Comic Con Africa – Step into a parallel universe

Imagine parking your car in Midrand, Johannesburg, crossing a road, going through a security gate, and finding yourself in an alternate reality with a smouldering Harley Quinn dancing a jig to a song from Disney’s Frozen.

Elsewhere, Pennywise the Clown delivered a slightly off-key version of George Michael’s Careless Whisper, while the Grim Reaper dropped her scythe to offer an exhausted journalist a sip of strawberry slush. Yeah, I said her, because death is a woman and I apologise for previously misassuming her gender.

Geekgasms abounded at Comic Con Africa with tech freaks, tabletop gamers, cosplayers, autograph hunters and action figure collectors from across the country making the pilgrimage to Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand this past weekend.

And despite massive queues to get in, the second instalment of Comic Con Africa was a huge success.

Actor Wiliam Shatner (Captain Kirk in ‘Star Trek’) enthralls the crowd with stories about being an ageing cult hero at Comic Con Africa, 23 September 2019. Picture: Earl Coetzee

There were fears that the last-minute withdrawal of two of the most famous guests would put a damper on the festivities. Avengers actor Anthony Mackie apparently hates travelling to South Africa, as this was the second year in a row he withdrew at the last minute. The official reason was that a delay in his filming schedule in Budapest prevented him from making the trip.

Just a week earlier, King of Westeros, One-eyed Raven, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Six Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm, Isaac Hempstead Wright, also withdrew from the event. The Game Of Thrones actor was under a contractual obligation to appear at the Emmy Awards this weekend, but he didn’t join the rest of the cast on stage, so some were upset that he didn’t use his time and space-travelling skills to make an appearance in Midrand.

But Comic Con offered loads of fun, most notably in the quality of the cosplay. Even the amateurs went all out this year, with costumes in jaw-dropping detail. Pennywise from Stephen King’s It was a popular character, with the variations on the killer clown ranging from sexy terrors you might not mind falling victim to, to nightmarish, sewer-dwelling child-eaters.

They were all remarkably friendly, though, and keen to chat about their costumes. This friendliness ran throughout the event. Wherever thousands of people gather, one can expect someone to act like a fool and ruin it for everyone. Not here, though.

Despite throngs of visitors bumping into each other in attempts to get a closer look at their heroes, the good vibes were never-ending.

Dillon Kraamwinkel lives his WWE dream at Comic Con Africa, 23 September 2019. Picture: Earl Coetzee

The only place where the testosterone did get out of control was in the gaming hall, specifically in the vicinity of South African-developed video game Boet Fighter, where players lined up to slap the buttons. The game features a couple of Joburg boets klapping their way through the nightclub scene.

The team’s promotional material read: “Boet Fighter is a mega-schweet faaghting video game where Hard Eddy and his taaghtest charnas must moer all of Fourways in the face, as they faaght to reclaim his stolen binnet! It’s got creatine, vaalence and house beats, boet …”

Another local industry that’s growing in leaps and bounds is the comic book scene. Loyiso Mkize, creator of the country’s first black superhero Kwezi, said big things were coming for his hero. Like plans for a television series and even a video game.

And for those who scoff at adults dressing up as comic characters, attendee Lerato Mosamo had a message: “These grown kids are creating entirely new industries, and that is awesome in itself.

“If you can’t understand why people would dress up and engross themselves in fantasy worlds when the real world is so messed up, then maybe you’re the one who needs to have your head checked.” – earlc@citizen.co.za

Why do we do it?

by Nate Biccard

When people hear “Comic Con”, so many things come to mind. Panels, celebrities, games, comics, merchandise, art.

For me and the majority of my friends, it’s cosplay.

Yes, we’re those people who dress up as fictional characters. The ones that talk way too loud and tend to swarm around each other. The average person (or “normie” as we affectionately call them) have varying opinions on us.

We’ve been called freaks, brave because “I’d never have the confidence to do that”, stupid, childish and inspiring.

But in the end, we all have our different reasons for cosplaying.

A lot of us make our costumes and put ourselves through a lot of stress doing so. We ask: “Why do we do this to ourselves?”

What is the point of cosplay? We do it because we love it. Cosplay makes us happy and really that’s all that should matter.

• Biccard is a copy editor at The Citizen by day and a cosplayer by night. Last year, he became one of the first South Africans to participate in The World Cosplay Summit in Japan, which is the world’s largest cosplay event.

INFO

Whereas the terms geek and nerd previously had mostly negative connotations, nowadays they are embraced by those who love geek culture.

• Geek was originally used to describe eccentric or nonmainstream behaviour, but currently is used to describe an enthusiast or someone obsessed with pursuits which don’t fall into the sporty and brawny categories.
• The words’ etymology stems from the English dialect geek or geck (meaning a fool or freak, from Middle Low German Geck).
• Geck in modern German means fool and is also used in the the Dutch and Afrikaans adjective gek (“crazy”). – Wikipedia

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