Artist's Touch: Couple’s passion for creative costuming

• PC CREATIVE CON
• When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 1
• Where: Student Union building and Amelia Tapper Center at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City
• Why: Guest artists, costume contest, film festival, writers workshop, breaking into comics, warp-speed dating, celebrity panel and more
• Admission: $10
• Details: PCcreativeCon.com

C&C Cosplay at Pensacon 2014

PANAMA CITY — I first met Chris Stock and Christina Gilbert in a steampunk panel at Pensacon, a sci-fi convention in Pensacola, in February 2014. He was disguised as The Winter Soldier and she was Black Widow, a pair of Marvel Comics characters that were appearing in the new Captain America movie at the time.

It was his second big convention, and her first, and they assured me they were “super nerds, basically.” They’ve been actively building a reputation as creative costume designers and character players (i.e., “cosplayers”) ever since, and will present a panel for beginning cosplayers at PC Creative Con in Panama City on Aug. 1.

I recently visited them at the Dragon Dojo off State 390, where Chris works as an instructor, to talk about their passion.

“My dad read comics, and he thought comics would get me into reading — and he was right,” said Chris, 23, who was born and raised in Panama City.

As a child, Chris became a fan of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers — specifically, “Billy” the Blue Ranger, who was a massive nerd. Since he couldn’t become a Power Ranger in real life, Chris focused on the martial arts aspect, and under mentor Dorje Jangbu has become an instructor. One of the highlights of his life, he said, was meeting David Yost the actor who played Billy, at Pensacon. Chris hopes his cosplay can serve as an inspiration as well.

“When you see someone really appreciates it, it touches you,” he said. “It not only inspires them, it inspires you to keep going.”

Photo: Daron Adkins Photography

Christina, 28, is originally from Dothan, Ala., but has lived in the Panama City since she was 9. A hair stylist and operator of the local Shear Design, she has two daughters, ages 4 and 6. Chris’ interest in costumes drew her in, and she has a particular interest in steampunk (a subgenre of sci-fi that derives from 19th-century steam-powered technology and aesthetics).

“It’s a way for me, personally, to escape from reality for a few hours,” she said of building props, making costumes, and playing dress-up. “And when someone compliments your work and wants a picture with you, that’s great.”

Chris keeps composition notebooks filled with designs, doodles, patterns and ideas. He uses it to work out details, like the knotwork design on the edges of his home-built Mjolnir (the hammer of Marvel Comics’ Thor), or the horned helmet of a gender-swapped Loki. Then the projects take shape in his workshop — i.e., apartment.

“Our apartment has little projects all over the place,” Christina said, mentioning Captain America’s shield, which hangs in their laundry room.

Winter Soldier was Chris’ first full costume, and the character’s “robotic” arm was created by riveting dozens of individual pieces together. (Chris has added some muscle since creating the costume, and the riveted arm no longer fits him.)

“Before that, I basically did anime characters (from Japanese cartoons), but Winter Soldier I really spent time on,” he said. “I built everything but the pants and shoes. I broke down each part. It was — a lot of hours.”

Chris and Christina discussed how they created many of their costumes and props — from a repainted toy gun or a dowel that became a walking cane, to a wiffle bat repurposed as Harley Quinn’s weapon of choice and socks that became her elbow-length gloves. The most important aspect of building these items, they said, is the willingness to make mistakes and learn from them.

“I find nothing but flaws in everything I do,” Chris said. “I’m a perfectionist. But art is being able to make a mistake look beautiful. Art is never finished, you just walk away from it.”

BASIC COSPLAY TIPS

C&C Cosplay offered these basic considerations to prospective cosplayers:

•Dress for the weather. “You don’t want to walk around wearing a skimpy Harley Quinn costume in February,” Christina said — a lesson she learned the cold way.

•Props don’t have to be functional, they just need to look right and feel good. “You don’t need to actually be able to climb up walls if you’re (dressed as) Spider-Man,” Chris said. “It’s a costume. It’s all about the look. ... But whether it’s a prop or costume, if it’s not comfortable, you’re going to hate it.”

