As often happens
when I want to cover subjects that I don’t know anything about or
have any experience with, I asked for help with my Dragon Con
costuming/cosplay interviews. Luckily for me I am friends with Sara,
who was happy to not only set up Q&As with a number of people in
the costuming community, but also wrote some dandy intros.
I very much want
to feature these folks, but I just don’t know a whole heck of a lot
about them. And as much as I’d love to have one-on-one interviews,
it just isn’t practical at this time of year. So I needed an
intermediary. Okay, fine – I needed somebody to do all the work for
me. The questions are mine, though. That’s got to count for
something, right?
This first one
is of particular interest to me. As some of my long-time readers may
know, it took me a while to get on board with Steampunk. Ever since
I was young I have had a certain resistance to things that I
perceived to be overnight fads – the whole grunge thing, vampires,
Avatar.
But over time I have really come to appreciate the ingenuity and
creativity that goes into costumes from this genre. Not only standard
fare, but the numerous mash-ups as well.
Please sit back
and enjoy one of a series of Q&As brought to you by Sara.
Think of them as Guest Posts that I specifically asked for. And
thanks to all of the talented people who responded. You guys truly
are the heart and soul of Dragon Con or any other con.
Danny is a sculpture artist and an
incredible costumer. He and his group, Outland Armour, are
pretty much responsible for any high quality steampunk costume you've
ever seen at Dragon Con. They were the pioneers and continue to
make incredible work and travel around the world as convention
guests.
1) What
are your top geek passions?
A)
Steampunk tinkering, gaming, and comics.
2) What
was your favorite toy when you were a kid?
A) Slash
the Evil Turtle from Dimension X
3) What
is one album everybody should own?
A) Tom
Waits - Blue Valentines
4) Who
is your favorite wrestler and why?
A)
Stephen Hawking. He tackles the Universe without lifting a finger.
5) When
and how did you discover you had a talent for costuming?
A) It’s
something I’ve always done since I was itty bitty. From making my
own Halloween costumes with my mom to cobbling together my own set of
Link’s adventuring gear, right down to having a red and a blue
candle.
6)
What’s your costuming background?
A) From
those childhood costumes, I began working on a Boba Fett costume in
high school that slowly got more and more elaborate until it was a
massive power armored reinvention of the character. That got me into
going to conventions, which led to comic characters like Gambit from
the X-Men and Spy vs. Spy, and numerous anime costumes, like Alucard
from Hellsing and The Count from Gankutsuou. Eventually I started
doing original steampunk characters, which led to steampunk
re-imaginings of Star Wars characters and pop culture figures like
Daft Punk.
7) If
you could pursue any project, what would it be?
A) I
plan to create a live gallery show of summoned angelic figures from
ancient mythology using special effects makeup and prosthesis. Like a
metaphysical zoo, combining sculpture and costuming.
8:
What's a favorite con memory?
A)
Meeting my wife. (DIABEETUS) Also when Jeremy Bullock and Peter
Mayhew remembered me.
9) Which
actor do you feel like you could sit and watch for hours no matter
what they were doing and why?
A)
Jackie Chan. He is either kicking ass and defying physics, or being
hilarious. OR ALL THREE AT ONCE.
10) What
advice can you give to somebody just starting out making costumes?
A) Don’t
listen to your parents when they tell you that all the random junk
you’ve collected is garbage. Also, don’t tell them I told you
that.
11)
Which costume did you learn the most from making?
A) Spy
vs. Spy taught me that even if the person running the Masquerade
gives you permission to safely use harmless pyrotechnics in the
ballroom, that doesn’t mean they have any real authority to do so,
and that even if you don’t damage anything or hurt anyone, they
will blame you for the fact that they almost got fired because they
were too dumb to check with the fire marshal, and will take petty
revenge by banning you for life from the contest. I also learned that
fire marshals are serious.
For reals. You should probably check with them before you even paint
flames on your costumes.
12) Is
there a movie that should never be remade and if so which one?
A) Why
should anyone remake any movie? Make some new movies!
13)
Closer – what is your favorite costume that you’ve worked on and
the story behind it?
A) My original steampunk sky pirate character,
Captain Vincent M. Dantes, Esq. He’s my alter ego and probably the
costume for which I am best known. With my crew and their costumes,
he helped bring steampunk into the geek limelight and connected me to
a huge community of awesome and talented people. He’s taken me on
many adventures (and misadventures) across the US and to Europe. He
always reminds me that we are who we choose to be and this world is
what we make it. But always drink responsibly.
Thanks to Sara
for arranging this post and thanks to Danny for doing it. We’re
looking forward to seeing what’s in store for us this year at the
greatest geek gathering of them all – Dragon Con!
Be sure and come
back tomorrow for more Dragon Con!
-Phantom
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