Awesome People We Met at San Diego Comic-Con 2015

The world of Comic-Con, recognized as the leading multi-genre entertainment and comic convention on the planet, is a creative force that brings out comic culture fanatics in droves. Every year, the halls of Comic-Con are filled with countless attendees, who dress from head to toe in full fantastical regalia to celebrate their favorite characters, from iconic superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to the most obscure villains that fill comic book pages the world and universe over.

Just like the Headliners you see at EDC Las Vegas, Comic-Con attendees go all out when piecing together their unique and otherworldly costumes. We hit this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, CA, where we explored how the worlds of comic books and EDM collide.

Here are some awesome people we met at Comic-Con 2015 and their very awesome costumes.

GHOST RIDER
Name: Claire
Age: 41
Hometown: Pasadena, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: First
Number of years raving: 12
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Yes, I do. Any music festival, I’m light and fluffy and colorful, usually. I also go to a lot of costume parties, like the Labyrinth of Jareth, the Myth Masque, Edwardian Ball.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? It’s fulfilling creatively, and a lot of fun. It makes me feel otherworldly.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? Dance costumes are probably two weeks; Comic-Con, about two months. I did this last night, but I built Targaryen armor for a friend, and that took about a month and a half.
What does electronic music mean to you? Good time, good people.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together?
Comic-Con is so much more open than it used to be, and just like electronic music, it’s revolutionized itself to where it’s more accessible for more people.

GRAN TEXT AUTO
Name: Kevin
Age: 32
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 3
Number of years raving: 17 or 18
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Sometimes! In the ‘90s, it was mostly JNCOs and pony beads; but now, of course, I always try to put together an outfit if I’m going to go out for a big night. Certain raves, if they have a theme, yes—I always try to dress up. Rave of Thrones, I went dressed as Littlefinger from Game of Thrones.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? I can step into a character, and people actually give a shit about you being there, rather than think of you as something in the way. It’s way more fun for me, and I love seeing everyone else dressed up, too. There’s camaraderie between everybody in costume.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? This took about a week. Dance costumes, it really depends. If it’s a really big thing and I really have a great idea, I may spend about a month getting everything together; or I may already have a costume, because I have lots of costumes.
What does electronic music mean to you? An outlet. It’s just a way to release.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? I feel like they’ve sort of grown up together, in a way. They are things that were on the fringes of pop culture—and they still are, to an extent.

SHE-RA
Name: Marleen
Age: 36
Hometown: Synecdoche, NY
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: First
Number of years raving: As long as I can remember. I guess 20 years.
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? If I do go to Coachella or whatever, it would be a boho-style festival kind of gypsy. You dress for the theme; you have to. [My] whole team [here] is from advertising agencies, so we’re creative people.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? I feel like I’m participating in it to the fullest.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? Mine was really simple, so probably about a half an hour.
What does electronic music mean to you? It means, when I moved to California, buying a convertible—because I want to put the top down and jam out to it.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? Because it’s all an artistic thing. It all comes together with creativity and the drawing and the artist itself, and the music all kind of plays a part together.

INVISIBLE WOMAN (FANTASTIC FOUR)
Name: Kayliana
Age: 19
Hometown: Boston, MA, but currently Oceanside, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 5
Number of years raving: 3
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Yes, I do. When you dress up, when you get to be another character, no matter who you are, other people want to take pictures with you, and you feel like somebody. It’s more fun to maybe be somebody else—or be another character that has a life that you would want to live—rather than yourself, for a day.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? I love comics, and I love all the movies that involve comics, and I just really want to embrace it and be that myself.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? For Comic-Con, I usually plan for months in advance, because it’s really hard to choose just one thing or one that really suits you, and then it takes a few months to put it together. For raves and music festivals, it doesn’t take as long—maybe a few weeks.
What does electronic music mean to you? It means everything. I’m a dancer. My main passion is hip-hop dancing, and I really get moved and inspired by electronic music, specifically. I have a YouTube channel where I dance, and it’s mainly to electronic music—usually like trap and chill stuff like that.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? Today, I’ve been filming myself in cosplay, dancing to electronic music, so that’s how I would put them together. The way that they contrast is, not everyone wants to be a superhero at a rave. They might just want to dress up and wear something crazy, but they might not necessarily want to be a totally different character. At Comic-Con, you want to be someone different.

VEGETA (DRAGON BALL)
Name: Shayana
Age: 21
Hometown: Anaheim, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: First
Number of years raving: 1
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? I do. I was basic at first, made the whole flower crown and everything. I did a little army outfit the next day.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? It makes the experience a lot more fun, and it makes the experience fun for other people, as well. They want to always stop you and take pictures.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? I procrastinate a lot, so I literally just made this whole thing in one night—same with my HARD Summer outfits. I did those in probably one night, as well. I think as long as you work on it with as much as you got, it comes out pretty well no matter how long it takes.
What does electronic music mean to you? It just makes me want to dance. I feel a little freer when I hear it. Anywhere I go, if I hear it, I just start bopping around.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? When I think of the music and I think of Comic-Cons, I think of the cosplay videos and how much it brings an excitement to things and how much we love doing what we do.

DEATHSTROKE & LADY DEADPOOL
Name: Jamie & Mark
Age: 23 and 27
Hometown: San Marcos, CA, and San Diego, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 4 and 7
Number of years raving: 0 and 2
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves?
Mark: Yes, I tend to be comfortable—relaxed, yet have fun with it. Be spontaneous, a little crazy.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con?
Mark: I feel like a celebrity. I feel like I can be somebody else and just enjoy the environment.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes?
Jamie: It varies on the difficulty of it—about a month to a week.
Mark: It varies, depending on how detailed the costume is. It can be a few weeks to a few months.
What does electronic music mean to you?
Jamie: It means energy and lots of bouncing and happiness.
Mark: It means life. It means energy. It means power. Everything that life force is. Activity. Fun.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together?
Jamie: They’re both fun! They both let you [step] into different worlds and learn new things. You get to be whoever you want to be. You just lose yourself in it.
Mark: The way it makes you feel. The way it brings your energy, your character to life. The way it hits you, the way it influences you.

