What is Cosplay?
Cosplay, from the portmanteau for costume play (Japanese kosupure ) refers to the activity of making, wearing, and performing in costumes designed to represent a character from any number of media or even historical sources. At least, that's the official definition, but it feels like it falls a bit short based on my own cosplay experiences. I have been to events where costumes range from a T-shirt reading simply "This Is My Costume" to a fully articulated Iron Man suit with glowing arc reactors and a motorized visor. So, with this broad of a spectrum on display, it seems nearly impossible to nail down specific parameters to define cosplay. During my research (my favorite form of procrastination), I discovered that the earliest fan costuming actually occurred at the first Worldcon in 1939(!), when franchises like Star Trek were barely a twinkle in anyone's eyes. In fact, by the time Star Trek and other fandoms got together in science fiction conventions, many info...