thrilled to see someone doing Stede Bonnet from the pirate comedy 'Our Flag Means Death'; that's been another favourite of ours recently, and I've very much admired his glorious outfits. I suspect that the bigger events coming up in Australia over the next couple of months are going to see a few costumes from that series.

And if you haven't seen it, there's a trailer:

*I did portray The Nihilist Klopman for ten days in Switzerland back in 1991, of a society trip there. And even a brief weekend as journalist and duellist Isadora Persano back in 1992 - a name and ID that I've since repurposed ...

Burlesque Update #2 (Comic Gong 2019 Edition)

Another Thursday evening wargames session missed, but our burlesque group is one step closer to our performance in June. My solo act is coming along, and I have about 75% of it ready to go, although it needs a review by expert eyes and a lot of polish.

Actually there's not a huge amount more to report this week as we missed our Saturday classes. This was because they coincided with Comic Gong, our city's annual free pop-culture event. Once again Mrs Kobold and I cosplayed; this time we both went as the same character - the wonderful infomational assistant Janet from 'The Good Place'.

Here we are, about to head into town. Maya made the waistcoats and skirts for us:

Here I am proving that Janet is worthy to wield Mjolnir:

And here we are hard at work. After several years enjoying Comic Gong as visitors, we decided that this year we'd give something back, and we went as volunteers. We spent the day running the cosplay competition registration desk, which was a great way to meet people:

 I didn't get any other photos of the event, mostly because we were busy all day. But it was as fun as ever, with some great costumes and loads of things to do.

I should also add that it was my birthday. On top of Comic Gong, Mrs Kobold had arranged a surprise evening out for me, with our children and friends turning up for Chinese food, an escape room (we escaped) and karaoke. A great end to a great day.

Comic Gong 2018

This is an entire post free of specific games stuff so if that's your only reason to read this blog, then it's probably best to move on.

Still here? Good.

Today was Comic Gong, which is Wollongong's free festival of pop-culture and nerdery, organised by the council through the public library service. As ever there was plenty of stalls, displays and events for all the family. There were even two miniatures companies selling their wares (although I didn't buy any). And, of course, there was cosplay. And, as you know, Catherine and I are partial to a little cosplay. 

In fact our costumes were the only ones I took pictures of. The photographic muse has deserted me recently for anything but blatant self-promotion, so that's all this post is; pictures of our cosplay.

But what a cosplay it was. Unlike previous years, when we have attempted specific characters, this year we decided to go for a theme. And the theme we went for was Star Trek. With a steampunk vibe. Yes, not original at all, but, surprisingly, something we could put together with very little effort using stuff we either owned or could borrow from our daughter. 

We put together our look, developing names for our character in the car on the way there.

Here's Catherine, as the logical Vulcan Sub-Commander Spanik.

She seems very stern and forbidding ...

... but is capable of a very unVulcan smile when prompted.

And do you like her Starfleet badge? I made us one each from layered card and small cogwheels from the steampunk accessories section of our local sewing and craft shop.

I took on the role of adorable red-shirt, Ensign Persano, whose name is derived from a very convoluted reference to something in the Sherlock Holmes canon. My cameo choker is also made from bits from the same craft and sewing shop.

The ray-gun was part of Catherine's Doctor Venus costume from a couple of years ago.

The belt was the only major item I bought specifically for the costume. It's the first cosplay I've done where I can actually carry my personal effects as part of the costume.

Even officers of the Steamship Enterprise need sustenance.

 More tea, Ensign?

The biggest thing to come out of it was that we met one of the senior photographers for our local paper, since she was obviously covering the event. She took our photos for the paper, of course, but whilst she took them we chatted and she wants to try and put together a story or photo-essay on Catherine and myself with regard to my crossdressing and how it's part of our life. We're quite excited by this; it's something about which people make a lot of assumptions and which is very misunderstood, and it's nice to be given an opportunity to maybe change the way people think, and do some good.

Update: Bonus picture of the two of us together.

Supanova 2017

Catherine and I have just got back from Supanova in Sydney, an annual expo of all that is good and nerdy. Aside from the obligatory cosplay, there are artists, guest from the world of film, TV, comics, video games and beyond, traders selling all kinds of goodies and ... more cosplay. There's even some games.

The expo has expanded from previous years, moving into a second hall at the Sydney Olympic Park site. This also had the effect of opening up a large outdoor space within the ticketed area as well, which meant there was a lot more space to move, breathe and to take photos. A great improvement.

I didn't take as many photos as I should have done, and what I did take were all cosplay. Here's some individual outfits which caught my eye.

I loved this classy Snow White look. If I did Snow White I'd want a frock like that.

