POP! Goes The Nubia

Saturday, January 9, 2016

TNT Bringing Back ‘Tales From The Crypt’ in New Horror Block With M. Night Shyamalan.

Nubia 8:06:00 PM

I was sooooo very happy to hear that TNT is bringing back Tales From The Crypt With M. Night Shyamalan...

Tales From The Crypt originally aired on HBO in June 1989 and is based on the EC Comics series of the same name. I used to watch the show all the time though I must confess, sometimes it was a bit too scary for me back in the day when I watched it in the 90s (I was a young little lad).

One of the things I always enjoyed was the Crypt Keeper. He was always so twisted and had a comedic haunting personality.... kind of reminds me of my immense love for Freddy Krueger. You can imagine my complete disappointment when I read the rumors that are circulating about the Crypt Keeper not bring brought back for the reboot!

I read on Slash Film HERE that "the show will feature an old man with a cane, wearing a hood, and keeping warm by a fireplace. That might sounds dumb to fans of the original TV series, but anyone who fell in love with the original Tales from the Crypt comics knows that description as the original Crypt Keeper, as seen here:"

As you can see, The Crypt Keeper from the comics above matches the description of the one TNT might create a bit.

Recently M.Night Shyamalan confirmed the rumors by tweeting this:

I like M. Night Shyamalan's work and believe he can make a scary, horrific and entertaining Crypt Keeper. I must confess though, I'm really bummed it won't be our buddy the Crypt Keeper from HBO voiced by John Kassir.

I've decided to keep a positive attitude about this situation because I'm still thrilled they're brining the show back and I have faith in M. Night Shyamalan. What do you guys think?

Xx Nubia

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Female Ghost Rider Cosplay At New York Comic Con.

Nubia 8:29:00 PM

My New York Comic Con Ghost Rider Cosplay Was Epic!

You might be asking yourself how this cosplay costume came to be... well let me take you on a little journey. It all started out with this young lad in the photo above with me, my big brother Daniel. Every year I attend New York Comic Con I cosplay different characters, I told him to pick one for me to do this year. He replied back with Marvel's Ghost Rider. I'm familiar with the Ghost Rider back story and all but it's not like I was a crazy super fan or anything. My immediate reaction was "Be Realistic" How am I going to get those flames going? I didn't want to use plastic or foam because I didn't like the way it looked. He stuck to his guns though with Ghost Rider AKA Johnny Blaze, so I decided to figure it out.

Enter this young lady below, My sister in law Kaori.

Hair

Cool kid ain't she? Besides being my sister in law (married to my other brother Dean) she's a woman of many talents. She has a beauty license from Japan and can do awesome things with hair. Kaori suggested I try to do fire hair! I must admit, I wasn't very confident at first but she painted a pretty picture and I figured anything is better than foam. I purchased a regular wig with the colors orange and red, the one below to be exact.

After Kaori applied her imagination and unique set of skills to the hair, she turned this regular synthetic wig into THIS.

I was BLOWN AWAY and highly impressed. It was everything I wanted and more. If you're wondering, there's nothing inside of the wig holding the hair up... all hair, molding, and layering. It's a work of art. If you ever need a wig or your natural hair done for cosplay or any special event, you should reach out to Kaori at kingyo.m28@gmail.com or kaori_m28@hotmail.com. I promise you, you wont find a lot of people that can do what she does in the time she does it. The was the center piece of the Ghost Rider cosplay and a VERY important part of the character.

Outfit

After I got my main concern out of the way which was the flames, I still had to make the outfit and makeup look good. For the outfit I started out checking what I had in my own home (This should be your first step for any cosplay, you'd be surprised). I was about to throw out this faux leather jacket I purchased at H&M a few years back because it was peeling. I'm so happy I didn't because it was perfect for my Ghost Rider cosplay. I also figured the peeling could look like pieces of the jacket were burned through so I didn't worry about that. I went to a few trim stores in Manhattan and picked up a handful of spikes to add on the shoulders of the jacket. I also found the chain at a trim store because I decided to not use aluminum or plastic. The chain ran me about $20. I already had a pair of Dr Marten boots because well... every fashionista does. I was hunting for a pair of faux leather pants but I couldn't find them anywhere surprisingly. I walked into Walmart and found a pair of leather leggings that looked like pants for about $12. I purchased medium instead of small because I didn't want them to look skin tight... I wanted them to look masculine and have a bit more of edge to them. Lastly, the gloves I found at a random little gift shop for 5 dollars.

