Danville’s first ever comic-con was held on Saturday, September 22nd, and with it came a wave of cosplayers. A cosplayer is a person or group of people who dress as their favorite character or characters from their favorite movie, tv series or video game. Many of these cosplayers not only dress up to show off their talents, but also to enter in contests like the one at Danville’s. Anyone looking for inspiration for their own costume this Halloween may want to consider these top five cosplayers and their costumes.

5. Brandon Jarrett (Light Yagami from Death Note)

Death is one of the forces that no human should have control over, as only bad things can come from it. However, that didn’t stop Brandon Jarrett from cosplaying as Light Yagami, the main protagonist from the 2001 anime Death Note. Although he was not being pursued by his enigmatic detective adversary, “L” Lawliet, or being followed by his personal shinigami (Japanese death god) Ryuk, that still didn’t stop him from giving a spectacular and borderline eerie performance as Light, writing down names in his death note, especially those who mentioned the less-than-stellar live action adaptation on Netflix. Nobody has died from it… yet. 

4. Tanya Culpepper (Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail) 

The announcement of Fairy Tail’s third and final season served as the inspiration for Tanya Culpepper’s cosplay. Based of the popular Celestial mage and main character, Culpepper captured Lucy’s signature white and blue outfit from the first season, complete with the heart-tipped whip and every celestial key from Aquarius to Scorpio. Even though she wasn’t accompanied by any cosplayers dressing as either Natsu or Happy, it still didn’t stop attendees from showing their approval with an enthusiastic “Aye, Lucy!”

3. Troy, Logan and Shanna Black (The Ghostbusters from Ghostbusters) 

Before comic-con officially opened its doors, it was announced that the Ecto-1, the modified hearse that transported the Ghostbusters team, would be on site. What was not told, however, was that there would also be a group that would be on site as the Ghostbusters themselves. The family’s outfits were completely homemade, all the way to the custom tailored name plates reading “T.Black”, “L.Black” and “S.Black”. The addition of the store-bought prop replicas of the proton packs put the finishing touch to their costumes. And though they had several people ask if they owned the Ecto-1 at comic-con, they simply laughed and shook their heads, saying that they wish they did own it.

2. Robert Cook (Soundwave from Transformers)  

With Soundwave confirmed to show up in the upcoming Transformers prequel movie Bumblebee, Robert Cook captured the essence of Megatron’s most loyal servant, all the way down to the see-through chest compartment with a large cassette tape replica inside, and arrived as Soundwave, the decepticon capable of disguising as microcassette recorder when not fighting Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots. While the shoulder mounted machine gun was only a prop and though he didn’t show up with his robotic panther, Ravage, it still didn’t stop him from bringing the costume to life and showing that there’s “more than meets the eye” to his cosplay.

1. Cameron Woodruff (Lukas the Trickster from Wolfhammer 40k)

“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!” These were the words yelled in a Scottish accent by Cameron Woodruff, who cosplayed as the “lone wolf” warrior from the Warhammer series, Lukas Strifeson, better known as Lukas the Trickster. Armed in completely homemade costume that took a staggering six months to complete, Woodruff’s costume was by far one of, if not the most intricate and stunning cosplays at the event. So good, in fact, Woodruff earned the Best Male Cosplay award in the cosplay competition. Woodruff was very happy to earn the award, and said he would definitely use the cosplay again. However, next time he plans to incorporate cooling fans on the inside of the costume. “The Camelbak full of ice water was nice, but it didn’t even come close to reducing the overall heat of that thing,” Woodruff said.

With so many fantastic cosplays, many of the head staff running the event have said they are looking forward to holding another comic-con soon. All of the attending cosplayers, including those featured, have said they are looking forward to the event as well, and will be planning their next cosplay ideas until the next one is officially announced. Others have said that they plan to join in on the cosplay trend next year, after seeing how popular the trend was at this event.