Comic-Con will not Comic-Con without cosplay.
As with the H-Hall panels and the comics themselves, being part of the event, wearing elaborate costumes — or watching people in fancy costumes — is one of the main reasons people attend. This year, cosplay has become even more important. There have been no in-person Comic Cons for the past two years due to health concerns over the spread of Covid-19. When activity flooded the streets of San Diego again last weekend, cosplayers were back.
But not without some, um, modifications. Just because Comic-Con is hosting an IRL event this year, doesn’t mean Covid is over — it’s far from over — so people must take precautions to stay safe, namely wearing masks. Now that cosplayers are accustomed to wearing masks, the masks needed to stop the spread of infectious diseases aren’t necessarily the ones that Spider-Man wears. So, as expected, fans were creative.
WIRED invited photographer Daniel Gonçalves to last week’s convention and looked for cosplayers wearing some of the most creative masks. He’s found some great ones — and some that don’t have masks at all.