•Make sure you can move, see, fit through doorways, sit down — and get out of the costume for bathroom breaks. “I’ve seen this happen badly,” Chris said. “If you’re going to design a really complicated costume, make sure you know how to go to the restroom. I suggest wearing it a full day around the house before you go to a con.”

•Most of all, have fun. Be creative. And feel free to ask other people for help. 

Cocktail Hour shares blog

When Bill Roorbach was in town for BooksAlive recently, he read and enjoyed a column of mine about the mad creative process I enjoyed on a long ride home from Birmingham. I told him it was a version of a blog entry, greatly simplified for the paper, and he asked permission to reprint it on his blog. I sent him a silly photo and an amalgamated version of the blog and column.

He posted it today.

Thanks, Bill!

Inspiration and the Universe Conspire (to help me create a new story)

We were out of town this weekend, spending as much time as possible with my wife's sister, who is undergoing a bone marrow transplant and more chemo in Birmingham. She slept quite a lot, off and on, and I caught up on some Kindle reading, as well as browsing more than I usually do. I started reading a steampunk novel sample (not too good, so I'm not naming it), and decided to check out a sample of a writing guide for people interested in steampunk (also not so good, but whatever, by this time, my brain was engaged).

On the drive home today, we passed a sign pointing to the exit for two nearby towns, Jemison and Thorsby, and I said, "That's a great character name. Jemison Thorsby, a reporter for the Confederate Statesmen paper out of Atlanta in 1870, two years after the Civil War ended in an uneasy truce."

Soon, we passed a sign for two more towns. "Clanton Montgomery," I said. "Former colonel in the Alabama militia. Hero of the Battle of Birmingham. Now a soldier of fortune operating out of the Republic of Texas."

We passed a sign for two more towns. "Coosada Wetumpka," I thought (as by this time my wife was trying to nap). "A Creek Indian. Father was a Red Stick warrior. He works for Montgomery, and is on the train from the free port of New Orleans to Port Arthur when he meets Thorsby."

I began to think about Thorsby more. He's a reporter, dispatched to get the story on Montgomery, who has been making expeditions into the Plains Nations, where the tribes are armed with electrostatic weapons, dirigibles, and steam-powered cannon-carriages to keep the interlopers off their lands. They have a mysterious benefactor that is designing these breakthroughs, and the U.S. government is secretly bankrolling Montgomery's excursions.

On the train, Thorsby sees a beautiful black woman in the company of two white men. She is clearly rich, clearly a free woman, but one of the men is threatening her. The woman glances at Thorsby on several occasions. Later, in the dining car, Thorsby sees the man slap the woman, and he goes to their table to warn the man not to strike a lady. She speaks to him in a lyrical French accent, "I do not require your assistance, little man." I could hear her voice in my imagination.

Only then does he recognize her. But what is her name?

A moment later, I passed a sign for a place called Legrande. That's certainly French-ish. So her name is LeGrande, but that's only a stage name. What's her first name? What's her real name? I pass a sign for a place called Cleo. Her stage name is Cleopatra LeGrande, she's a famous chanteuse, the toast of Paris, but he knew her when they were children. She was a house servant at the same estate where his father was a stable hand. Her name was...

I passed a sign for a place called Ada. He knew her by that name in their childhood, and he would often offer to help Ada with her chores, but she would always say, "I don't need your help, Little Man."

So what happens when they reach Port Arthur? And then onward to Beaumont, and all across to Amarillo? What happens when they cross the border into "Injun Country," as Wetumpka sneeringly calls it, and they face the dirigible fleet of the United Tribes under the command of Touch the Clouds (a character who I had in mind, but not by name until I happened to do a search for "native American leaders" and found this list)?

What otherworldly monstrosity waits in Roswell? What is "the Breach" and why must it be "Repaired"?

(I wondered that when I passed a sign on a country church that declared they were "Repairers of the Breach." (Don't look that up, because it will depress you.))

The sunset was fiery red as we passed through a string of small Alabama towns. Signs and portents in the sky. The iPod began playing a song about a woman traveling back in time, and I knew I had my answers...

...And that is how a story begins to take shape in my head.

Peace.