Jerry Quinn

I’m totally in support of an organizer restricting cosplay. It’s their show, they can do what they want. Don’t like it? Don’t go. Vote with your wallet. Just like any event the organizers can specify which sort of behavior is acceptable and which is not. That’s their right as an organizer. As long as they are not violating anyone’s civil rights they don’t have to let you in, whether you agree with it or not. When this cosplay activity first began I was initially amused, but after a few years of this the novelty of combining what is essentially a beauty pageant (call it what you want, but that’s what it really comes down to) has worn off and I think it’s pretty clear that this activity and the other cultural aspects of most major cons don’t work well with the ‘flea market’ or ‘swap meet’ aspects of it that many of us collectors want to have. And no, it’s NOT about ticket sales. For myself I’d prefer a smaller hotel venue with 100 fellow collectors where we can speculate on the golden age market or whatnot than a massive convention center with 10,000 people. And guess what? These different experiences can coexist. The entirely reasonable proposition to create something different than the massive cultural cons does not take anything away from the massive cons. No one is saying WW or SDCC or Emeral City ban cosplay. In fact, the idea here is that for those of us that merely want a place to browse and buy books are conceding that the established cons have a market and audience and there’s no value in changing that. Lets have both.