For 32 years, thousands populate Atlanta for a weekend of gaming, science fiction, and fantasy!
More than 80,000 people are expected to attend Dragon Con - less than two days away - many of them decked out in their cosplay best.
11Alive's Hope Ford talked to a local woman who is a social media sensation and has racked up awards engaging in cosplay.
By day, Jasmine James is a concept artist for Hi-Res Studios.
"I work in video games," she said.
In her spare time, she takes on something else that she loves.
“My hobby is cosplay," she said.
The term cosplay was coined in the 80s in Japan - short for costume play - and widely considered a performance art.
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“You either make or purchase costumes that are very similar or the same as characters in movies, comic books, video games, anime... Take those costumes and wear them to conventions and hang out with like-minded people and discuss fandom," James explained. "If you combine Halloween with people who really really really like making stuff and a concert, like mash all that together.”
The 26-year-old Marietta-native started cosplay thanks to her husband, then-boyfriend, who took her to her first convention
“For me, it’s nice to turn into a character. It’s nice to have an out-of-body experience almost," she said.
A creative outlet outside of work, Jasmine makes every costume by hand!
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Some take as little as two hours. Some take up to a month and a half.
She's one of the few African-American women famous for her cosplay. She says she finds her race “freeing” in the cosplay world.
“It’s fun because, in one way, you’re not pressured to necessarily look like every single character that you do because a lot of characters that you do are not Black," James said. "There’s not as much minority characters as there should be.”
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But with every positive, there can be a negative.
“There will be some people who take this very seriously and will point out, 'Hey you’re Black and that character is not.' But, I’ve kind of gotten used to that, because at the end of the day this is supposed to be fun and being able to be part of a community and being able to just have a good time,” James said.
Whether or not some people think she’s accurately portraying a character, James enjoys seeing the faces of those who look past her skin color.
“One of my favorite things is when kids recognize me because when you meet kids, they genuinely think you’re that character," she said. “I was dressed as Kid Flash one time and I had kids wanting to race me.”
Through her portrayals of characters, James has built an impressive online following. While some professional cosplayers can make between $5,000 to $10,000 a show, Jasmine isn’t in it for the money.
“I don’t want this to necessarily be a full-time job, because drawing and digitally painting is my first love and I love doing it,” she said.
“Right now I’ve just kind of been along for the ride," she continued. "This started off as a hobby and started off as me going to conventions in my spare time just because I like it. But, now that it’s become more of a thing, I would like to be invited to conventions internationally.”
At Dragon Con’s 2018 event, James plans to gender-bend, doing an interpretation of Black Panther’s T’Challa.
She also encourages anyone who wants to try cosplay for the first time to go for it.
"For the longest amount of time, I was scared to cosplay myself because a lot of characters don’t look like me and I was afraid to dress up as someone I was completely different from. But, once I jumped into it and did it anyway, it felt so good to be able to do what I wanted to do."
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"So, at the end of the day you need to make sure you’re focused on yourself and what makes you happy and not worry about oh, these people aren’t going to think I'm this or that. It’s not about them. It’s about having fun, being creative and just being able to do what you want to do.”
Jasmine’s won several awards for her costumes and also practices cross-being, or combining two different characters into one.
