The Cos Co-motion

The annual Silver Snail costume gala/Hallowe'en geekout hit on Saturday and, just like last year, it was a good time had by some most all. It was a busy Saturday all-around, with Aden and myself having more than plenty to do before we could get suited up in our regal wear and hit Toronto as only two barely-known comic-book characters could.

My costume is deceptively simple and deceptively complex. The idea for the Phantom Stranger came back in July when Aden and I were shopping around for a wedding dress (she found one, I didn't, btw) and I saw this huge honkin' gold medallion at Le Chateau (fancyness for "The House") and said to Aden "that would be perfect for a Phantom Stranger costume".

Due to wedding madness, I kinda put the whole costume thing out of mind for a while, with the vague notion of going as Robin, since George (manager of the Snail) thought this toy looked like me, and I thought it would be funny, but, well, yeah, finding tiny green underwear isn't that easy...

So anyway, I did a mild hunt for Phantom Stranger wear but you know what, finding a (cheap) 70's blue suit from the thrift stores isn't easy, also not easy only more so is finding a blue hat, and even more than that finding a blue cape. Some of our time in Thunder Bay, which really was the only down time I've had this month, was spent thrift store shopping, where I found the cape medallions ($1), the suit jacket ($4), white turtleneck ($7), the pants ($7) and the gloves ($2). I didn't buy the medallion when I should have and I visited about 2 dozen other places looking for a replacement, but eventually found a Le Chateau that still had the original (and best) and bought it there ($25). The hat came from Kensington Market for $10, and the coup des gras, the white hairspray which gave the Phantom Stranger phantom dandruff all night cost an outrageous $10 (white hairspray was incredibly hard to come by on Saturday for some reason, so if you need white stuff next year, buy it early). The cape was actually home made, since it had to be. Capes are incredibly hard to find, and so yeah, I spent some time with chalk, scissors, some bristol board (comic book backboards to be specific), thread and a needle and made myself a cape.

The end result, deceptively simple in look (as in, it's not spandex) but complex to put together:

Of course, I didn't sell it *completely* with white contact lenses, but I'd say pretty authentic all things considered.

Aden's costume was the current Mary Marvel iteration from Countdown which she was pretty keen on for two reasons: simplicity and that Mary Marvel is one of the few brown (not black) haired women in comics.

Her costume came together easy as pie. A trip to American Apparel, a few dresses tried on and it was practically over before it started. We had to buy some yellow fabric, and using the lightning bolt cut out of an old, old, old Captain Marvel t-shirt of mine found in Thunder Bay as a stencil, Aden cut out and stitched it to the uniform. She bought herself a new pair of boots, which happened to aide the costume and add a pair of black gloves, voila, it's complete.

It was a devilishly windy evening, with a biting crispness that chilled instantly any exposed skin. Aden dressed warmly in her new winter jacket, although her knees remained vulnerable. I was dressed in four layers (undershirt, turtleneck, wool suit jacket, cape) so I was having no problems save the white temporary hair powder blowing out. In fact, I heartily enjoyed having a cape flap in the wind. It's a fantastic sensation, feeling that drag from behind, or having the cloak whip around you in embrace, or flap off to the side like a flag. It's so fucking cool, I can't even explain. If I could get away with it, I'd wear cape every day. Jeans, t-shirt, cape. Trousers, button-down, tie, cape. Swimming trunks, flip-flops, cape (this isn't Sparta). Awesome. Capes need to come back in style and stay there. As it stands, my $4 jacket is now a part of my regular wardrobe, and the rest of it's going into the costume tickle trunk.

It was, in fact, my flowing cape which brought Aden and I to the attention of the CITY TV reporter trying to get a Hallowe'en festivities puff piece on Saturday. They saw me walking along, cape flapping in the wind and chased us down. Aden directed them around the corner to the Snail party where there'd be even more costumes, and that's where they interviewed me, having me flap my cloak in front of their camera. It was all very geeky and I'm sure I came off like any old comic con freakshow in my interview, but I can't find it on-line so, I guess I'll never know.

The party was a good time as always, plenty of free food and giveaways, lots of gawking at all the other costumes (my favourite was the Friend Record from Size Small and Babs and Liza) and some big-time prizes (3rd place: $100 gift certificate, 2nd place: $300 gift certificate, 1st place $500 gift certificate). I was certain my authentic-looking Phantom Stranger would be worth one of the three... strictly on authenticity and obscurity scales. Alas, no, the prizes went to a good Clockwork Orange costume (although, really?), a rather clunky Killing Joke Barbara Gordon and Joker (points for creativity, I guess), and, okay, I'll admit, a killer Dr. Strange costume rightly won the big prize, however the fact that Toby won the Snail staff contest last year with a Dr. Strange costume (Kody won this year with his Thor costume) did rankle me a bit. Alas, no dice for this McCracken, so I went home with my cool cape and my grumbles.

Aden and I have already decided, I think, on our costumes for next year:

Power Girl and Iron Fist...a play off of this comic
only subbing the black dude for this chick, our own DC/Marvel crossover: Maybe she'll modify the outfit to be an amalgam of Power Girl and Power Man's... that'd be hilarious.

Maybe I do IF more like this if I'm feeling bashful...
...but I'd probably get more points if I did the full -on collar and tattoo business.

So, for my last trick-or-treat... here's a sideways shot 20 second video of Springfield Villain Montgomery Burns threading the needle.

oh, and more costume photos on Flickr)

Posted by graig at October 29, 2007 3:50 PM | TrackBack
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