Kansas City Comic Con 2017 wrapped after three days yesterday, full of great opportunities to meet comic book and other genre creators, celebrities, and participate in all sorts of activities from how-to classes on cosplay armor building to LEGO building, and several panels covering a variety of topics.  For regular convention attendees the best part is the ability to see friends you’ve known for sometimes decades, and forging new bonds with other like-minded, positive and fun people.

What came as a surprise for many this year was the enormous participation of attendees in their favorite cosplay.  On Saturday the open areas of the convention floor were often so filled with cosplayers and others getting photographs that you could hardly move through without bumping into someone.  That’s a pretty great feat, because Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City is a major sized venue.

So let’s take a look at a few of the hundreds of great characters found at this year’s show:

   

To my left above is one of the first people to create Obi-Wan Kenobi as designed by Mike Mayhew in Star Wars Issue #15, written by Jason Aaron.  He really nailed the look with the great backback, rifle, and goggles.  This wins my “I am definitely going to borrow this idea” award.  This is the version Sideshow is expected to release in 1:6 scale in late 2018:

Here is Jennifer and Nicholas Forrestal with their Morticia and Gomez Addams from The Addams Family:

  

And a great Uncle Fester was on-hand as well.  The best ad lib physical humor award goes to Kevin Dilmore for his quick rendition of Thing.

I was surprised by all the Rogue One cosplayers that Elizabeth Bunce (as Jyn Erso in Imperial disguise) and I (as the Blue Squadron X-Wing pilot general) were able to get some photos with, including our boss, Mon Mothma:

… and a soldier from the Battle of Scarif (where we both met our doom):

Of course every X-Wing pilot needs a trusty R2 unit (this fully functioning R2-D2 courtesy of Chris Rice and the R2 Builders group):

Plus more than one Jyn Erso costume!

What was recently an army of Deadpool, Harley Quinn, and Wonder Woman costumes at cons seems to be on the decline these days, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of superheroes around.  Like this steampunk Green Lantern:

Stranger Things brought back Ghostbusters cosplay again last month and several attended KCCC 2017, including this great cosplayer:

Pokémon cosplay is also always a favorite:

And a great idea for Labyrinth, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, David Bowie’s Jareth with Toby:

One of the weekend’s best cosplays came from a Will Ferrell impersonator who also provided the most laughs.  As Ron Burgundy (from Anchorman and Anchorman 2), he had his own decked-out broadcast news booth and an unending comedy bit that I’m sure could have lasted for hours.

Great look and a brilliant routine to match, and he definitely brightened up the show for everyone who walked by.  The only thing missing was Paul Rudd.

Congratulations to Matt Driscoll and everyone involved with this year’s show, including William Binderup of Elite Comics, who raised thousands of dollars for Children’s Mercy hospital for his annual Christmas toy drive.  He’ll be collecting well into December so contact him here if you’d like to make a donation.  Look for Kansas City Comic Con to return next year to Bartle Hall on a to-be-determined date.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com