Marvel Girl is on my to-do list as well, but I certainly won't carry it off as well as this. I had a nice chat with her about where she got the boots. 

This Lego Batman was a highlight.

But I think this was my favourite single costume - The Thing.

The bravery award went to Ultra Boy and his skimpy outfit.

This was my favourite group. Simple but effective.

And here's the obligatory Disney princesses (plus Peter Pan). One of the many groups of Disney princesses (including the one my daughter was part of). I took a photo of this one because one of the ladies had come as Megara (from Hercules) and I don't think I've ever seen her done before. The photo doesn't show it, but her hairpiece was magnificent (you'll have to look up a side view of the original character to see what she was aiming for, and achieved).

 Once again Catherine and I did Jessica Jones and Kilgrave (but not in that order). We hoped we'd get more recognition than we did at Comic Gong back in May. We didn't, really. I think most people thought I was just a transvestite on a day out, which strictly is true, but wasn't the only effect was going for. And certainly wasn't true for Catherine who went full purple and watched a 20 minute tutorial on how to do hair like David Tennant's.

I say we didn't get much recognition; we did get asked for photos by one of the professional photographers who do the rounds at these events; the first time this has happened in the four years we've been going.

We trawled a lot of stalls, had a great time chatting to random strangers, and bought very little; some cheap steampunk goggles because ... well, always useful, and a few prints. But we had a fantastic day and will be back there next year with new costumes.

Comic Gong 2017

I noticed that I haven't blogged about Comic Gong much since the first event was held, back in 2013. Comic Gong is Wollongong's one-day festival of comics, popular culture and nerdery in general. It started off as a small event held in an outlying library, but proved so popular that in 2014 it was moved to the town hall, and covers that building, the main city library and the art galley, as well as the plaza which connects the three venues.

The best thing about it? Its free! It's run by the local council and mostly organised by the library service.

And it attracts an excellent crowd of people, all of who seem to enjoy themselves. There are various events and displays during the day, you can meet local artists and buy your basic nerdy stuff.

Ex Manus Studios attend every year, selling their small, but lovely, range of figures. I have a few (unpainted) in my collection.

And there is, of course, cosplay.

Ariel is Tess, one of my daughter's friends. You'll see them together later. Apparently she and Ursula spent the rest of the day avoiding each other, because if they met up they were accosted by crowds of children wanting to have their picture taken with the pair.

My favourite outfit, purely because I love that handmade skirt.

And my favourite cosplay - George R R Martin with the Death Note book.

Did I cosplay, you ask? Certainly I did. Catherine and I paired up this year. She channelled her inner David Tennant and went as as the mind-controlling Kilgrave ...

... whilst I portrayed his nemesis, Alias Investigations private eye, Jessica Jones.

Sadly we didn't get any really good pictures of ourselves, but we'll be repeating these cosplays at Supanova in June, so hopefully we'll do better then.

However the featured cosplay for this blog is our daughter Maya's - Tinkerbell.

She made the dress and props herself, as well as modifying the wig and shoes. Her friends went as Aerial and Belle (seen here with one of the Comic Gong organisers as Jane Jetson).

Needless to say she was popular with little girls wanting to have their picture taken with her. And she lapped up the attention. (That's not a little girl; it's her friend Makayla)

Anyway, she looked fantastic.

As I said, we'll be off to Supanova, we hope, so there may be more of these costumes in another post.

Supanova and Clobberin' Time!

I was stupidly busy this weekend, with Supanova on Saturday and the Waterloo refight on the Sunday. But I did find time to pull together the various notes I'd been making regarding changes to the current draft edition of Clobberin' Time.

Some of the changes have been tested and, I'll freely admit, some of them haven't. But I have been excited to discover, in recent weeks, at least two other people playing these rules, and they have suggested ideas which I thought were worth introducing into rules and putting out there for further testing and discussion.

Draft 0.3 of Clobberin' Time is now available on my FREE STUFF page. In it you will find improved rules for lifting and throwing, new rules for knockback, optional rules for making use of the Jokers in activation and for engaging multiple targets and a number of new abilities - Boost, Regeneration, Tactics, Heavy and more. Get into that phone-booth, ditch your everyday identity and fight some villains. It's Clobberin' Time!

I mentioned Supanova above as well. Catherine and I had a grand day out there on Saturday, but I ended up taking no photos aside from our own cosplay.

Here's Catherine as Fireball XL5's Dr Venus:

And here I am as Crack Comics' 1940, Madam Fatal - Maybe a sweet little old lady ...

Possibly a daring crimefighter ...

But definitely a dedicated transvestite!

Now we've got to start thinking about costumes for next year.