A WHOLE NEW WORLD Imagine your favorite character from a video game comic book movie or TV show What do you like about them Maybe you love the strength of Korra from The Legend of Korra Or maybe you think Captain America is Marvel Comics’s best good guy character you should try cosplay The word cosplay is short for costume play It’s a popular hobby some people have even turned into a career From creating your own costumes to traveling to conventions there’s a part of cosplay for every geek out there If you think you’d like to dress up and act like your favorite 4 Sometimes you’ll need help with your cosplay Make sure to ask an adult for help when you’re using a glue gun or cutting plastic If you aren’t sure how to make something an adult may know or be able to help you find it online Some ASSembly RequiRed
SPIDERMAN MARVEL COMICS CHARACTER People used to use names like geek and nerd to make others feel bad Today a geek or nerd is someone who’s passionate about a subject whether that’s cosplay collecting or playing board games 5
Cosplay conventions as they’re known today began in 1940 When Forrest Ackerman and Myrtle R Douglas went to the World Science Fiction Convention the year before in futuristic costumes they became the first reported sci-fi convention goers ever to dress up The next year so many people dressed up that a costume contest was held Soon conventions started having masquerades or big costume parties describe a convention in Los Angeles California While fans in Japan and elsewhere had been dressing up for years there was finally a perfect English word for it The term cosplay wasn’t around until the mid-1980s to 6 Today cosplay is very popular in Japan
MASQUERADE BALL COSTUMES 7 Though the first cosplay convention may have been in 1940 this was not the beginning of cosplay Cosplay is one part of a long history of people making costumes at home for Halloween parties and masquerade balls As early as 1908 people were making and wearing costumes of their favorite characters from comic strips More Than a CenTury of Cosplay
