Not exactly cosplay!!

In my day we never called it cosplay, It was just called fancy dress! I suppose cosplay is much more focused on becoming a specific character from geek culture whereas fancy dress you can be anything you like really. I remember as a kid I used to love getting dirty and scruffy and being a tramp for fancy dress!! Strange chap I was ha ha As an adult for Halloween I'd always be a zombie, torn clothes, shambling gait... kind of like a tramp really but with a LOT more blood!!

The Grey Man: now in glorious technicolour!

I also did a few Halloween gigs with my death metal band Suffering. One time I was all dressed up in a suit with a skull mask which I altered to fit better and added better elastic to it. I emptied a mannequin's head full of fake blood over myself midway through the set. I so wish I had videoed that show :(

 

 That mask has had a lot of use over the years, every now and again I break it out for a bit of a dress up. Also the cloak that my mum made for my brother's vampire costume one time.

That vampire cloak also got used for a silly superhero get-up I once did for a party, I won a prize for my Gut-Man costume!!

The closet I came to cosplay I suppose was my take on The Joker, my mum made me a purple suit, I got a green shirt, white facepaint and there you go, Cesar Romero would've been proud!!

My less than stellar attempt at The Joker!


Can't help thinking that the effect could've been better if only I'd tucked my bloody shirt in.!

I actually reprised this Joker costume for a friend's birthday party and me and a lady playing Poison Ivy won prizes for our costumes!! Which of course proves that DC comics are the best!! I look terrible though, my mate painted my face on a bench outside the pub and we ran out of white make up!!

I have never considered myself a cosplayer and have never even attended a convention even though I am a dyed in the wall geek I have always been a solitary one really. I really should start thinking about going to at least one in my life just to see what the fuss is all about really! I like dressing up too, pretending to be something else. Recently the only dressing up I have done is at Halloween but not even planned costumes just throwing stuff together when I have visited my nephews and gone trick or treating with them.

I recently came into possession of an army looking helmet and loving the game Fallout I am tempted to get a vault suit, but they cost a bloody bomb though which may be appropriate considering the game story! I have the nuclear survivor type beard already though. 

War, war never changes

I do wonder though what/who could I play now if I were to attend a convention?? Any ideas anybody? All I can think of is if there is any group out there of Doom Patrol cosplayers looking for a fat beardy bloke to sit in a wheelchair playing The Chief, Niles Caulder then I am your man!! Not too sure though if it's proper protocol for an able-bodied person to play a disabled one... might be considered insensitive.. not too sure, and besides my hair is too long for him!!

Anyone got any betters ideas?

Oh I nearly forgot I have played Santa too a few times!! I have dressed up for Christmas heavy metal gigs in London and once even had a sackload of presents to give out to the crowd!

Give it another 10 years and I will probably be able to play Santa without the fake beard and I would definitely be down for that :D