Wondercon 2016 – Recap

I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I found out Wondercon would be at the LA Convention Center this year. No more familiarity, no more big fountain in front, and no more post con trips to Disneyland. However, after spending 3 days at Wondercon, the LA Convention Center really did start to grow on me. True, the exhibit hall was a bit too dim, giving all cosplayers even more reason to stay out in the entrance lobby, but that was a blessing in disguise since it made it a lot easier to cosplay watch, take photos, and catch up with friends! As you know, I had an unintentional Bat-themed cosplay weekend planned and I couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out.

On Friday, I teamed up with Honeyboba Cosplay (Wonder Woman), Song Ja Park (Supergirl), and Geek Piñata (Catwoman) to cosplay as DC Bombshells. Considering this was a totally last minute group, I was so impressed with each one of these girls and how everyone put so much effort into the accuracy of their outfits. When Tiff (Honeyboba) initially asked me if I wanted to join the group, I immediate said yes and knew I wanted to be Batwoman. Far from the stereotypical nerd, I actually have been told that I am quite athletic and knew that with her baseball cap and tube socks, her outfit completely fit my personality. Needless to say, the minute the four of us were together, it was non-stop photo taking. And major props to Crystal (Geek Piñata) since she literally had about 4 days to put her outfit together!

I was super excited to spend Saturday and Sunday donning my Batgirl cowl considering the two weeks I put in to making it from scratch. It even came down to the wire as I pulled my second cast out just on Thursday, the day before my flight out to Wondercon! Luckily, my second cast turned out great and even though being Batgirl an incredibly hot costume (cowl + wig + pleather that doesn’t breathe), being her made me feel like I could do anything – including being a panelist on the Geek Wars Panel! Speaking of, we had a jam packed full house at the panel and I even heard that some people couldn’t get in because it was full! :( Bummer! But in case you’re still interested in hearing our discussion, it’s all available here! Tony always does an amazing job as a moderator and was able to provide a safe venue for us to talk about some difficult topics. Plus he asked us some really tough Force Awakens trivia questions!

Like many, Sunday was my “casual cosplay” day as Punk Batgirl (based Babs Tarr‘s art). I not only love Babs Tarr’s art style, but I love how she incorporates her sense of style into  each character. Maybe fashion isn’t something you usually notice in a comic, but I feel like with Babs’ art, you can’t help but notice it. Wearing  the dark lips, smoky eyes, and gray wig was definitely a lot of effort, but so fun that I might just have to incorporate this into my every day look more often!

And on a personal note, I was so incredibly touched by the number of people that came up to me to tell me how proud they were of me during my cancer journey. Throughout my surgeries and treatments, I actually kept looking towards Wondercon as one of my goals, thinking of it as a milestone event, something to even signify the end of my journey. Being well enough to make it there with not only one, but two costumes was more than I could have asked for and I was so grateful to have such a fun time. So even if you just said “hi” or we had a short conversation about how hot it was in a bat cowl or how we hadn’t eaten all day, I loved every minute of it. :*)