Dressed in futuristic, homemade body armor, Dallas Nagata White looked as if she stepped out of a "Halo" video game to battle an alien foe on the streets of Honolulu.
She wore blocky, red shin and thigh guards, similar protection on her biceps and forearms and a huge chest protector — 15 pieces plus a menacing helmet with an ominous, mirrored visor.
When White dons that helmet, being sure to tuck her braided red ponytail inside, reality intrudes and the 28-year-old cosplayer from Salt Lake needs a handler to ensure she doesn’t bump into something when she walks. Make-believe goes only so far in cosplay, a hobby for people who dress up as their favorite comic-book and science-fiction characters.
But for Hawaii cosplayers such as White who like to parade their style of performance art at pop-culture conventions, the make-believe landscape has never looked more inviting. Or as White will tell you, it’s a good time to be a geek in Hawaii.
For many years there was only Kawaii Kon, a convention for fans of Japanese anime, manga and pop culture. This year’s event, held in March, drew 10,500 people to the Hawai‘i Convention Center. Last year saw the debut of HawaiiCon, which returns to Hawaii island in September.
Now three more conventions are planned: Comic Con Honolulu, which starts Friday, Amazing Hawaii Comic Con in September and Anime Matsuri Hawaii in November.
Cosplayers are a staple at these conventions even if their characters don’t quite fit the genre of the gathering.
"I think everyone plans to go to every ‘con’ they can, especially us cosplayers," said White, whose body armor is really paper coated with fiberglass and resin crafted in a friend’s Waipahu garage.
White belongs to a geek generation — she says with affection — that doesn’t want to grow up.
"I love cosplay because who wouldn’t want to wear armor like this?" said White, an illustrator and photographer. "It’s so much fun and you can embody the characters you love and people smile when they see you."
The influx of conventions shouldn’t saturate the market, said Charles Whitesell, owner of Other Realms, a comic book and gaming shop on Nimitz Highway.
"Not in any way, shape or form," he said. "There will be different guests at each one, and each one has a different feel. There is nothing else going on, and there is a big crowd for this sort of thing."
Science-fiction lovers will be attracted to Comic Con Honolulu and HawaiiCon, both of which feature stars of popular TV shows and movies, said Whitesell, who has run his shop for 27 years. But Amazing Hawaii Comic Con stands out as more old-school because of its emphasis on comic book artists, including headliner Stan Lee, creator of the Marvel universe of comic book characters.
"I would say there is a high buzz in the community," Whitesell said. "Word spread pretty quickly about Amazing Hawaii Con. That took everyone by storm."
A surge in comic book readership along with movies featuring superheroes — X-Men, Batman, the Avengers — should spell success for the conventions, Whitesell said.
"People in Hawaii are hungry for this type of convention," he said. "But aside from retailers here who run events in their stores, there is really nothing here."
The newest event, Comic Con Honolulu, will be held at the Hawai‘i Convention Center and is being run by the same people who put on Kawaii Kon, which began in 2005.
Kawaii Kon tested the idea three years ago by including non-anime panels — among them "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Game of Thrones" — and they were wildly successful, said Marlon Stodgill, a Kawaii Kon organizer.
"Every panel was at capacity," he said. "That made us stop and think we needed a multigenre convention."
Stodgill, who lives in Atlanta and helps run two other conventions, Anime Week and Izumicon, expects the new convention to draw no more than 5,000 attendees. He’s lined up popular guest speakers, including Edward James Olmos of "Battlestar Galactica," Adam Baldwin of "Firefly," Gates McFadden of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Erin Gray of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."
"I am expecting we should get a good number of families," Stodgill said. "There is enough there for mom and pop to relive shows they enjoyed back in the day."
And there will be cosplay.
"We hope to have as many people come in costumes as possible," he said.
Stodgill isn’t sure how Hawaii fans will react to the increase in local conventions.
"I believe the market will speak for itself," he said. "If Hawaii can support that many shows, it will."
Organizers of HawaiiCon wanted to create an intimate experience for their Big Island convention, which is small by design. Last fall’s inaugural event at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort on the Kohala Coast drew just under 800 people, including staff and volunteers. After looking at popular mainland events, which can attract tens of thousands of participants, organizers winced at the thought of autograph-hungry crowds overwhelming their guests, said Jessica Hall, a Hilo real estate agent who serves as a HawaiiCon coordinator.
"After a panel discussion our guests have maybe 20 to 30 people gathered around them to get autographs, and they don’t have to run to their hotel rooms," she said. "At HawaiiCon they hang out."
The stars last year joined in outings with attendees — swimming, snorkeling and zip-lining — and it’s not uncommon to bump into them at the hotel bar. On the last day of last year’s convention, the air conditioning quit during a talk by guest star Esme Bianco, who played the prostitute Ros on "Game of Thrones." Unfazed, Bianco invited attendees to join her outside on the hotel lawn, Hall said.
HawaiiCon’s guest list is topped by Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry Jr., son of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. Also appearing will be Christopher Judge from "Stargate SG1" and "Battlestar Galactica" star Aaron Douglas, who had so much fun last year, he’s back again, Hall said.
TV writers, comic book artists and even famous cosplay stars will take part.
Megan Mobley, a 22-year-old Red Hill resident, is looking forward to the Hawaii convention lineup but worries that so many events will dilute local cosplay excitement.
A seamstress originally from Louisiana, Mobley has made more than 100 costumes since she learned about cosplay in 2008. Three months ago she started doing them on commission and has made so many she’s lost track. It’s practically a full-time job.
"At first I was advertising on Facebook, but since then it has been through word of mouth," she said. "It’s exhausting."
She recently returned from Comic Con in San Diego and Anime Expo in Los Angeles where it was fun to not only see and be seen, but to meet people who shared her enthusiasm.
"You can tell when a person really loves who they are, who they are being," she said. "I don’t cosplay something unless I really love it. It is crazy to not only make a costume, but to wear the costume and be my favorite characters and to go to the events and meet people that like it as much as I do."
