New York Comic Con Is Almost Here!

As much as I'd love to comic con hop like many people I know, I don't always have the free time. My main jam will always be New York Comic Con. I've been attending since before Reedpop owned them in 2006. It's the Comic Convention I always try to clear up room for. I remember when there weren't that many people in attendance and there was such a special magical feel to it. Nowadays it's very populated and still holds some magic but in a different way. 

Hey Nubians,

As some of you may know, I am a big fan of Mr. Bill Plympton, or as he appeared at New York Comic Con, cowboy Bill. It all started with a young little Nubia admiring the work he did for MTV, shapes transforming, popping out of weird places right before my very eyes in cartoon style. In later years, I started following his career. From short to full animated films, commercials, music videos... some of my favorites being "Your Face", "Hair High", "Guard Dogs", "Kanye West: Heard 'Em Say, Version 2". Multiple Simpsons intros, "Tiffany: Death on the Runway" and much, much, more.

I took a few minutes at New York Comic Con to catch up with the delightfully down to earth Mr. Plympton and was surprised that he still remembered me even though I had moved to Vegas for over 3 years and didn't attended any convention he was a part of. "Nubia... Ah, fashion right?". I think the last time I saw him was at the premiere of "Tiffany: Death on the Runway" which was absolutely fantastic by the way. One very cool thing about Bill Plympton is that he will ALWAYS asks you if you're animating and if you do, he wants to see and know more. He's always scouting young talent and giving great advice. I told him I just draw for fun and that what I'm really focusing on is writing. I have just left my traditional job in marketing to focus on a novel and writing in general after all. 

I told Bill that unfortunately I haven't gotten a chance to see his film "Revengeance" which he worked on with animator Jim Lujan yet, but I did recently watch the music videos he animated for Jackie Greene and I love them! They're a lot of fun. Bill animated both "Modern Lives" and "Good Advice" on Jackie Greene's THE MODERN LIVES VOL. 1 LP which contains 6 tracks and guess what? He told me he was going to animate all of the videos which means 4 more animated goodies to come! I believe Bill & Jackie make a great pair because Greene's lyrics tell a story that go well with Bill's animation and style in my opinion. 

Hello Nubians, 

This year I went to New York Comic Con for 2 days and it was a lot of fun, but guess what? I didn't cosplay! I know, I know, crazy town. But I had just gotten back from Hawaii and I felt kind of rushed and decided not to do it this year. I have to be honest, it hurt my heart a little. If you've seen my cosplay looks from New York Comic Con past, you'd know I enjoy dressing up very much. When I saw all of the amazing looks from various comicbooks, video games, cartoons, tv shows, movies, etc. and saw all the detailed craftsmanship and time people put into their costumes...I felt a little sad for myself for missing out. However, it still made me happy to be in everyones presence. I was cheering them on in a weird way being on the other side admiring. With all of the time that goes into hair, make-up, sewing, and making armor amongst other things such as role play, it's cool to be part of this community of people. I've always believed it's therapeutic embodying these characters whether you want to play the hero or villain. We all go through different phases in our life where we may be considered the good or bad guy as do many of these characters.

Another funny thing about not cosplaying this year is that I had so much more time to enjoy booths. I got to take my time actually talking to people and touching merchandise because I wasn't being stopped every 2 seconds for photos. I'm hoping to share a few cool places I stopped by later this week. 

This year I noticed a lot of people were coming up with original characters too which I thought was awesome. Last year I did an original mashup of characters partnering with my friend Kaori. I dressed as DC Comics Wonder Woman & Two-Face. You could check it out here. 

Ghost Rider, Rugrats, Cuphead, Lydia & Beetlejuice, a few Anime looks, a awesome DC Cosplayers meet-up and more. Enjoy the photos below.

























Cheers! 

Xo Nubia Xo 

Cosplaying Is Fun But Finding Fabric Can Be Difficult...

Hello Nubians,

"So here I am. Back on Earth. Johnny Blaze rides again."


This year at New York Comic Con I brought back my Marvel Comics Ghost Rider Cosplay I debuted last year. It was a lot of fun and still one of my favorite cosplay looks till this day. It's a cool gender-bend and I love using the molded wig/hair as the visual for flames. My sister-in- law and cosplay partner in crime for the last 2 years Kaori molded the wig and applied my makeup while I hunted down all the pieces from the costume. I've been cosplaying for so many years now that I finally got around to making a cosplay box for all of my makeup, costumes, props, & more.

Hello Nubians,

We Love To Cosplay...

Hello Nubians,

New York Comic Con Was So Much Fun! Here's One Of My Cosplay Stories...

Hello Nubians! 

Imagine A Village Of Adorable Robots?!



I've been a fan of Selina Briggs and her Jelly Empire robot art for a long time now... I even have a few of her art pieces hanging in my home. I first discovered her 'The Jelly Empire' art a few years back at New York Comic Con. Last year at NYCC we officially met for the first time and had a nice conversation while I was in my Ghost Rider Cosplay. She's very sweet, talented and inspiring! Now we're online buddies. 


