At Winnipeg Comiccon, 'you can be yourself' while dressing up as a beloved character, fan says

Thousands of Winnipeg Comiccon fans attended the fourth annual weekend event cosplaying their favourite pop culture characters while meeting heroic celebrity figures and applauding the creativity of people's costumes. 

This year was the first time the Smith family chose to wear a unified costume at Comiccon, which encourages people to dress up as a character from a TV show, movie, video game or comic book as a way to celebrate a world of science fiction, fantasy and animation.

"We honestly just like walking around and seeing other people's costumes and seeing how much time people have spent into just making this once-a-year event," Markus Smith said Saturday at the RBC Convention Centre, which has been hosting the Winnipeg event since 2021. 

Markus said he's worn a couples costume with his girlfriend in the past, but they decided to go as Star Wars characters Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala to join in on the family fun. 

His parents, John and Linde, dressed as Anakin Skywalker's mother Shmi and a Tusken Raider — a costume that took John weeks to craft, Linde said. 

"I've been growing my hair for a couple years … the pieces sort of came together," said Markus' brother Sam, who was his favourite Star Wars character Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. 

The city's Comiccon program director Cliff Caporale expects 30,000 people to attend, doubling the number of fans who went to the Winnipeg event's debut. 

Over the last 15 years, Comiccon has hosted more than 40 pop culture conventions in Ottawa, Montreal, Québec City and Winnipeg, according to its website. 

Caporale said they have about 20 special guests this year, including Elijah Wood and Billy Boyd from film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, Canadian actor Alexander Ludwig, the Trailer Park Boys and Charles Martinet, best known for voicing the legendary video game character Mario.

"Saturday is the most popular day of the event from the early, early morning — even before the doors open — people are lining up," he said. 

Comiccon typically sees a crowd between 18 to 45 years old with families bringing their kids, young people who are checking out the different sellers and hardcore collectors looking to find comic books or toys that are missing from their collection, Caporale said. 

"I've seen so many costumes in the last decade," he said. "One of the cutest things I ever saw was when some kids dressed up as Transformers, all cardboard but painted, and they could transform – that was crazy," Caporale said, adding that he saw another person dressed as Bumblebee from Transformers who was on stilts. 

Mackenna Spitzke said she's been going to Comiccon for about 10 years. Last year she went as Goth IHOP while her friend dressed as Femboy Hooters — costume ideas inspired by a series of memes revolving around potentially revamping the restaurants. 

Spitzke cosplayed Helaena Targaryen from House of the Dragon.