{"id":1556,"date":"2017-02-21T01:18:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T01:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/in-pictures-long-beach-comic-expo-community-tackles-universal-issues\/"},"modified":"2017-02-21T01:18:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T01:18:48","slug":"in-pictures-long-beach-comic-expo-community-tackles-universal-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/in-pictures-long-beach-comic-expo-community-tackles-universal-issues","title":{"rendered":"IN PICTURES: Long Beach Comic Expo Community Tackles Universal Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"16864955<\/p>\n

Photos by Ariana Gastelum.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not everyday you get to see Darth Vader fight Leo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in an epic lightsaber duel. However, it came as no surprise at the Long Beach Comic Expo (LBCE), which took place last weekend at the Convention Center.<\/p>\n

It also became apparent that creative professionals of the industry are fighting even greater battles regarding issues related to mental health, sexuality and diversity.<\/p>\n

Calvin Nye, founder of CN Comics<\/a>, presented Joe Hero, a superhero with Autism.<\/p>\n

\"16681492<\/p>\n

\u201cI am diagnosed with Autism, myself,\u201d Nye told the Post<\/em>. \u201cI always wanted a superhero to look up to, and there hasn\u2019t been one in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the story, the main character Kevin Carter must prove to the Guild of Justice that he is worthy of his superpowers despite his diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Acacia Torres from Injureddreams<\/a> featured intimate relationships between characters such as Ladybug and Cat Noir as well as Tulio and Miguel from The Road to El Dorado<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"16807541<\/p>\n

Panels throughout the weekend event discussed topics such as \u201cGender Bending in Cosplay,\u201d \u201cDiversity in Comics,\u201d \u201cBeing a Plus-Size Cosplayer\u201d and \u201cDealing With Mental Health in Cosplay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholas Bouzikian, Cilla Salce, Ivotres Littles, Katt McLaren and John Hale touched base on a combination of these issues during the panel, \u201cHow to Overcome Bullying in the Cosplay Community.\u201d However, from the audience\u2019s perspective, it appeared as if Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph<\/em>, Joker Batgirl, a ghostbuster, Sailor Jupiter and Superman were conversing amongst each other.<\/p>\n

The participants talked about being bullied in public, online and within the cosplay community. They referred to cosplayer bullies as \u201cprivileged,\u201d \u201celitist\u201d and \u201cplastic\u201d because their comments often criticize a person\u2019s physical features or costume for not looking exactly like the character\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"16683993<\/p>\n

Bouzikian, president of Nerd Mafia Group<\/a>, was the mediator of the discussion. He also discussed his personal experience with negative online feedback directed towards his weight. He said his strategy for coping with such comments is to laugh them off and block the users.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually went to my blocked list the other day, and it\u2019s so huge,\u201d he said during the panel. \u201cI had people from out of state hitting me up because they see my pictures. My profile is open to the public. And they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve never seen a Hobgoblin that huge before. You look like a giant pumpkin.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Each participant had encountered a different issue in their cosplay careers. McLaren, who enjoys dressing up as male and female characters, recalled getting hate for looking too manly.<\/p>\n

\"16640942<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really sad when people just can\u2019t get over the fact that you\u2019re staying true to the character no matter which direction you go,\u201d she said during the panel.<\/p>\n

Littles, also known as Ivy Nerdtastic Girl, explained her negative encounters as a black female ghostbuster. Even though the 2016 remake of the film has a black female ghostbuster, she still receives criticism.<\/p>\n

Comics have been criticized for not having enough black representation, and it\u2019s slowly starting to change. More than 7,000 people attended the Fifth Annual Black Comic Book Festival held in January in Harlem, NY, approximately 1,300 more than the year before.<\/p>\n

In addition, black cosplayers show off their outfits every year during the month of February for Black History Month, using the hashtag, #28DaysofBlackCosplay.<\/p>\n

\"16807662<\/p>\n

The panel agreed that bullies often attack other people because they\u2019ve been bullied themselves, and the best way to overcome these events is to act like it doesn\u2019t bother you and walk away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been belittled and talked down to,\u201d McLaren said. \u201cJust detach yourself from the situation and just go to your group of friends[…]. Just let them know, \u2018I\u2019m happy with what I did. I\u2019m happy with my costume. I love the character. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s good enough for you because it\u2019s good enough for me.\u2019 As long as you\u2019re confident in yourself, don\u2019t let them take that away from you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creative professionals of the industry are fighting battles regarding issues related to mental health, sexuality and diversity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":66955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[160],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-long-beach-comic-expo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}