Rise of the Geeks – Comic Con and Cosplay

The day of MCM Comic Birmingham was greeted with a very brief glimpse of “Beast from the East 2”, we only get a few events of the year where we really get to rise up and unify as one. I wasn’t going to let a bit of snow take that opportunity away from me!

As of recent years as the technology improves and the ability for us to access more information from all over the world, communities are getting bigger and stronger from different platforms such as gaming, sci-fi, comics, anime’s, it’s not tucked away anymore and only the matter of time for the rise of the geeks!

Long enough, we have been hiding away from others about our interests in sci-fi, anime, gaming, comics and shutting down our way of expressing ourselves as we don’t want others to see us as “weird, strange, different or not normal”. We become afraid of these judgments and opinions of others and so we shut ourselves in our own fantasy world, behind the computer, hiding away in our homes and slowly losing our ability to socialise with other people, other than those who have similar interests to our own. We have been struggling within our own shells suffering silently as society still finds it hard to accept our creativity. It is through these events that we get to openly show and express ourselves through our work and through Cosplay.

Press Gang

Now, before I go further into the Rise of the Geeks, I will be sharing with you my adventure of the day as Press.

It was an easy nice morning drive into NEC Birmingham guided by our trusty friend Mario on Google Maps.

Shortly after parking up, I got so excited and froze because I had 2 Grand Finalists park right next to me from Robot Wars and simply just totally geeked out, can you tell that it’s still very early and that I haven’t had my coffee yet?

Quickly, after geeking out over the Robot Wars Grand Finalists – I decided to head into the venue and meet the rest of the Coaching for Geeks Press Team and it was absolutely freezing!

I couldn’t help myself but get myself a coffee fix with my Caramel Macchiato before the day starts with all the exciting fun that’s going to happen!

I also love how NEC Birmingham had a custom welcome banner for MCM Comic Con with all the logo and signage! Who didn’t feel at home after seeing that?!

We also had to queue to get our Press passes and settle down with our trusty notepads, pens and awesome camera equipment – my phone had better MegaPixels than my SLR

My poor Canon 400D has now been made redundant by the new smartphones!

It was only a few years back where SLR’s was amazing with camera and photo quality….The rise of the smartphones!

We also got our team photo in! The kids had to get their tickets in shortly after…

As we started our Press adventure, our first stop was RS Prop Masters, Rob and Simon are the guys that make the Stormtrooper replica suits and props of Star Wars related pieces

They pay attention to every detail on the kits!

Absolutely mind blown by the amount of detail that they spend making them. Our team member Adam didn’t believe this storm trooper was a real person until he was walking around…

It was an absolute privilege and pleasure to meet Alan Flyng. Alan Flyng portrayed an Imperial officer in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi having previously portrayed a Cold assault stormtrooper on Hoth and a Stormtrooper in the Carbon Freezing C

hamber in Cloud City in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.

Shortly ventured over to 501^st Legion – as you can see our team member Adam was very keen on the Light Sabre..

As if speaking to other members of the Star Wars wasn’t enough, we came across the UK R2D2 Builders Club, they were moving all over the venue!

We were hunting for the Silver Sabres as they looked awesome and who doesn’t like Light Sabres right? We managed to find them and book in a slot for the team to experience what they do.

The force is strong with this one!

Adam confused Chewy with his ability to work a smartphone…he gave up shortly and I took over with the camera work.

Adam looks pretty content with Chewy wrapped around him…

Autograph areas have always played a big part of MCM Comic Con’s from various films.

If geeking out at community stands wasn’t enough then you always have the stalls of goodies that you can buy and take home to store in your own awesome collection.

Streamers Connected made an appearance too, they have an international community of 7000 members, streamers who aim to collaborate, network, share and grow each others channels on Twitch, Beam and YouTube. If you’re looking to get started then this community would be a great place to get started.

Some guys really put in a lot of effort into their Cosplay – Reinhardt and Reaper from Overwatch, look at the details they’ve put in!

