DragonCon 2017 featured some of the best cosplay I have seen at any convention. First off, we arrived on Thursday and stayed through Monday, which turns out to have been the right move. This year, the convention featured programming on Thursday, and the costuming on Thursday did not disappoint. In my past DragonCon experience, costumers desire to maximize exposure for their new costumes, so they save the really impressive costumes for later in the convention. Thus, we did not bring our heavier camera gear in anticipation of a low-key evening. Judging from the costume quality on Thursday, we concluded that we were in for a real treat.
The rest of the weekend did not disappoint. The fandom hivemind produced a lot of stellar Overwatch Cosplay that would not have been shabby even by Blizzcon standards, no doubt prompted by the recent release of Doomfist in the game. The best indeed one of the Masquerade winners, was a D.Va with a functioning mech. Unfortunately, I only saw her on the televised Masquerade coverage. (No, dear readers, I do not love you enough to wait in *that* line.) The guest-prompted cosplay was equally fantastic. We saw a number of well-crafted Yondu cosplayers, and how they managed to survive Labor Day in Atlanta with all that blue paint, I will never know. Star Trek was another popular franchise, perhaps because Star Trek: Discovery is slated for release later this month or possibly because the guests from the Next Generation were present.
Harley Quinn showed up in several incarnations, which surprises exactly no one, but I will confess that Lamia Creations (www.facebook.com/lamiacreations) sported a Japanese-inspired version of Harley I’ve never seen before, which was beautifully done. Lego Batman and Robin were show stoppers, and I caught sight of a detailed Dumbledore taking a breather downstairs in the Marriott. I also spotted a number of cosplayers from the Brave Little Toaster including an actual Blanky and a young Rob carrying the blanket. I truly have no idea where that inspiration came from, but it hit me right in the childhood feels.
All of that said, again, the press of more than 80,000 people made grabbing candid shots more difficult than ever, but I certainly hope you appreciate Robert’s hard work in the gallery below.
This is part one. Be sure to tune in to part two, as we reveal even more cool cosplay photos from DragonCon 2017.
All photos were taken by Robert Brownhill.
