By A number of years ago William Shatner, the captain of the Enterprise, aka James Tiberius Kirk, appeared on a television comedy and faced Starfleet-costumed fans of his series at a convention and told them to get a life. He later backed off on his rant, but the “get a life” statement has long been applied to the obsessed fans of any television show, movie, and computer games who try to dress up like a character, speak in a created language or role play.
But the people who appeared at the April 30 Steel City Con in Monroeville and walked the aisles of vendors and displays were anything but obsessed fans (although a few might have been there) but instead were friends out to have a good time and extend the joys found in dressing up for Halloween because, according to Alex Yatsko, of Bloomfield, who dressed up as a character from Monsters Inc., “ It’s a great time. We had a bunch of friends and we chose the movie and then each of us dressed up as one of the characters.”
One group of friends from Erie came as Batman villains. And Maia Bryant, of Penn Hills, chose Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean. But, she says, she has been doing this for over ten years, choosing different characters each time, “just for fun.”
Some do love their particular series, hoping that it will continue, such as Josh Simon, from Brackenridge, who, as an amateur, creates prosthetic makeup, and came dressed as Dr. Zoidberg, from Futurama, a series that has been cancelled a number of times. “ I always have faith that it will be back.”