Steven Griffin, aka Griffin Cosplay is a new cosplayer based out of Dayton, Ohio. This blog follows his successes and failures as he immerses himself in the culture both behind the scenes and at the conventions. You can find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GriffinCosplay and Twitter @GriffinCosplay.
Over the past few years Gen Con has remained my favorite convention. I have been attending long before I started in cosplay. So how do I feel about it now that I have been in costume? I would say very well… as a matter of fact I think I even enjoyed it more this year! That is really saying something as I have always really enjoyed Gen Con.
Thursday we arrived to Indy, checked into the hotel and made our way to the con. The first day there I didn’t go in costume. It was my day to walk around the hall and test out some games. If you have not been to Gen Con this is the real appeal to the con. All of the big board game developers are there unveiling and running demos of their latest and greatest games. However, there are so many people that you may have to wait for quite some time to get a demo in of some of the bigger games.
This year I was able to try out a few but there were two stand outs for me. One was Space Junk by Lamp Light Games. This is a very simple and easy to play game. No real complex mechanics and it is pretty quick. I do encourage you to look it up for more information as my wife and I had a lot of fun with this one. The second game is Eons by Gamer Nation Studios. This one is a bit more complex but all around a ton of fun to play. In the game you use elements like Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen to create stars and once you have the stars you can use them for fusion and create other elements to create even more stars, planets and other celestial bodies. I think the concept is cool and they really delivered on the execution as well. [Read more about Eons, Space Junk and more of this year’s games in our round up.]

The rest of the weekend I spent in costume. First was on Friday I attended the convention as John Constantine. This was a really simple costume to put together and it is one of my favorites because not only was it simple but he is one of my favorite Anti-Heroes. The costume was well received but it I was mistaken a lot for Castiel from the TV show Supernatural. This is a very easy mistake to make as the costume is pretty much Identical which tells me that in the near future I should probably go out as Castiel. This was also a costume that was easy to walk around the con hall with as it is not very cumbersome. The best part of this costume is that when someone recognized it their face really lit up. This one was a lot of fun and I’ll definitely be wearing it again soon.

Saturday was Magneto. This one always gets a great reaction from people. However my absolute favorite thing about this costume is when you walk around and you can see kids faces really light up and they get excited. At one point I even did battle with a mini Wolverine. He won this round but there will be a round two! Even walking back to our hotel on the streets of Indy people really loved it. I was stopped a lot by the good people of Indy to take pictures and just to say that they loved the costume. At one point a van full of kids parked on the side of the road erupted with yells of “IT’S MAGNETO!!” And they were so excited that I couldn’t help but smile even though I did my best to give them my scowling Magneto face.
Saturday I also got the chance to do a quick shoot with my good bud Wes, also known as The Portrait Dude. He is always so much fun to shoot with. He knows exactly what he wants and he does it fast! He is fun and funny and always has the biggest smile on his face. The man loves what he does and it shows in his work. This also prompted a quick shoot with Kaminsky Kandids another photographer who also took some really awesome shots! Here is one that he took that was also edited by Big Dave Co. on Facebook.

Saturdays at Gen Con are crazy. The hall is packed and there are tons of amazing costumes roaming the halls. I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t get a chance to snap many pictures but It was an amazing time and I got to see some really talented cosplayers. As well as have lots of pictures taken either alone or with others.
Sunday was meant to be Red Hood but my wife and I were so exhausted from the other three days that we just decided to take a quick trip through the hall and see if there was anything that we wanted to pick up before packing up and going home. We were able to score some good deals but left shortly after.
In closing I have to say that Gen Con is one convention that you really should try to attend at least once. Whether you are a cosplayer or not there is something for everyone at this convention. The exhibit hall closes but there are things going on 24 hours a day up until the very end on Sunday. I will have some more coverage of Gen Con coming up soon as I also have an Interview with Anja Keister from D20 Burlesque as well as coverage of the actual burlesque show it’s self! So stay tuned for that!