A Fandom MEMORY PROJECT


Cosplay in America is a crowd-sourced virtual archive that aims to preserve cosplay and fandom convention history from 1980s-2020s.


  • Ger Tysk and Breaking All The Rules

    Ger Tysk and Breaking All The Rules

    Ger Tysk’s life has taken her all over the world, as a writer, professional sailor, graphic designer, and photographer. Though she’s accomplished so many things, one particular achievement that first drew her to our attention was the release of her cosplay photography book ‘Breaking All the Rules: Cosplay and the Art of Self-Expression’ in 2013.…

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  • Dragon Con Cosplay Medics (Atlanta, GA)

    Dragon Con Cosplay Medics (Atlanta, GA)

    Written : Zippy / photo: Uniquely Similar Photography ) If you’ve ever seen a convention goer with a sign that says ‘cosplay medic’ or ‘cosplay repairs’, then you have seen a con medic at work. Russell Thorne is one such cosplay medic, and he’s been a part of a growing presence at DragonCon, the Southeast’s…

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  • adri.nyan

    Photo:@climacam People kept asking if there was real food in the bucket/peach mango pie container! I told them “No, don’t you think it’d be soggy by now?” I…

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  • Molotov Bailey

    All the responses were great but this one older guy on the Hyatt sky bridge totally flipped out, Jumping around and Yelling that he ​ had been watching…

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  • EMMA (New Mexico)

    My first con was in Baltimore for Otakon 2001. Pre 9/11! I originally wanted to attend a con either out in Colorado or Texas, but I was the…

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  • Buffalo’s Best Batman (Buffalo, NY)

    William Lorenz, Jr. may not be a name you immediately recognize; however, Lorenz’s alter-ego has brought him increasingly into the spotlight as Buffalo’s Best Batman. Ever since Lorenz…

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DASH GORDON (LEAGUE CITY, TX)

By Zippy

Not all heroes wear capes; however, in the appropriately comic book sounding League City, Texas, there’s one hero who certainly does, and his good deeds are getting noticed. That hero is Dash Gordon, alter-ego of gregarious, family man Timothy Glover, whose early attempts to connect with his community while DoorDashing morphed into a life of its own.


  • @alia_vera

    Dressing as Madame Leota was inspired by many years of visiting Disneyland with my favorite ride being the Haunted Mansion.  My family wanted to do a group costume for…

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  • @vakermaker (Dallas, TX)

    For as long as I can remember, Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays due to the fact that it was the one where you could…

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  • ventuswentus

    (photo: Felix Wong) He’s cool as hell, punk, AND BLACK? That’s such a win for black fans, especially black fans who are alternative like me. This has been…

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  • kangelicx (Washington DC)

    (photo: @quachstar.jpg) I started making my costumes at the age of 12. I learned about cosplay through my love of art, movies, and gaming. As a child I…

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T.J BURNSIDE CLAPP (ARLINGTON, VA)

The photos were taken at the 1977 Halloween party that was hosted by the University of Maryland Association of Star Trek (UMAST). I was a 16-year-old high school student in Maryland, and UMAST was the local Star Trek group that held the Trek convention called The August Party (starting with my very first convention, in August of 1975)…. From that point on I mainly ran costume competitions at various East Coast Star Trek and media cons, and my own costuming was just for fun.