Costumes ranged from baby Batman to middle-aged Superman and the venue featured an abundance of wigs, covering all the colors of the rainbow.
A crowd of costumed individuals and comic fans congregated at the Durham Convention Center over the weekend for the annual North Carolina Comicon.
Following the theme of most superhero stories, not everything was as it seemed. For one, the brave and powerful Supergirl turned out to be a toddler donning a red cape and blue tights.
The superhero's father, Durham resident Ed Cooper, said Supergirl's biggest concern at the moment was not saving the world, but instead saving her pacifier.
"She wants [her pacifier] but it fell and got dirty," Cooper said, pointing to the sobbing toddler.
Originally, Cooper planned to attend unaccompanied, but he lost his babysitter—a friend's sister—after the friend fell ill. Still, he decided to take advantage of the situation, and entered the daddy-daughter novice contest.
"I killed two birds with one stone," Cooper said. "I brought her and competed."
Not all novice costume preparations were so last minute, as exemplified by Jordan Carden, a Greenville resident. Carden attended her first Comicon this year and designed a costume consisting of a pyramid-shaped silver helmet and a 5-foot long sword. Despite being a newcomer, her handmade costume attracted a curious crowd, eager to get a look.
“It’s over 60 hours of work," Carden said. "Everything is made out of wood. The sword is 20 pounds and my helmet is 10 pounds. So it’s very, very hard to carry around."
Katie Lovo, another Comicon-goer, hopes to expand her costume abilities past the realm of conventions and even into a career. Although this is her first time at a comic convention, Lovo was one of the most popular among the crowd. She dressed up as Arcade Sona from League of Legends and her multi-colored costume included a wide horizontal board with keys she could manipulate to modify lighting and sound.
“[My boyfriend and I] had to learn C++ programming for it because there is a automated breadboard that controls all the sound and lighting," Lovo said. "I’m trying to do [cosplaying] professionally...but I am still what would be considered a novice."
Carden and 16-year-old Diana Midkiff won brag gin rights as the best hand-crafted costumes in the costume competition. Midkiff's costume was comprised of green face paint, a pointy, plaster nose and sharp claws—all of which contributed to an unconventional witch look.
Midkiff represented her character not only through her appearance, but also in her mannerisms. As she walked, she extended her claws to bypassers and hissed in a halting speech.
For some, however, the preparation was less intense. Durham high schoolers Sara Evans and Tovah Williamson dressed as Luigi and Link, respectively. They came to the event as a pair and noted that they had only had two days notice.
“We rushed a little bit," Evans said. "Homework can wait. We weren’t going to do it anyway."
But the costumes were not the only aspect of Comicon—the event also made room for charity. The Nomadic Hearts, a booth dedicated to selling comic books, annually donates half its sale to a charity of its choice.
“Everybody has been super receptive,"charity founder Joe Todd said. "We are going to make a lot of kids smile this Christmas."
Comicon itself is experiencing a growth in popularity, noted Stacey Jones Bayne, an experienced Comicon attendee.
"I’ve been to NC Comicon since it started, way back when it was just a couple of empty stores," she said, displaying her fake, yellow teeth. "This year they’ve increased the space and have allowed for more people, more vendors and more artists."
Bayne noted that the convention has also joined up with the Carolina Theater for a film festival this weekend featuring 11 superhero movies from the '80s and '90s.
Jeremy Tarney, chief operations officer of Ultimate Comics and an organizer of NC Comicon, said the films were intended to attract a more diverse crowd to the weekend's events.
“We just want to include as many different people as we can, as many different fandoms," Tarney said. "We wanted to add something that convention-goers could not get anywhere else.”
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