I finally attended my first comic con 2 weeks ago and it was a very interesting experience. I went to the Great Lakes Halfway to Comic Con event in Madison Heights, MI. I decided to cosplay as Jubilation Lee (Vampire Jubilee) from The X-Men. I had been planning on attending this con since May and I am glad that I went because it was an interesting experience.
Here's what happened when I cosplayed in public for the first time and attended my first Comic Con.
There weren't too many people in costumes, which made me feel all types of awkward.
I was not really surprised by the lack of people in costumes. I wish there had been more people dressed up to make the experience funner or me more comfortable (I know selfish), but there wasn't.
It was a legit COMIC Con.
I was under the assumption that a comic con consisted of comic discussion panels, in addition to possible comic trivia and games. This comic con consisted of the selling of comics and anything related to comics like action figures and certain merchandise. I honestly thought that there'd be more activities, so that was kind of disappointing.
People stared.... a lot.
Within dressing in cosplay there is a ton of staring, which I expected. Of course I did not realize how much staring there would be. I feel like a lot of people stared because they either knew who I was cosplaying, wondered who I was dressed as, or they had other thoughts about it. I felt really self-conscious at first, but eventually I became comfortable enough to just walk around.
Everyone was very friendly.
People who knew who I was greeted me and expressed how they liked my cosplay. The costume ended up being a great conversation starter and way to interact with people which was very helpful since I am an introvert, in addition to me not being very good at starting conversations with people.
I connected with a lot of different people and gained some new followers to my Facebook Cosplay Page.
Because everyone was as friendly as they were and approached me about my cosplay, it was very easy to converse with others and exchange information. I ended up exchanging contact information with a few vendors and gained some new followers which was great.
Overall my first time cosplaying in public and my first comic con experience was enjoyable. I plan on attending Youmacon in November which I am extremely excited about. If you guys are contemplating cosplaying, I definitely suggest doing it because it is fun and you can connect with people while doing it.
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