Welcoming weird: Cosplay embraced at fourth annual Brooklyn Comic Con

June 15, 2023 Suzanne Akceylan

Werewolf Captain America with Eddie the Eagle at the 4th annual Brooklyn Comic Con at Breeze NYC in Williamsburg. Cosplayer is Edwin. Brooklyn Eagle photos by Jonah Candelario.

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WILLIAMSBURG — It’s not your typical life, working as the frontman and paperboy for a popular newspaper… especially when you’re an eagle. But Eddie the Eagle finally found a nesting place this past weekend at the fourth annual Brooklyn Comic Con.

80s Barbie and Eddie the Eagle at the 4th annual Brooklyn Comic Con. Cosplayer is Barbie Chula.

The event took place June 10-11 at Breeze NYC, bringing together local businesses, cosplayers, artists, and fans. Founder and creative director Sebastian ‘Beast’ Castillo began event planning after originally trying to form a hip hop band. The convention — which operated more like a soft-vibe festival with original merch, three food trucks, and one or two party DJs — ultimately grew out of a series of cosplay and video game parties hosted by the event planning group Sexy Nerds, with the mantra, “Let’s get weird.”

And, weird it did get… in a good way. From all the deep dark corners of the borough, cosplayers crept onto the scene in meticulously crafted threads and second skins, surely thanks to Instagram makeup tutorials, the Halloween store in Union Square, and endless rolls of duct tape. Cosplayers of both the classical (i.e., Sailor Moon) and obscure (i.e., Tomura Shigaraki of ‘My Hero Academia,’ hand and blood) varieties walked the showroom, and great jest was had when someone thought Eddie was an Angry Bird. There were free photos and autographs by panelists, a miniatures display of Gotham City, kids’ creative spaces where fresh crayon art dressed the walls, and live wrestling in which one performer, while actively fighting in the ring, aggressively yelled at Eddie to “Put your f***ing chicken head back on!” when all the poor bird needed was a breather from the heat and excitement. (He’d just come from a little mingling and photo op with an 80s Barbie.)

All in all, it’s clear Sexy Nerds’ yearlong parties aim to invoke a feeling of belonging, hodgepodging a growing community of artists and creatives that welcome weirdness in its many forms — and Brooklyn Comic Con is the culmination of that. Eddie loves to engage with Brooklynites and showcase for the Eagle, but it felt good to finally fit in a little more than usual, and in the spirit of weird, that’s precisely what everyone was there for.