This past Friday, September 1st, Sahuaro’s Cosplay Club loaded 17 fandoms into two vans and took a trip to Comic Con at the Tucson Convention Center. For those who do not know, Comic Con is an event where comic book fans come together to meet for an epic, community-based pop culture experience. It began in Tucson in 2008 with 500 fans and has grown to over 19,000 attendees.  So, Sahuaro’s comic book fans took to the road to join them. Vice President, Charlie Harmon, who was dressed as The Spot from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, said they, “…walked around. We showed off the costumes that we worked really hard on. We got to see other people doing the same thing we were doing, but in a different format, and we also had the opportunity to advertise for the school and for the club a little bit.” Another member of the club, Charlotte Holter, who dressed as Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service found the best part of Comic-Con to be the garlic fries (the best part of many things in my opinion).

For students of Sahuaro’s Cosplay Club, some find it a source of entertainment, a place to enjoy themselves and essentially play dress up. For Angel Campos, cosplay “does go deeper than just dressing up…it does help you with characteristics…” Charlotte finds cosplay as a form of self-expression and stress relief.

Although getting to dress up and go to Comic Con (and eat fries), was a fun experience for the Cosplay Club members, it also went a lot deeper. Mr. Smith, club sponsor and English teacher at Sahuaro said, “We got to make connections and they all got to see that cosplay is more than just showing up to a Con in a costume, there are communities built around it.” Although the numbers are growing, in the U.S. only five million people participate in a form of cosplay. For reference, there are 331.9 million people living in the U.S.; that means 1.506% do cosplay in some form.

Comic-Con is not just for students or young people who like to dress up, as it may seem to many of us from the outside, it is also a lifestyle for some people. Tucson’s Comic-Con supports many small businesses; the co-founder and owner of Zoodoo Dolls, Zully Rosado said in an article written by KOLD, “Not all of us can afford to go out of the state to sell our products. Having Tucson Comic-Con gives us a wider audience to be able to show our dolls and showcase them. It’s been very important for us to be able to do that.” The article goes on to say that Comic-Con is the main source of income for some small businesses.

For anyone interested in joining Cosplay Club, meetings are held Thursdays after school in Mr. Smith’s room, 201.