Give Funs

To say I’m a fan of DC Steampunk would probably be an understatement by this point. Their pictures have been circulating ever since SDCC 2012 and the quality of their work in undeniable. I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves in that department. All of the above photos were taken by Mike Rollerson at SDCC, how flipping fantastic are these? And for convention photos at that? Blown away. You can check him out on his flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/mikerollerson

I was lucky enough to speak to J. Lance, (Scarecrow) about the group, his personal cosplay career and what’s in store for DC Steampunk, (Lance leaves us with a bit of a cliffhanger, can’t wait to see the other members!) Hope you all enjoy this insight into a unique and talented group of cosplayers.

Outland Armour is a multi-talented costume and production company in Atlanta. They travel to anime and science-fiction conventions across the country and frequently sit on steampunk and costuming panels. Check out more photos of their amazing steampunk Star Wars cosplay on Facebook.

Cosplay, short for “costume play,” is awesome.  People dress up in fantastic, hand-made costumes that are creative, innovative, and beautiful, and we get to watch from the comfort of our laptops.  It’s a lovely little world we live in.
Steampunk in particular is a fantastic division of cosplay, mainly because that while cosplayers typically dress up like their favorite existing characters, steampunk cosplay is more of a style, rather than an attempt to exactly replicate what has appeared on film or television.  Mainsteam media appears to be reacting to the growing trend, as we see an increase in the appearance of steampunk throughout television and film.  Steampunk has appeared in the BBC series Doctor Who, SyFy’s Tin Man, in one memorable episode of ABC’s Castle, and in films like Hugo (2011), The Three Musketeers (2011), and Sherlock Holmes (2009).  Of course, there is also the Will Smith film Wild Wild West, which is a very entertaining movie despite its 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

 But for the most part, cosplayers are left to their own devices in creating their own steam-powered, Victorian-themed costumes and gadgets, or in bringing the machines of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne to life. It’s Victorian-age fashion and steam-powered gadgets, so how can we lose?
Clothing designer Bibian Blue has tons of photos of leggy models in the loveliest Steampunk fashions, including this one.  There are also excellent examples aplenty on Flickr, including this by user JasonWalton, some Wild West steampunk photographed by Flickr user Steamcrunk, this steampunk couple, and the aptly described “Steampunk stilty guy,” photographed by eidolon.  io9 has also gathered some fantastic steampunk cosplay, sorted in their amorphous "Miscellaneous Cosplay" feature, including this one.  The level of detail in these costumes is awe-inspiring; we find a perfect example in Deviantart user SteampunkOverlord’s photo showing a close-up of his mechanical arm.
For steampunk integrated with existing media, we find a steampunk Iron Man, an amazing cosplay concept featured on Tumblr.  Unsurprisingly, this took home first place in the Marvel Costume Contest at the 2010 New York Comic Con.
Also, some excellent Star Wars steampunk, Batman steampunk, and, from Deviantart user orlarose, steampunk Poison Ivy cosplay.  And then there's my personal favorite, some Flash steampunk photographed by user Dvann562.