Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!
Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Julian Andres Escobar of That One Cosplayer Guy. I met Julian and his daughter at Emerald City Comicon this past weekend and they came straight out of the movie. So much, in fact, that it drove me to go see Logan after con ended for the day!
Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.
- GeekDad:
- How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?
- Escobar:
- I have daughter named Adriana!
- GeekDad:
- How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?
- Escobar:
It all started in 2011. It was a Halloween, and I was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. I bought clothes from my local thrift shop and made a pretty okay costume. I ended up winning the costume contest. I got a lot of great feedback and people thought I should walk around to conventions with it. My first con was in 2012, by that time I was in a Jack Sparrow Community, so I was helped by a lot of them to get my Sparrow cosplay to the perfection that it is today, and ever since then I’ve been making my way around cons!- GeekDad:
- Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?
- Escobar:
Wolverine. Final answer. I’ve done about, maybe, five cosplays total. Wolverine has always been my bread and butter. Now that they introduced Laura/X-23, my daughter is loving that cosplay.- GeekDad:
- Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?
- Escobar:
-
Photo by Shatter the Stars Cosplay. Laura and Logan is our first cosplay together. Adriana also has a great Rey cosplay. She digs Star Wars.
- GeekDad:
- What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?
- Escobar:
- I’m usually more of the “clothes” type of cosplayer guy rather than building armor. However, I do have an armored wolverine chest piece that is made out of EVA Foam. I will not do yellow spandex EVER!
- GeekDad:
- It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?
- Escobar:
- I’ve never dipped my hands in that type of work, but it’s always nice to learn new things!
- GeekDad:
- Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?
- Escobar:
-
At ECCC. Photo by Will James. Tell them it’s like Halloween every day! My daughter didn’t really get interested in cosplay until last year when she went to a con and was feeling left out that she didn’t have a costume. I told her that next year it’ll change, and it did! She wanted to do Rey from Star Wars, and when we found out Logan was going to have a daughter in the new movie, she really was on board for that one.
- GeekDad:
- Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?
- Escobar:
- Wrestling! I happen to be a huge WWE fan, and my daughter and I watch it every night!
- GeekDad:
- What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?
- Escobar:
- It’s still up in the air, but if you follow me on Instagram I’m always updating my followers!
