So I watched Deadpool and Wolverine last night and it made me feel some kinda way. Not because of the gratuitous violence or the homosexual undertones, but because deep in that movie there was a story about each and every one of us in the cosplay community.
Let me tell you about Deadpoolicorn.

Back in 2014, before The Variant, before being a comics writer or any of the cosplay photography, there was just me and my daughter, going to cons. She was a cosplayer and wanted me to be as well. I thought it was stupid.
One day after bugging me for an hour or so, I finally conceded to cosplaying something with her at the next convention.
I had no clue as to what. Later that day I was scrolling through the internet and saw an Archie McPhee ad. It’s a novelty store in Seattle, and they had this really stupid unicorn mask making the dumbest face. I looked at it for a second and then went back to reading my comics.
My Deadpool comics.
It just clicked.

It was the dumbest idea but it was mine. I also made it a complete point to make sure it was indeed my idea. I ripped through every Deadpool comic I owned (I had all of them) and made sure this wasn’t just something I saw in a Cullen Bunn or Dan Way book. It wasn’t.
This was long before the Deadpool movie came out so I wasn’t just pulling from that one scene with the stuffed unicorn either (more about that later). I ordered the mask and the suit, bought some photographer web gear, plastic guns from Wal-Mart, got a shitload of red and black spray paint and “Deadpoolicorn” was born.

So we went to this local anime con, Animazement in Raleigh, NC and Deadpoolicorn explodes on the scene and is a complete hit. There are photos and videos of him all over social media going viral. Me being me though, I’m like “this is the dumbest shit ever”. So just in case, I decided to try it again and see what happened.

HeroesCon 2015 in Charlotte NC, is one of the biggest comic creator conventions on the planet. I showed up as this stupid fucking unicorn dressed like Deadpool and the exact same thing happened. It went bananas. Someone told me to start a cosplay page on Facebook. I did and within a week it had 6k followers.

The owner of NC Comicon invited me to be a cosplay guest at his show in November and to do a cosplay panel. I didn’t even know what a panel was at that point. I had no clue what I was doing. So I went to that show. I brought a doctor’s office couch that I got at the flea market and covered with zebra fur, a banner that I projected and hand painted a Deadpoolicorn commission from an artist buddy of mine on, and a cheesy Sears portrait studio backdrop. I found two photographers willing to work the weekend for NC Comicon passes and we did “Deadpoolicorn Christmas Cards”. It was insanity. I met a TON of people that weekend and made a TON of friends in the cosplay community, some of which I’m still friends with and some, not so much.

So why am I re-counting this story that some of you lived through and some of you have heard dozens of times?
Because I, like so many other cosplayers and people out there, want to matter. I watched this movie and in it Deadpool wants to be an Avenger.
He wants to be an X-Man.
He wants to do something with his life that matters.
So do I.
So do all of you reading this.
So what?
So what RJ?
What’s your point?

My point is that in this world of cosplay, comics and conventions, the cosplayers are always at that bottom tier. The cosplayers at so many conventions are an afterthought. They’re looked at as an annoyance by the show guests and vendors who are usually a collection of voice actors, semi-successful comics creators and B-list celebrities who are also looked at as an afterthought if there are any A-List celebs, creators or guests at that show. The cosplayers are treated as third-class. They’re given a cosplay contest by so many shows “because they have to”. The cons want their money. The cons want the attention they bring to their shows. People love taking photos of cosplayers and posting them but the cons don’t want to pay them to be there. They don’t want to get them a hotel room. They don’t want to give them gas money. They think the cosplayers should work for free because they’re a dime a dozen.
And in that, they’re right.

There are thousands upon thousands of cosplayers out there, and every single one of them wants to matter. So much so that some of them are willing to step all over each other to get the recognition they feel they deserve. We say it all the time at The Variant; “You worked hard on your cosplays and you deserve the best photos of them.” Obviously we’re just talking about photos, but it’s the same thing. They worked hard on their cosplays. They want to be recognized. They want to be remembered. They want the creators of the characters they’re portraying to love them as much as they love those people’s characters. Sometimes there are the occasional creators that acknowledge them. The Gail Simones and the Kelly Sue DeConnicks that love seeing the cosplayers portraying the characters they created. They take pictures with them and signal boost sometimes, and that’s great. Nine times out of ten though, the cosplayers are being exploited by cons and they don’t even know it. Or they know and they just don’t care because of the “Likes”. Or they think they’re in control and using the cons for “Likes”. Any way you look at it, it’s still the same thing. They’re just people wanting to matter.

So when I started working with The Variant, I did it because I saw what an actually incredible community the cosplayers were. They accepted me, this 30+ year old asshole, who dressed like a Deadpool unicorn for no other reason than to please his daughter and to make them laugh. They accepted me without question. When I took over running The Variant, I kept doing it because it was a voice for the voiceless. The Variant was an outlet to showcase this incredible community to the world. And yes, just like the rest of you, I wanted to do something that mattered. I wanted to do something that people would look at and say “Hey, cosplay matters”.

I still love it and want it to matter. Some of the cons we work with believe in what we do. Some still treat us as an afterthought. Some give us the world to play with and others give us just enough to be dangerous. Some don’t want to work with us at all because they just don’t see the value in it. I challenge all the conventions around the world to do this one thing; count the cosplayers that walk through your doors. Count them and then subtract the price of their tickets from your grand totals at the end of the show. You might not have a show without them. Or maybe you would and it just doesn’t matter. To all the comics creators out there I challenge you as well. Take a picture with these people that matter. They matter because they loved your ideas so much that they created their cosplays to dress like them. They loved what YOU do. Take a picture with them and share it. Tag them in it. Show them that they matter.

Oh, and that one scene with the unicorn in the Deadpool movie. I met Dan Way, one of the many comic writers of Deadpool while I was writing comics and guesting as Deadpoolicorn. We became decent friends. After seeing the Deadpool movie and seeing he was a writing consultant on it, I asked him at a show about that scene. He looked at me then kinda laughed and shrugged and winked. I guess what I did mattered to someone.