Honestly, I hate when I have to restate the obvious, but here I go. I’m sure everyone remembers being told at some point in their life (likely as a child) to “not talk to strangers”. While I hope your judgment has improved with the years you’ve packed on, the core of that statement is still valid. Be safe. Be cautious of people you don’t know. Protect yourself.

No one is exempt from this, and yet some people will try to steer you away from it. Nowhere is sticking to your guns more important than to those in the modeling community. Amateur, aspiring or professional, you have the right to feel safe at your photoshoots, and part of that safety comes from checking references.

I was personally contacted by a photographer the other day who wanted to work with me. His portfolio was decent, and I was interested. However, before proceeding any further, I told him that I check references and asked if there were any models he recommend I reach out to. His response? He was his own reference.

This is a red flag. This is a red flag that is on fire. Stranger danger. Do not pass GO.

Anyone who is legit should have nothing to hide and should also be able to provide references or point you in the right direction. You don’t know them, and they don’t know you. The last thing you want to do is get yourself into a situation where you are made to feel uncomfortable or in risk of harm to your person.

I know it’s hard when you want to work with someone or you are building your portfolio. I get it, I really do. However, is it really worth the risk? Maybe you think I’m overreacting; seeing serial killers and rapists at every turn. Wouldn’t you rather be certain though? Maybe they won’t kill or rape you, but what about trying to push you to take photos you don’t want to do? What about accosting you? How about the simple worry that you’ll spend your time shooting only to never get copies of your photos back? A lesser worry to be sure, but this is why you always investigate someone you potentially want to work with.

“But what about you?” Some photographers may ask. “I’ve had bad experiences with models, too! Why am I under investigation?” Well, photographers, good news! My advice to models applies to you as well! Check the model’s references. Ask them questions, talk to those they’ve shot with. Know who you’re meeting. Be safe.

There is no guarantee against skeezy photographic experiences, but you can cut down on the potential by doing some simple leg work. A lot of photographers don’t like having models bring escorts along to ensure their safety. I understand the possible distraction. But if you choose to tell models “no escorts”, you had better be prepared to provide some damn good references.

Bottom line to everyone in this equation: don’t be a victim. Be aware. Know who you’re meeting. Period.

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Me and my Catwoman. (Photo courtesy of Mad Calamity Photos.)

Like many of my costuming compatriots, it was never my intention to become a cosplayer. Everyone has their own story on how they got involved. For me, it was happenstance and a Poison Ivy costume I’d constructed for Halloween. What started as determination, undergarments, fake leaves and hot glue has now become something people recognize me for/as. That’s neither here nor there though, and the real point to this is that there are a lot of us that are involved in cosplay and consider it a part of our lives. We’re from all walks of life and have different tastes and levels of technical costuming skill. It’s a passion where all who are interested should be welcomed, but that’s not always the case.

Let me lay this out first before going on: yes, you are entitled to your opinion. Also, yes, some costumes are “better” than others from a technical standpoint. There is no doubt in my mind that some people have more advanced costuming skills than others. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean any less effort and love was put into the costumes that aren’t perfection incarnate. We all had to start somewhere. For this reason, it makes me sad to read negative comments about anyones costume. From Tumblr to Twitter to Facebook, there is so much rude commentary on cosplay photos. Beyond just adhering to Wil Wheaton’s rule of “don’t be a dick”, there are some things I feel should be kept in mind when looking at and judging anyone’s work:

1.) Not everyone who attends a convention/party/event in costume is a professional cosplayer, or ever intends to be.

2.) We don’t all have the same pool of resources to draw on, whether they be time, money or technical ability.

3.) No one looks exactly, precisely like any comic character, and they shouldn’t be expected to. If they want to rock out as a character of a different ethnicity, gender, physical size, etc. let them do it. (By the way, some of my favourite cosplays are the Rule 63 ones.)

