pat loika

While cosplayers are present at virtually every major convention celebrating comics, gaming, fantasy and science fiction, it’s Atlanta’s Dragon*Con that has become a a kind of Mecca to which most of the scene’s most dedicated hobbyists and professionals pilgrimage every year. The cosplay phenomenon can be compared to that of b-boying, where the primary inspiration is expressing creativity, performing and earning props from other people like themselves. You can see what we mean in this gallery of fabulous photography by Pat Loika — convention photo master and host of the popular Loikamania podcast. Earlier this week we showed you a selection of Pat's photos featuring exclusively Marvel cosplayers, since there were just so many of them on point. Here's a non-Marvel gallery from Dragon*Con that expresses just how much fun cosplayers are having without us.

While cosplayers are present at virtually every major convention celebrating comics, gaming, fantasy and science fiction, it’s Atlanta’s Dragon*Con that has become a a kind of Mecca to which most of the scene’s most dedicated hobbyists and professionals pilgrimage every year. The cosplay phenomenon can be compared to that of b-boying, where the primary inspiration is expressing creativity, performing and earning props from other people like themselves. You can see what we mean in this gallery of fabulous photography by Pat Loika -- convention photo maestro and host of the popular Loikamania podcast -- whose shots from Dragon*Con express just how much fun cosplayers are having without us.

Among the colorful cosplay, massive booths, interactive displays and walls of merchandise at Comic-Con International in San Diego — colloquially known as SDCC — remains the most important component of the show: comic book creators. ComicsAlliance photographer and Loikiamania podcast host Pat Loika hit the show floor to catch the men and women who tell our favorite stories in sequential art and captured the enthusiasm that comes from fans getting to meet their favorite storytellers at one of the biggest conventions of the year. Check back with ComicsAlliance throughout the weekend for more of Pat’s great photos from San Diego.

As you know from our weekly Best Cosplay Ever feature, we are big fans of cosplay at ComicsAlliance. The comics, sci-fi, gaming and fantasy communities’ talents for homemade disguises, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics are definitely on display this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, and you’d better believe our own Pat Loika is on hand to document as much as he can. Scroll down for some exceptional examples of superheroic cosplaying talent that we spotted in San Diego!

Even if you're not a toy collector, there's something inescapably cool about the action figures, statues and other gear on display at fan conventions. Whether they're massive and costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars, or little itty bitty things that still cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars, the toys found at San Diego's Comic-Con International serve the dual purpose of advertising new collectibles for those so inclined, but also standing as three-dimensional tributes to the comic book superheroes and other characters upon which Comic-Con and so much of fan culture was built -- in many cases, actually designed by the artists whose work we love so much. For the non-collector, these are just really exquisite pieces of fan art, especially as seen through the lens of ComicsAlliance's SDCC photographer Pat Loika, who spent a lot of time in the DC Collectibles and Sideshow Collectibles to document what two of the industry's leading toymakers had to show off at the San Diego show.

Photographer Pat Loika and the bloggers of ComicsAlliance explored the scene in and around the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con this past week, and what follows is a small compilation of the things they've uncovered. As you can see, SDCC is a hotbed of cosmic-religious strife, homeless Batmen, and Donal Logue.

Spotted by ComicsAlliance photographer Pat Loika walking away from the San Diego Convention Center this week was doubtlessly the most Deadpoolish bit of Deadpoolery we've ever seen in 3D space (today). It's not hard to imagine Usagi Tsukino and the rest of the Sailor scouts enjoying their day before Sailor Deadpool jumps into the scene and just Deadpools all over the place as they watch completely speechless and aghast.

As you know from our weekly Best Cosplay Ever feature, we are big fans of cosplay at ComicsAlliance. The comics, sci-fi, gaming and fantasy communities’ talents for homemade disguises, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics are definitely on display this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, and you’d better believe our own Pat Loika is on hand to document as much as he can. Scroll down for some exceptional examples of superheroic cosplaying talent that we spotted in San Diego!

Spotted by ComicsAlliance photographer Pat Loika walking away from the San Diego Convention Center on Thursday was doubtlessly the most forlorn Homer Simpson we've ever seen in 3D space (unless you count that whole 3D episode where Homer was, like, cripplingly depressed at the end). Our speculation is that this cosplay takes place after the events of 1995's "Homer the Great," when it turned out that Homer was heir to the throne of a secret society that rules the world... until it turned out he wasn't, and he was cast out for being a false idol as well as general jackassery. Sorry, spoilers.

Among the colorful cosplay, massive booths, interactive displays and walls of merchandise at Comic-Con International in San Diego — colloquially known as SDCC — remains the most important component of the show: comic book creators. ComicsAlliance photographer and Loikiamania podcast host Pat Loika hit the show floor to catch the men and women who tell our favorite stories in sequential art and captured the enthusiasm that comes from fans getting to meet their favorite storytellers at one of the biggest conventions of the year. Check back with ComicsAlliance throughout the weekend for more of Pat's great photos from San Diego.