Thursday, November 3, 2016

Fairy Tale Fandom goes to Albany Comic Con!

Hey, everybody!  This past Sunday I had the privilege of going to the year's second Albany Comic Con.  Now, since I already have a stack of comics and other reading material that I need to get through at home, I decided to spend my time seeking out as many references to fairy tales, folklore, legends and classic children's literature that I could.  Even if it was something connected mostly by a tangent.  Not an easy task, seeing as the things at a comic book convention are usually only linked thematically.  But still, I think I picked up some pretty good pictures.  Let's take a look.

Legal Disclaimer: All the pictures of cosplayers here were taken with their permission.  They were also informed of this blog and what I post about.  Though, I may not have specifically said I was posting these on the blog.  Oops.  If you are one of the cosplayers and would like your photo either taken down or credited, please contact me and let me know.  Any other members of the crowd that made it into the photos have been either cropped out or had their faces blacked out.

Possibly the most impressive I encountered are this pair of queens.  On the left is Regina from Once Upon a Time.  On the right is the Evil Queen from the Disney animated movie Snow Whote and the Seven Dwarfs.  While I don't know who the one on the left is, I happen to know the person in costume on the right is a relatively local convention-goer who uses the internet handle Undies of Wondy.
Next, we have this woman playing the role of Blake Belladonna from the internet sensation RWBY.  As you may recall from my RWBY article, the character of Blake is based on Belle from the story "Beauty and the Beast".
And she seems to be traveling with a dragon for some reason.
And here we have the Mad Hatter, albeit the super-villain version that appears on the television show Gotham.
It wasn't just costumed attendees that I went looking for, though.  I also took a good look at what people were selling at the vendor booths.  For example, I went to a tabletop game booth and managed to pick up a game based on the Arthurian legends.
I also saw a piece of memorabilia connected to Disney's production of Alice in Wonderland.
I saw some Big Little Books that were of interest.
And is that Shannon Hale's Rapunzel's Revenge peeking out in that rack of books?
And possibly the strangest of all, a coloring book titled Undead Oz.
So, while these types of stories may not be the primary focus of conventions like these, they do have a presence.  So, we can find them in a venue of pulpy, mass market genre entertainment like a comic book convention.  But we can also find fairy tales, legends and children's fantasy in more upscale media like opera and the ballet.  These stories can serve as a kind of common ground that exists across social class.

For more about cosplaying and the con scene, there's an article right here on the Folklore of Cosplay.







3 comments:

  1. I've played Avalon and it's a fantastic game of deduction and bluffing. It's basically a structured version of Mafia/Werewolf, if you ever played those games in college. You're going to love it!

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    1. I'll be honest. I totally just bought it because of the Arthurian connection. A very similar reason to why I bought Sheriff of Nottingham and Once Upon a Time.

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    2. Well, good news: They're all great games. Have you had a chance to play Sheriff yet? It's not very Robin Hoody, but will make you sweat with all the lying you have to do! Nerve wracking, but fun!

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