Please also bear in mind that negativity and critique are not the same thing. “This sucks” is not the same as “this might have been better if” or “I would have suggested doing”. I’ve seen plenty of posts that are nothing but someone trying to tear down another persons work for no discernable reason besides the fact that douchbaggery is an internet epidemic. It’s hard enough to put yourself out there and display your craft without the anonymous (and sometimes not so anonymous) nastiness in response. It’s unwarranted and unnecessary.

There’s also some definite cosplayer on cosplayer hate out there, which I believe largely stems from jealousy. Personally, I feel there’s room for everyone in the sandbox. As someone whose most known cosplay is Poison Ivy, I can tell you there are a lot of us attempting to fill her leafy accoutrements. (Yeah, I know that last sentence sounded sort of filthy.) Having other people at the same convention dressing as the same character doesn’t dilute my work. If anything, it can serve as inspiration to up my game and to keep working on new and creative portrayals. Besides, shouldn’t you be glad that so many people love the same character you do?

Another point of contention seems to be the assumption that this person or that person is only dressed up for the attention and not for the love of the character or craft. If that’s the case, who cares? Let them be whatever they want. If someone comes up to them and wants to talk shop, it will become pretty apparent what their intentions were, and they’ll have to deal with it. It should make no never mind to you. (Note, I am not advocating going up and quizzing cosplayers on their costumes, just stating a possible situation.)

On the whole, cosplayers are a pretty cool lot. They display their passion for a variety of the nerd genres in a unique and inspirational way. There’s no reason to put them down about it. If you don’t like what they’re doing, just leave them be. I doubt you’d appreciate anyone being rude and negative about your hobbies/lifestyle, so don’t do it to other people. So, as two wise men once said, “Be excellent to each other.”

“Party on, Dudes!”

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As a Poison Ivy enthusiast and cosplayer, I’ve been getting asked more and more about what Poison Ivy actually eats. (Yes, we nerds still question and debate these sorts of topics.) I have to admit, the question has been rolling around in the back of my mind for a while now and I felt it was time to present my position.

To my knowledge, we haven’t really seen Poison Ivy eat in the comics. I know in an episode of “Batman: The Animated Series”, Ivy (as Pamela) goes on a dinner date with Harvey Dent (pre-Two Face), but I don’t recall her actually eating anything. Not to mention that in this particular season of the series she’s seen as being human rather than a plant hybrid.

I also know that in some of her portrayals, where she’s become more plant than human, that sun deprivation weakens her and has occasionally brought her to the brink of death. I would assume being cut off from water would have a similar effect. However, while sun and water are a part of what would be considered eating for plants (in addition to taking nutrients from the ground), neither of these things is really considered “eating” by human standards. And, as noted before, Poison Ivy is not always portrayed as being entirely plant or human and could possibly have the needs of both.

My gut answer to the above question of what she eats is that Poison Ivy would be a vegan for a number of reasons. For one, while plants are her priority, I can’t imagine her willingness to eat slaughtered animals, or even any byproducts such as eggs or milk. Second, as an eco-terrorist, I would think she’d be aware of how much land is taken up for animal farming and grazing and that swaths of rainforest have been chopped down for that very same purpose.

A point often brought up when I’ve leaned towards this reasoning, is whether or not her veganism would be considered cannibalism. It’s a valid argument, and I can see the logic in that, but I don’t think it works with the realities of the plant world. Plants can often steal what they need from other plants. Anyone who has watched the “Planet Earth” documentary should remember how the plants in the rainforest are in a constant battle for resources and work to reach skyward in search of vital sunlight. Plants can also benefit from the death of their fellows by absorbing them as they decay. It’s really a basic matter of the circle of life. (Cue singing animals.) I should think Ivy, who was a botanist/botanical biochemist prior to her transformation, would understand these realities better than anyone. There is a balance and a cycle to nature that she respects, and her anger and criminal activities are largely due to her perception that this balance is being tipped unfairly by human interference.

I think it could also be argued that in many instances eating plant-based items doesn’t actually result in the death of the plant. As an example, let’s look at apples. They grow from the trees, picking them doesn’t kill the actual tree, and they were destined to fall off at some point anyway. Even if they do fall off from natural causes and their seeds are properly fertilized, you are left with another tree vying for resources that will possibly steal them from its own parent.

