Everyone has a favorite television show, movie or video game that they keep close to their heart — but fandoms know how to take it to the next level. From intricate costumes, beautiful merchandise stands and incredible music, there was no better display of nerd culture’s simultaneous unity and diversity than College Station Comic Con at the Brazos County Expo Center on Saturday, Sept. 14.
Rob Malloy, a vendor for Dungeons and Dragons-related merchandise, was outfitted in his custom-made Texas A&M-themed Mandalorian cosplay, ready to enjoy College Station Comic Con for the first time.
“This is our first year,” Malloy said. “We did AggieCon a couple times. We do regular craft fairs, but the gaming stuff took off. So we realized we need to do more gaming cons.”
Malloy boasts a variety of interests that could clearly be seen from the items at his stand and the striking self-made costume.
“Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Naruto are personal favorites,” Malloy said. “I am old, but I’m not isolated old.”
He also realizes the importance of cons for both vendors and attendees.
“It’s fun,” Malloy said. “You get to live out your fantasies. For me, I started gaming at nine and ten years old, and I still play today. And I love to see the new people coming in.”
Malloy has been a game master, or GM, since Dungeons and Dragons took off in the 1980s. He says the experience has taught him a lot over the years.
“You learn how to deal with failure,” Malloy said. ”You got to learn to laugh at your failures … and always pass that onto the next generation.”
Malloy embraces how nerd culture has evolved over the past decades.
“We’re accepting of everybody,” Mallow said. “When I played, it was all the outcasts that did it … now it’s everybody, and no one is ever turned away.”
Turning focus to a different kind of craft, Cosplay Meg, as she’s known in the community, has mastered the art of illusion and costuming over the past nine years since she made her debut at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015.
“My mother helped sew my ‘Silk Spectre’ from ‘The Watchmen’ costume for me,” Meg said. “And then gifted me a sewing machine.”
Since that day, her passion and skill for cosplay grew.
“It’s been a long journey from piecing things together and modifying, to patterning and crafting from scratch,” Meg said. “It’s a constant learning process.”
This hobby isn’t just for the people dressing up, as it can serve as a gift to others as well.
“I also do Star Wars costuming for charity through organizations like the 501st Legion and Mando-Mercs,” Meg said. “… They do a lot of work with ‘Make-A-Wish’ and local charities.”
Many cosplayers — Meg included — can get heavily scrutinized by toxic fans making judgments online, however.
“As someone who up until recently was very much plus-sized … you get a lot of harsh judgment and get told, ‘Oh, it’s the fat version of this character,’” Meg said. “I will always encourage people to let comments roll off their back, but it still hurts.”
Despite this, Meg feels that the good of the community outweighs the bad.
“The community of body positivity within cosplay alone is what honestly stopped me from quitting this hobby altogether,” Meg said.
There was also a legion of professional voice actors who were brought in to meet fans at College Station Comic Con for the first time, including Katelyn Barr, known for her work in dubbing animes like “Chainsaw Man,” “My Hero Academia” and “Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya.”
The anime dubbing world is alive and thriving in Texas, Barr said.
“I ended up getting an audition with Sentai Filmworks, which is one of the two anime dubbing studios in Texas,” Barr said. “I moved up to Dallas and started working at CrunchyRoll, which is the other one.”
The voice acting world is highly competitive and takes time and dedication to get a foot in the door.
“My advice would be to take a lot of improv classes,” Barr said. “We almost never get the script in advance, sometimes we don’t even know what character we’re playing … until we get there … so any amount of improv classes will help tremendously.”
Regardless of her profession, Barr said that having a hobby has helped her achieve the success she has.
“Have a hobby outside of [work],” Burr said. “People say, ‘Do the job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ But that’s not true. If you do the job you love, then you’re never clocking out.”
