My Journey Into Venture Bros. Cosplay

Originally, I assumed all Cosplay was about anime from Japan or dorky guys doing bad impressions of Batman at comic book conventions. I wondered why people felt compelled to do such things. Never did I imagine a Halloween costume could fascinate me even after the holiday was over. My transformation into a cosplayer smitten with a TV show, The Venture Bros, was about to begin.

Cosplay for the Clueless

Cosplay or "costume play" is when teens and adults dress up as their favorite characters from TV shows, comic books or movies. Usually it is done for festivals or conventions, like comic book or anime. Characters from Japanese anime and manga are the most popular Cosplay. People spend significant time and money crafting their costumes. There are also many websites offering to make them. Unlike typical Halloween costumes, these are built to last.

Going Beyond a Prepackaged Costume

My journey into Cosplay started innocently as Halloween costumes. My husband had the idea to go as The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros animated television show. The problem was the materials needed weren't easily available at the local mall Halloween store. Even searching online Cosplay websites didn't help, as they focused on anime. If we were going to pull this off, lots of time and work would be needed. We started planning out the costumes over the summer.

Dr. Girlfriend's costume required a pink dress or something that could look like a dress. From rustyzipper.com, I purchased a pink wool jacket and skirt. When worn, it looks like a one piece dress. I needed a pink pillbox hat and a black 1960s style flip wig. She also wears knee high white boots and white gloves. Dr. Girlfriend has a very Jackie Kennedy look.

The Monarch's costume took more searching and work. It was extremely hard to find materials to make a butterfly style costume for a man. After browsing numerous stores, I found black spandex pants and shirt made for runners and a cowl for scuba divers. This made up the base of the costume. Much of the yellow pieces of the costume are from vinyl I bought by the yard. For the Monarch's goatee and eyebrows, we decided to use real human hair made for weaves. The most difficult piece to find was a chest plate. I purchased a plastic one advertised as a Roman armor Halloween costume.

Even though we acquired the pieces, it took hours of work and my husband's artistic talents to put it all together. Except for my white boots and gloves, very little of what we purchased remained untouched and ready for use. For three months we sewed, painted and airbrushed. Constantly crafting what little pieces we couldn't find to make the costumes as realistic as possible. From painting Christmas decorations yellow to use on The Monarch's cowl, to airbrushing bed sheets for wings, we used a variety of non-Halloween items. It seemed every week we would think of something else we needed or how to improve on what we already made. I cut my beloved waist length hair so my wig would fit properly. We took out all of our facial piercings. During this time the evolution from mere Halloween costumes to something more began to happen.

How Our Costumes Evolved

We needed to examine every angle of the costumes. Online image searches didn't have many of the shots we wanted. Re-watching Venture Bros DVDs was the best way my husband and I could accurately create our costumes. After re-watching the episodes over and over, I began to appreciate and love Dr. Girlfriend's character on a deeper level then before.

Being able to relate to your character is important in Cosplay. Without empathy towards your character and their life, your costume is nothing but Halloween fare. The more I watched Venture Bros DVDs, the better I understood Dr. Girlfriend and related to her. I began to notice her reactions, mannerisms and expressions. I would equate her situations and reactions to my own. Paying attention to how she interacted with the other characters, I was endeared by her relationship with The Monarch. How certain parts of their lives reminded me of my own relationship with my husband. This process happened so slowly and completely, I was unaware of it. The show became more then just entertainment. It transformed into a study. By the time Halloween rolled around, not only did we have wonderful costumes, we could also quote VentureBros episodes word for word. Without realizing it, a small idea for Halloween costumes permeated our whole lives.

Just because Halloween was over, we didn't want to stop wearing the costumes. Our costumes took on a life of their own and became a part of who we are. We are always thinking of ways to improve them and where we can show them off. Our hope is to make it to a Comic Con with a Venture Bros panel. It would be such a thrill to show off our costumes to Venture Bros masterminds, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick. While I consider myself a novice to the larger Cosplay scene, my attitude towards it has changed. I now understand what the attraction is. It's more than half heartedly donning a costume you won't give a passing thought to afterwards. It's about pouring yourself into a wearable work of art and transforming into someone else.

Sources:

Personal Experience