With all this in mind, I’d like to know what others think. It’s possible that I’ve overlooked something in the many comics I’ve read over the years, but I don’t think they’ve ever given a firm answer. Then, once we have this settled, I suppose we can move on to whether or not she breathes oxygen solely or also takes in carbon dioxide.

Just kidding.

(Not really.)

For those interested, you can read more of my ramblings on Poison Ivy here and here at ComicAttack.net.

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Last Friday, after hearing many positive reviews of the event, I attended Halloween Horror Nights which takes place at Universal Studios in Hollywood. I was left wondering how so many guests walked away with positive things to say.

To be clear, I am no stranger to the world of haunts. I’ve worked at several myself as a scare actor, and have attended many more. I’ve found that most haunts have their own strengths and weaknesses, but it seems that Universal has very few strengths to trumpet. I found this pretty shocking considering that Universal is not only a real live working film studio, but also because it has a history of horror films to draw on. (Hell, it’s very name is practically synonymous with the horror of the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s.) As a Halloween horror destination, it’s not very scary nor very interesting.

Horror Nights has a little over a handful of mazes. (Seven of them as compared to Knotts Scary Farm’s thirteen.) Because of this, once the night gets rolling, the wait times skyrocket. As you walk around the park, there are boards listing wait times and only a few had anything listed under sixty minutes. There are only a few rides, which also experience higher wait times. Then, lastly, there was one live show.

On the night that I attended, my basic ticket cost $57, and I was only able to experience a little over half of the attraction offerings. For almost double the price, I could have gotten a pass that allowed me to skip to the front of the lines, but since there’s so little content, I imagine you could do everything in a few hours, leaving you with a lot of extra time where you’re either bored or have to start repeating attraction visits. As a comparison, a basic Knott’s ticket on the same night of the week will cost around $47, for more than double the attractions (maybe triple when you could in all of the rides and shows available to haunt guests). From a basic monetary standpoint, Universal simply doesn’t live up to the price.

To get into a more specific review, I will start by saying I believe that with all haunts, terror should start at the door. Upon entering the park, you are thrust into a fog-filled clown nightmare that should have set the tone for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately, nearly all of the scare actors were in full rubber masks (something that occurred in nearly all of the evening’s events). Rubber masks have their time and place, and I know they’re cheaper and easier than makeup, but these are the first scare actors to greet your audience. They are in your customer’s faces. Rubber masks when close up tend to be less shocking that a really good makeup job.

Secondly, the entry area of Universal suffered from a proliferation of chainsaws. Chainsaws are scary. They’re loud and should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. However, when there’s a dozen of them running around and whirring like mad, they lose some of that essence. You start to acclimate to them, and it ruins the terror they should instill.

Aside from the entry area, the park was pretty free of scare actors. I hate to make comparisons again, but you can’t take two steps at Knotts without running into another monster. It keeps the tension up in between attractions. Universal also missed a golden opportunity to place monsters along the attraction lines. There was a perfect captive audience, ripe for scaring, who instead spent most of their wait looking bored and checking Facebook.

Of the few mazes available, the ones I was able to get into were The Wolfman, The Thing: Assimilation, Alice Cooper’s Welcome to My Nightmare and Scream for Your Life. None of them were particularly good.

- The Wolfman: This maze had to utilize a preexisting space, and in places it showed. The walkthrough area they used normally showcases imagery and sets from various Universal horror films. They really should have worked harder at retheming the parts that were out of place, rather than trying to shoehorn Wolfman elements in. The best part about this maze were the actual werewolf costumes as they really resembled the look from the film. They also worked in the feral boy look from the movie. This maze was consistently the shortest wait all night, likely because the 2010 film remake was not terribly successful. I still felt it was one of the more pleasant ones to experience at the haunt.

