When the Inscriber’s own Stephen Coganator went to Alamo City Comic Con in September 2014, he was in a Captain America outfit and amongst his own cosplay fanatics. There he saw kids and adults acting out Halloween a month ahead of time with any and all varieties of costumes from Japanese anime, Marvel superheroes, and even Supernatural characters.
There was one Cinderella who he managed to get a photo with who loves cosplay more than the normal. She’s actually a professional cosplay artist and Cogan kept her business card and made sure to tag her on Facebook when he uploaded the photo they took.
Last week, he reached out to the lovely Cinderella and asked if she would like to give an interview to the Inscriber. She agreed. So ladies and gentlemen, here is our lovely guest: CupKate!
INSC: Well, let’s start with the basics. Tell me how you got into Cosplaying. How long ago and what/who introduced you to it?
CupKate: “I’ve always been a nerd. I first got into Alien Vs Predator then Xmen and many after. Years later when Predator was at San Diego Comic Con, I wanted to go but I heard how hard it was to get tickets so I researched cons in Texas and found that Texas comic con was next year and so was Alamo City Comic Con. I started doing sketches and pulling many pictures and concepts to build my character so I could cosplay at my first con.”
INSC: What is/are the most appealing aspect(s) to cosplaying?
CupKate: “I love that I can be a character and make someone’s day. Not a lot of kids get to go to Disneyland so they love to be able to see a princess. Or when I am Machiko, people don’t see that character a lot so they are amazed when they see the character come alive. One day when I was Wonder Woman a child came running up to me and hugged me, she almost knocked me over. Just to see the sheer happiness on her face was worth all the trouble of the costume.”
INSC: Do you just do conventions or are there other events that invite cosplaying?
CupKate: “I have done birthday parties, park visits, hospital visits, school visits, and many other events that people want characters for. I just love being in costume so I don’t only do conventions.”
INSC: What are some of the conventions you’ve attended?
CupKate: “I have attended Texas Comicon, Alamo City Comic Con, South Texas Collectibles Expo, PAX South, and many mini cons at Wonderland Mall”
INSC: Name some of your favorite costumes you’ve done?
CupKate: “I absolutely love doing Katniss Everdeen, she is a powerful character. I also love Machiko, the human that teamed up with Predator to fight the Xenomorphs. I don’t see that character much and it was my first costume build so she holds a special place in my heart.”
INSC: Tell us how you came up with your name? Obviously it’s a play on Cupcake, but how did you discover it?
CupKate: “I can’t hear very well and one day when I was in high school one of my friends said something about cake and I shout they said Kate. Ever since then that has been my nickname.”
INSC: Obviously, you put a lot of thought into choosing your costume. What are the things you look for when deciding what to be next? How do you pick the next character so to speak?
CupKate: ”I have to be passionate about a character so I choose my characters carefully. I don’t do a character just because they are cool. But I also make sure that the character I do isn’t very popular. I have a few costumes that are popular characters like Cinderella, Wonder Woman and Ariel, but the rest aren’t seen very often. I’ll usually just be watching a movie or reading a comic book and a character will spark my interest so I start building concepts for them.”
INSC: Many artists build their own costumes, others purchase theirs and put more time into makeup/acting, what way do you go about it?
CupKate: “I have built my costumes, if I can’t build it then I work with someone who can to build it for me. I haven’t had to commission much of my costumes. I have altered clothing though. I turned an old wedding dress into my Cinderella. I ripped it apart, dyed it, sewed the petticoat in and added a new corset. It was like starting from scratch because there was so much material I had to sew back together.”
INSC: What was the most difficult costume you had to deal with for whatever reason?
CupKate: “Machiko is my most difficult costume because I have a 6 foot spear, and a 5 pound alien head shield to carry around. I also have various smaller weapons and props on me so mobility is a little hard.”
INSC: Cosplay modeling has yet to get to mainstream levels with magazines and companies. Do you think it’s gaining momentum or do you think it’ll stay a cultural fad?
CupKate: “I think it’s gaining momentum. Nerd culture has been more socially acceptable because of shows like big bang theory, and many of the comic movies coming to the screen. Soon cons and cosplay will be as common as Disneyland.”
INSC: I noticed you were playing with the idea of a cat costume on Facebook, what other ideas have you been entertaining? Have you come close to picking your next costume?
CupKate: “I have been messing with a Cheetah cosplay, Wonder Woman’s villain, that seems fun to do. I picked Amidala to do next. I got rid of my red one and restarted. I will be showing pictures of that in a few days. I have been working on her parade dress. I have also just finished a Katniss quick change cosplay that I’ll be debuting in May.”
INSC: Sports question: Do you have any favorite clubs or teams?
CupKate: “I do not have any favorite clubs or teams but I do watch the Spurs basketball games. Go Spurs Go!”
Special thanks to CupKate, who can be contacted professionally on her Facebook here.