Makeup

After the clothing was settled, the day I wore the cosplay I had to wake up a bit early to do my makeup. It's not that hard BUT I didn't use stage makeup so it was a bit annoying to layer. I purchased some regular Halloween makeup from Walgreens and I had to do a few layers to get the white face paint looking bold and evened out. I recommend putting on your regular primer and/or foundation under first for quicker results before applying the makeup. Before I started looking evil I looked like a Panda! Haha it was kind of funny. After searching the web for images, I took a little inspiration from everything and ended up looking like this. I think it came out nicely.

After the makeup was done, I applied the wig which was definitely the WOW factor and BAM! (Emeril Lagasse voice) my 2015 New York Comic Con Ghost Rider cosplay was done.

I had so much fun at the convention this year. This might be my favorite cosplay look I've done yet. The hair, makeup and outfit are all on point. The reactions I got on this look were amazing! I think this cosplay finally beat out my X-Men The White Queen from a few years back (which was pretty popular). I would absolutely wear this again. Not to mention it's probably the most comfortable look I've done. No heels or exposing too much flesh. The impact this had on people even left me surprised. I was very pleased. I took photos with a lot of people and had a lot of photos taken of me too.

Ghost Riders Meet.

Ghost Rider and The Joker.

Who knew Ghost Rider likes dogs.

Behind the scenes.

I guess there's a lot you can take from this post. Like always, life will show you anything is possible. I know it sounds silly to say something like that about a costume, BUT my first reaction when my brother mentioned it was something along the lines of "Get real, I can't make that look good or legit" and now I think it's my favorite cosplay I've done. There you have it kids, Cheers!

If you have any questions for me about the look, drop them in the comment box below.

Xo Nubia Xo

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My Female Gambit Cosplay At New York Comic Con.

Nubia 8:28:00 PM

"You wanna play with Gambit? Here, pick a card!"

I had so much fun this past New York Comic Con. I think it was the most fun I had cosplaying in a long time. If you love fashion, makeup, hair, comics, and video games, cosplaying might be your favorite new hobby. I already told you the story behind my Ghost Rider cosplay and how it came together and now it's time to talk about Marvel Comic's Gambit from the X-Men!

I grew up watching the X-Men animated series along with my 2 older brothers. I used to LOVE it. I would wake up every Saturday morning and watch pretty much the whole Fox Kids line-up. I miss those days dearly...sigh. Anyway the X-Men animated series was like an animated telenovela for me. It was so dramatic! The story lines about Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Jubilee and more were amazing. There was love triangles, people coming back from the dead, revolutions, new characters all the time, take overs, invasions, and much more. The characters all had intriguing back stories and very distinct personalities. One of my favorite characters was the ragin' cajun Gambit.

Gambit is from New Orleans, Louisiana which you may have guessed by hearing his thick cajun accent. His real name is Remy LeBeau. His mutant ability is that he can create and control kinetic energy. He's also very good and cocky at playing cards which is probably why he selected them as one of his favorite weapons of choice as well as the use of a boa staff. Besides his powers/abilities he has so much charm, charisma, is quite the looker, and I always enjoyed keeping up with his romance with Rogue. The best! Anyways let's talk about the cosplay....

About The Female Gambit Cosplay.

I was so happy to be to do a female Gambit. I've been planning to do a Gambit cosplay for some years now but I kept putting it off.