To go on a quick tangent, why not just amp up the attraction that is already there? From what I’m reading online, there are normally scare actors in there anyway that fit the variously themed rooms. It would likely have been more effective than their attempted overlay.

- Alice Cooper’s Welcome to My Nightmare: This was the first maze I went through and I can’t really say that there was anything about it I liked. It has the same issue as all the others in that it focuses almost solely on what I call “jump out” scares. To me, a jump out scare is one where the actor jumps from their hiding place at you, sometimes while making a banging noise or rattling a noise can. They are cheap scares and are almost always going to get the guest to twitch. However, their twitch is a natural reaction to something coming at them at high speed, not necessarily a real indication of true terror. It’s almost always more impressive when the scare actor can freak a patron out by their very presence, or the idea the guest can’t avoid walking by them and is terrified at the prospect. Also, having a monster ahead of you that catches your focus can be a distraction from the jump out scare actor. This misdirection leads to an even bigger fright as guests are less likely to start intentionally gazing around for hiding places.

The other huge annoyance of this maze (and several others) was the use of heavy hanging plastic and fake bodies along the maze route. It was tiring to consistently have to push everything away to just get through the maze. It wasn’t scary, it was frustrating. There is also nothing like getting hit by a heavy body prop swinging backwards from the guests ahead of you. This element could have been used far more sparingly and been more effective because of it.

- The Thing: Assimilation: While this was the best of the mazes I went through, that really isn’t saying much. It was far better themed than any of the others and had a nice mix of actors in makeup and ones in giant “Thing” costumes. It was obvious they were trying to do something to help bump up interest in the recent release of the film prequel. (Sadly, the maze was better than the abysmal movie.) The maze had a very creepy vibe, it was accurately themed, it had a nice mix of scare techniques, and it also had an average wait time of ninety minutes. I don’t believe that any five minute maze is worth that much wait time.

- Scream for Your Life: This should have easily been the best part of the night, but it wasn’t. Scream for Your Life is a sort of open air maze that takes place on the actual studio backlot and uses real movie sets. But before you even get to that part, you have to hop on the studio tram to get out to the location. Again, here was a wasted opportunity. The spiel on the ride over was cheesy, and there were no frights along the way. Universal, you had a captive audience that paid for scares, so scare them already!

The tram dropped us off near the Whoville set and then wound us around the Bate’s Motel, the Psycho House, some of the War of the Worlds set and a few other small areas. I feel like a broken record, but yet again, there was an over-abundance of rubber masks and chainsaws. I did run into a “Norman” outside of the Psycho house, and that was pretty cool, but short-lived. There were a few less jump out scares, which was a nice break, but it was pretty lackluster regardless.

The only other Halloween specific attraction we were able to experience was Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, and it was a whole lot less excellent that its name would have you believe, unless they meant it to be in excellently poor taste.

The show is an attempt at making fun of all things pop culture, but it only manages to be pretty boring and tacky. Rife with booty shorts and lame jokes, it was an hour of my life I can never have back. It’s also another shining example of why Knotts has the better haunt as they too have a pop culture extravaganza and it’s actually funny and makes more sense.

The other discomforting thing about this show is that it was either written before Osama Bin Laden was pronounced dead, or someone has a really poor sense of when they’ve crossed a line. I don’t want to get political here, but having Bin Laden as the main villain of the production just seemed wrong. And even if he wasn’t dead, it seems far from topical. (When was the last time you honestly heard a Bin Laden joke aside from immediately after his death?) Furthermore, when you set him alongside characters spoofing TRON and The Avengers, it gets even creepier, and not in a good way.

All in all, Universal’s haunt is not something I would attend again. I know the economy is bad and that this event must have been expensive, but for the price and quality it’s just not a fair bargain. Besides that, I’ve been to smaller local haunts that have packed a far bigger punch on what is certainly less of a budget. There was so much wasted potential, and that’s what makes me saddest.

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While I visited last week’s Geek Down show on cosplaying, I was treated to a mini-interview session with the guys. Check it out!



Be sure to visit their site to catch up on past episodes, as well as everything upcoming!

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