ATTACK ON TITAN
Name: Crissy
Age: 22
Hometown: San Pedro, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 2
Number of years raving: 6
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Yes, I do.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? It makes me feel like a different character that actually could do something better for anyone. It makes people smile.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? This one took two or three hours. I had a harness on, but I took it off.
What does electronic music mean to you? It means life.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? They come together by different people from different places, so they mix them together, and it makes something beautiful and crazy.

CHIANA (FARSCAPE)
Name: Maz
Age: 21
Hometown: Hudson, NY
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: First
Number of years raving: 3
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Yeah! I do basic fishnet, things like that, neon. It depends on the show, but I have gone to music festivals as cosplay characters, as well.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? To celebrate a character or a show or movie or comic book that I’ve connected with.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? This one took me about three weeks to make. The pants, I just made within a week; the shirt, I finished last night. The makeup takes about two hours. My rave stuff, I pick it up every once in a while, so usually I’ll throw together a costume with things I’ve picked up along the way.
What does electronic music mean to you? Electronic music shows that you can make music regardless of whether or not you play an instrument. You can still make it given the technology that we have today, and it’s for fun.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? More modern media—comic books and film and TV—they’re using more EDM as soundtracks, and I think that’s what started that. A lot of comic conventions that I’ve been to have raves, so I’ve seen cosplayers at raves because they have them at comic book conventions. But I definitely think where it probably started was using EDM on soundtracks.

BLACK & RED WARRIOR
Name: Michael
Age: 31
Hometown: National City, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 3
Number of years raving: 7
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Nothing elaborate, just simple stuff.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? It feels like Halloween in July.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? Two weeks; it’s just cardboard and duct tape.
What does electronic music mean to you? Rebel music. It’s kind of like your heart is into it. Every time you hear that boom sound, your heart beats with it.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? Every scene in a comic is epic. That’s where the music comes in. If you want to make something epic, you go big. If not, the music can be sad or heroic or uplifting. Say a character is on a journey; you hear that epic music play, like Lord of the Rings type stuff.

POCAHONTAS
Name: Celine
Age: 22
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 2
Number of years raving: 5
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? I definitely do. Me and my sister always go. Before, when we were just starting to dress up, it was just short shorts and everything. But now we like to go into themed stuff, and we like to make sure we have all our stuff prepared beforehand, so we go shopping. We’re not too scandalous with the bras and everything, but we like to make sure our costumes are cohesive with the group.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? It’s awesome getting ready and preparing weeks beforehand and knowing that you’re gonna be something… It’s a good thing knowing you have that personality to actually stand out.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? I feel like rave doesn’t take that long, because I go off of things that you can buy at retail stores. But Comic-Con, if we’re actually sewing the actual costumes because we’re relating to a certain character, you want to get all the certain aspects right; so it’s a little bit more time. It took me about a couple weeks to prepare for Comic-Con; for EDC and stuff, it only takes me a week.
What does electronic music mean to you? It ties into my family, because me and my sister—that’s how we bonded when we first got into high school. She left high school a while back and then came back, and that’s how we regained our connection.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? For Comic-Con, you go to it, you dress up, and you pretend you’re someone else. You’re the character, you do the moves, etc. While at Electric Daisy Carnival and everything, people just see you for one night, and it’s an alternate reality that you’re into. I think that’s the way that they interconnect.

VOCALOID
Name: Victoria and Michelle
Age: 22 and 14
Hometown: Parker, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: 3 and 1
Number of years raving: 3 and 0
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves?
Victoria: I haven’t been to that many music festivals, because I’ve been moving around a lot. But as far as raves go, I’ll do the cybergoth kinda look or just one of my characters… the more glowsticks, the better.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con?
Victoria: To represent a character that I really like. I’ll do the same thing for my own characters, too. And really, it’s just a great feeling.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes?
Victoria: Simple outfits can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Really elaborate ones can take up to three hours.
What does electronic music mean to you?
Victoria: Considering that I dabble a lot with my own electronic music and my own virtual singer, it means a lot to me. It’s amazing what you can do with electronic music, and there are really just no bounds to it.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together?
Victoria: Over the years, they’ve really bridged that gap with that. I’d say the biggest bridge for that one was definitely Vocaloid, where they brought the whole thing with anime and music together… Now it’s everywhere.

CHEWBACCA (STAR WARS)
Name: Michelle
Age: 21
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Number of times you’ve been to Comic-Con: Ever since I was born!
Number of years raving: Once, twice a year, probably.
Do you dress up for music festivals/raves? Yeah. It’s fun to put a costume together.
Why do you dress up for Comic-Con? My dad works for Marvel, so he’s the one that pushes me to do it. He’s like, “Yeah! You should totally dress up!” So I try making my cosplays for him.
How long does it take to put together your Comic-Con or rave costumes? I think about it like a year before, but I actually start doing it probably in the same month that it’s gonna happen. For music festivals, a week probably in advance.
What does electronic music mean to you? I feel like you can dance however you want. There’s some types of music that you have to dance a certain way. You can just feel the music however you want.
How do the worlds of comic books and electronic music come together? They do remixes with superheroes and stuff. For example, there’s this Mortal Kombat song that I really like, and it’s all techno.