If there is one thing we must acknowledge in every cosplayer, it is their devotion. Once they choose their character, they usually take their first steps with apparent calm… but end in a desperate race that finds them sewing and gluing accessories six hours before the convention starts, after having gone two days without sleep. If we go by the photographs that survive from old conventions, the cosplayers of the past lived something similar, with even more serious limitations regarding materials and costs, but that doesn't mean they enjoyed it any less. Quite the contrary.
The idea of organizing conventions dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and comics in general is nothing new. In fact, the first Worldcon (which today serves as a platform for the Hugo, Chesley, and John W. Campbell awards) was held in 1939, a time when the world had begun exchanging lead (again). Conventions survived wars, economic crises, loss of interest, internal scandals, and many other things. Sometimes they disappear for years, return, change scale, and incorporate other themes, but the constant is the audience, and cosplayers especially. Actually, cosplay predates the creation of official conventions, although the term itself emerged in the mid-'80s. Today we're going to review some images dedicated to vintage cosplay. One of the things our readers will notice is that the ladies had no problem showing a bit of skin, so we're going to take the cautious route and declare a “semi-NSFW”.