She told me a bit about her Jelly Empire which I was already smitten with (I love Robots)... They sometimes may resemble some of your favorite Super Heroes or animals, you can also follow them on their journey. Here's a short bio from her page.

Hello Nubians,

"We are all different but there's something FANTASTIC about that, isn't there?"


I am a lover of almost every Wes Anderson film ever I've seen. From the story line, the whimsical characters, the fashion and beauty, the gorgeous colors and decor, it's all amazing! One of the first films that got me into Wes Anderson was an animated film called Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) based on the popular Roald Dahl book. Mr. and Mrs. Fox in the movie are voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep and they do a great job together. 

About the Film.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is about a fox family. The head of the household Mr. Fox can't leave behind his farm raiding ways to live a peaceful life. Mrs. Fox is always trying to make sure he's behaving but I guess some habits are hard to kick and he always tells her white lies. After Mr. Fox gets his whole community in trouble and some farmers he raided try to get revenge, he must find a way to save and protect his community. 

It's a very funny and charming movie. There are other very fun characters besides Mr. and Mrs. Fox that you'll get to know and love too. 


 About The Cosplay.

I always thought Mrs. Fox was sassy and daring so naturally, I wanted to cosplay her. My friend Mary which helped me with my Gambit cosplay also helped me out making this dress. We purchased the yellow fabric and she hand painted the apples! Isn't that awesome? I'm forever thankful. She also made the ears which we purchased faux fur for because they looked nicer than the ears we already found made in the stores. I purchased the wig at AliExpress and didn't have to make any changes to it thankfully. It was already perfect to me. I had the gloves already which I purchased at a thrift store many years ago. Everything else kind of just came together. I purchased the blue contacts at loveshoppingholics, I've had good experiences with them and consider them a safe site for something as sensitive as contact lenses. 

I did the fox makeup with basic halloween makeup I purchased at Walgreens. The trick is to use regular concealer under the face paint and then when it's all done make sure you go over it with a finishing powder. This way the makeup doesn't look oily being that it's not the best quality. By adding a finishing powder you give it a nice matte finish and it makes it look like you used a better product. I pretty much just did the fox makeup free hand and looked at some photos for reference here and there. I was very happy with the final results! 






As I mentioned prior with my Ghost Rider and Gambit cosplays, New York Comic Con was tons of fun. I loved putting this cosplay together and walking around with my sassy fox tail. 


Have you watched Fantastic Mr. Fox? If not, you totally should! Do you have a favorite Wes Anderson film? 

"You wanna play with Gambit? Here, pick a card!"



I grew up watching the X-Men animated series along with my 2 older brothers. I used to LOVE it. I would wake up every Saturday morning and watch pretty much the whole Fox Kids line-up. I miss those days dearly...sigh. Anyway the X-Men animated series was like an animated telenovela for me. It was so dramatic! The story lines about Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Jubilee and more were amazing. There was love triangles, people coming back from the dead, revolutions, new characters all the time, take overs, invasions, and much more. The characters all had intriguing back stories and very distinct personalities. One of my favorite characters was the ragin' cajun Gambit. 


Gambit is from New Orleans, Louisiana which you may have guessed by hearing his thick cajun accent. His real name is Remy LeBeau. His mutant ability is that he can create and control kinetic energy. He's also very good and cocky at playing cards which is probably why he selected them as one of his favorite weapons of choice as well as the use of a boa staff. Besides his powers/abilities he has so much charm, charisma, is quite the looker, and I always enjoyed keeping up with his romance with Rogue. The best! Anyways let's talk about the cosplay....



About The Female Gambit Cosplay.

I was so happy to be to do a female Gambit. I've been planning to do a Gambit cosplay for some years now but I kept putting it off. 

The first thing I purchased was the trench coat. I purchased the coat at a Unique thrift store in New Jersey about 4 years ago and I was saving it for this occasion. Secondly I purchased the wig at AliExpress. It was a short brown wig and my sister-in-law Kaori teased it a bit to give it volume. Next my friend Mary is a designer and she's the best because she helped me so much! She took a pair of black leggings and sewed on the magenta stripes. We purchased blue fabric and a light blue satin fabric and she made the neck piece and the belt with it. I purchased a magenta shirt at Walmart and attached the neck piece to it. One thing that gave the outfit a special oomph was the blazing red contacts I purchased here, everyone loved them.  The last thing I found was the over the knee boots. I couldn't find them in the light blue color so I purchased white boots and spray painted them the color seen in the photos. 



My only regret with the cosplay is that I didn't get a chance to find the proper face piece I wanted that gambit wears. I was only able to find a headband. I will surely improve the face piece of the cosplay if and when I ever do it again. I'll even paint it on my face if I had to. 



Lastly one of my Christmas gifts this year my brother gave me was this dope Gambit action figure and he took a photo of my female Gambit New York Comic Con cosplay and turned it into a comic book cover. Awesome right?! I love it. 

I had so much fun during New York Comic Con. What's your favorite Comic Book character?