Malissa Sekela isn't always a sexy, crazed, one-eyed villainess partnered with a psychopathic crime-lord who just happens to be a wooden dummy. But when she is, she's one at the Edmonton Comic Con.
Malissa Sekela isn't always a sexy, crazed, one-eyed villainess partnered with a psychopathic crime-lord who just happens to be a wooden dummy.
But when she is, she's one at the Edmonton Comic Con.
“I'm actually a Marvel girl,” says the former St. Albert resident and current professional cosplayer.
“I have a huge lady crush on Black Widow.”
Sekela was one of the roughly 47,000 fans who swarmed the Edmonton Expo Centre Sept. 26 to Sept. 28 for the third annual Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo – a three-day celebration of all things pop-culture.
Dressed as the DC Comics villain The Ventriloquist, Sekela hardly looked out of place in amongst the folks dressed as clone troopers, magical ponies, zombies, the mighty Thor, the entire cast of Scooby-Doo (including the Mystery Machine) and Robocop at the convention.
Sekela says this was her third time at the convention and her first year as a professional cosplayer.
“I have a thing for bombshells,” she says, particularly the barbarian Red Sonja.
“I think I can be geeky and sexy at the same time.”
Sekela had a booth at the convention selling fan-art with her good friend Zack Crawford, who was dressed as Finn from Adventure Time.
A few rows away, St. Albert artist Ashley Harder, another veteran of the expo, was dressed as a penguin. She was laughing it up with her fellow fans as she sold custom charms and illustrations.
“Usually I'm more anime, obviously,” she says, referring to her artwork, but she's branched out as of late into Western comics.
“I'm a little bit old school,” she says, in that she specializes in shows from the 1990s like Sailor Moon and Gundam.
“It's something about the art style with the shiny eyes and whatnot that really appeals to me.”
Harder says she's been going to conventions since Animethon 7 about 14 years ago, and now does about 15 cons a year. She has a day-job, but makes enough at these shows so that she's not a starving artist.
“It's a lot of fun too, and it's really rewarding to see people connect with something you've drawn.”
Artists can actually make a couple of thousand dollars at conventions like this, says Gigi Lau, a St. Albert anime artist who had a booth across the row from Harder. The really popular ones can make about $10,000.
“It's insane.”
Cons are also a chance for artists to meet a lot of new people, she continues.
“That always makes me happy, being able to show off my work.”
But cons can also be pretty stressful, as many folks are brutally honest with their critiques, Harder says.
And they can be a lot of work. Harder estimates that she put about 60 hours of prep-time into this convention printing posters, crafting charms and drawing pictures.
Cons can be one of the only places where you can meet big stars such as rocker Alice Cooper or The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyer.
Sekela says she got to meet Hannibal star Mads Mikkelson, who signed a piece of her artwork. “He was such a sweetheart.”
And they're a place to pick up tonnes of collectible swag, including swords, shields, 3-D printed action figures, T-shirts, statues, Lego, games and (of course) comics.
“I'm a geek,” Sekela says.
“If I don't come back (here) to sell things, I'm going to come back to spend money.”
Conventions like this are great ways to meet fellow fans and artists from across the nation, Harder says.
“It's not just for nerds. It's for people who are passionate about any sort of pop-culture.”
Being a nerd isn't about being someone who likes something weird, she notes.
“A nerd is someone who just loves something a lot.”