Any Doctor Who fans around?

Can’t miss out the Comic Village! Home of comic artists!

The Coaching for Geeks Sabre Slot was here and I just had to take a selfie opportunity. Cheeseee!

General Grievous, again very detailed amount of effort into detail!

Now here is the juicy part as our leader of CfG Robin Bates and Jess from Costume & Play are about to head onto the stage with their fellow Cosplayers to talk about “Cosplay Life”.

Yep, that’s our almighty leader of CfG showing us how it’s done to rock the stage out! How much confidence and courage would it take you to sing in front of strangers? I would just hide away in the corner.

Cosplay and Geek Culture

Now this is the important part of the blog, if you’re still reading. Thank you for sticking with me as I am going to talk about the important of Cosplaying and what it means for us geeks in the community.

The Cosplayers on stage are all very popular in the community and they all had 1 thing in common, which was they all ran workshops to give back to the community to show others, how they create their own Cosplay armours, dresses, suits, kits, costumes etc.

I believe anyone that runs workshops to give back to the community are very selfless and very giving. They are very inspiring in their own ways because they are giving the younger generation and other people an area to find their creativity as well as another way of expressing it.

Now why do people Cosplay you ask? I had the opportunity to ask a few about this and their answers are very similar and can also be very dark. They simply just loved the character so much in terms of what the character stood for, could be along the lines of integrity, courage, brave, loving, strong, determined etc, whatever inspired them for them to want to become them and get that same feeling that was represented by the character.

Didn’t we all have a superhero that we always aspired to be when we were kids? Some were fireman, police, superman, iron man, Black Panther or even Spiderman right? What made us give up the dream to become a superhero? Who shut us down? Who have we lost in the process of growing up that stopped us from dreaming and achieving our dreams that we once had when we were kids? Was it our parents? Our friends? Peers? Colleagues? Teachers? That told us it our dreams were stupid or crazy and we just decided to shut it down because it didn’t fit into the society beliefs?

A few Cosplayers said that when they dress up into another character, they get to hide themselves within that character because they didn’t want to be seen for who they are. Sounds crazy right? Nope, some of us are really afraid to be seen in the light by others because we would feel judged and subjected to being bully because we are a little different. By Cosplaying, they can be someone else for the day or two, they get to have more fun behind a mask or behind a costume that isn’t them, then they won’t be judged by other people because that character isn’t them.

These are the matters that we don’t talk about in the community and that is why Robin Bates has setup Coaching for Geeks as a FB Community group to support one another. To help each other level up different areas of our lives, whether its Relationship, Business, Health, Finance, Personal Development, Social or Spiritually, it doesn’t matter which area you want to improve.

The community has been setup to help you level up and become a better person in life to have an awesome life, instead of being beaten down by challenges and obstacles. When did we ever back down in a game when we hit an obstacle or challenge? Why do you think there are many options to “Play Again” in the games? It’s because it’s designed to make you keep playing and also teach you that there are always another opportunity to have one more crack instead of just giving up! That is what life is too! Just in reality, we also have to deal with our thoughts and feelings that trigger our emotions that we are so unfamiliar with because we are so busy usually creating what we love, that we forget how to be a human being.

If you too have suffered too long by yourself and want to join a community of like-minded geeks and want to level up a little bit more or even share your challenges or your geekiness with us, then join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coachingforgeeks/

Cosplay is all about Costume and Play, so next time you have the opportunity to go to another event like this, why not give it a go and try something new and be the hero you love to be?

It can be a lot of fun too! Great for photo captions and memes later…

MCM Comic Con is always a great place for movies to be advertising and have always been happy to participate with this community as this is where creativity is born and many join the industry through places like this.

Thank you taking your time to read this blog, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did at the event.

There is always learning in everything that we do should we choose to see it and reflect upon it.

Keep shining brightly and live life with no limits!

Jono Poon – Limit Breaker – https://www.limitbreaklifestyle.co.uk