The first thing I purchased was the trench coat. I purchased the coat at a Unique thrift store in New Jersey about 4 years ago and I was saving it for this occasion. Secondly I purchased the wig at AliExpress. It was a short brown wig and my sister-in-law Kaori teased it a bit to give it volume. Next my friend Mary is a designer and she's the best because she helped me so much! She took a pair of black leggings and sewed on the magenta stripes. We purchased blue fabric and a light blue satin fabric and she made the neck piece and the belt with it. I purchased a magenta shirt at Walmart and attached the neck piece to it. One thing that gave the outfit a special oomph was the blazing red contacts I purchased here, everyone loved them. The last thing I found was the over the knee boots. I couldn't find them in the light blue color so I purchased white boots and spray painted them the color seen in the photos.

My only regret with the cosplay is that I didn't get a chance to find the proper face piece I wanted that gambit wears. I was only able to find a headband. I will surely improve the face piece of the cosplay if and when I ever do it again. I'll even paint it on my face if I had to.

Bumped into some of my X-Men homies.

Crazy eyes.

Gambit meets Venom.

The photo above is some cool art ThatsBabore did of me after he saw my photo on instagram. I'm glad the outfit made people happy.

Lastly one of my Christmas gifts this year my brother gave me was this dope Gambit action figure and he took a photo of my female Gambit New York Comic Con cosplay and turned it into a comic book cover. Awesome right?! I love it.

I had so much fun during New York Comic Con. What's your favorite Comic Book character?

Cheers!

Xo Nubia Xo

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My Fantastic Mrs Fox Cosplay At New York Comic Con

Nubia 8:27:00 PM

Hello Nubians,

"We are all different but there's something FANTASTIC about that, isn't there?"

I am a lover of almost every Wes Anderson film ever I've seen. From the story line, the whimsical characters, the fashion and beauty, the gorgeous colors and decor, it's all amazing! One of the first films that got me into Wes Anderson was an animated film called Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) based on the popular Roald Dahl book. Mr. and Mrs. Fox in the movie are voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep and they do a great job together.

About the Film.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is about a fox family. The head of the household Mr. Fox can't leave behind his farm raiding ways to live a peaceful life. Mrs. Fox is always trying to make sure he's behaving but I guess some habits are hard to kick and he always tells her white lies. After Mr. Fox gets his whole community in trouble and some farmers he raided try to get revenge, he must find a way to save and protect his community.

It's a very funny and charming movie. There are other very fun characters besides Mr. and Mrs. Fox that you'll get to know and love too.

About The Cosplay.

I always thought Mrs. Fox was sassy and daring so naturally, I wanted to cosplay her. My friend Mary which helped me with my Gambit cosplay also helped me out making this dress. We purchased the yellow fabric and she hand painted the apples! Isn't that awesome? I'm forever thankful. She also made the ears which we purchased faux fur for because they looked nicer than the ears we already found made in the stores. I purchased the wig at AliExpress and didn't have to make any changes to it thankfully. It was already perfect to me. I had the gloves already which I purchased at a thrift store many years ago. Everything else kind of just came together. I purchased the blue contacts at loveshoppingholics, I've had good experiences with them and consider them a safe site for something as sensitive as contact lenses.

I did the fox makeup with basic halloween makeup I purchased at Walgreens. The trick is to use regular concealer under the face paint and then when it's all done make sure you go over it with a finishing powder. This way the makeup doesn't look oily being that it's not the best quality. By adding a finishing powder you give it a nice matte finish and it makes it look like you used a better product. I pretty much just did the fox makeup free hand and looked at some photos for reference here and there. I was very happy with the final results!

Back to back comparison.

Mrs. Fox and her friend Aladdin.

A beautiful, complicated relationship like many.

Thinking of joining Josie and the PussyCats.

"Because I'm a wild animal"

As I mentioned prior with my Ghost Rider and Gambit cosplays, New York Comic Con was tons of fun. I loved putting this cosplay together and walking around with my sassy fox tail.

Have you watched Fantastic Mr. Fox? If not, you totally should! Do you have a favorite Wes Anderson film?

Cheers!

Xo Nubia Xo

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