[Dark Spellmaster]

So for those of you that didn't hear about this...Tony Harris, the cover artist for Starman had this to say about female cosplayers:

http://forums.comicb...ght=Tony+Harris

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Sometimes I even go in for some racy type stuff ( keeping the comments PG for my Ladies sake) but dammit, dammit, dammit I am so sick and tired of the whole COSPLAY-Chiks. I know a few who are actually pretty cool-and BIG Shocker, love and read Comics.So as in all things, they are the exception to the rule. Heres the statement I wanna make, based on THE RULE: “Hey! Quasi-Pretty-NOT-Hot-Girl, you are more pathetic than the REAL Nerds, who YOU secretly think are REALLY PATHETIC. But we are onto you.

So he's onto are evil plans ladies and gents and apparently we are planning this...

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Some of us are aware that you are ever so average on an everyday basis. But you have a couple of things going your way. You are willing to become almost completely Naked in public, and yer either skinny( Well, some or most of you, THINK you are ) or you have Big Boobies. Notice I didnt say GREAT Boobies? You are what I refer to as “CON-HOT”. Well not by my estimation, but according to a LOT of average Comic Book Fans who either RARELY speak to, or NEVER speak to girls. Some Virgins, ALL unconfident when it comes to girls, and the ONE thing they all have in common? The are being preyed on by YOU. You have this really awful need for attention, for people to tell you your pretty, or Hot, and the thought of guys pleasuring themselves to the memory of you hanging on them with your glossy open lips, promising them the Moon and the Stars of pleasure, just makes your head vibrate.

Yes our plans are to seduce unwitting young vestials of geek virginity and prey upon them much like succubi in order to fulfill this need for attention. Oh and apparently we...

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After many years of watching this crap go down every 3 seconds around or in front of my booth or table at ANY given Con in the country, I put this together. Well not just me. We are LEGION. And here it is, THE REASON WHY ALL THAT, sickens us: BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW crap ABOUT COMICS, BEYOND WHATEVER GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH YOU DID TO GET REF ON THE MOST MAINSTREAM CHARACTER WITH THE MOST REVEALING COSTUME EVER. And also, if ANY of these guys that you hang on tried to talk to you out of that Con? You wouldnt give them the screwing time of day. Shut up you damned liar, no you would not. Lying, Liar Face. Yer not Comics. Your just the thing that all the Comic Book, AND mainstream press flock to at Cons. And the real reason for the Con, and the damned costumes yer parading around in? That would be Comic Book Artists, and Comic Book Writers who make all that crap up.

Yes he's got us all figured out. We care nothing about the anime or comics that we cosplay. Yes sir, we spend hours upon hours crafting cosplay out of fabrics, leather, and odds and ends to match their pictures. God forbid though that we don't know the exact date that our anime character was first shown, or the comic that our character first appeared. Nope all we care about is wearing outfits that make us look hot. :/

Thanks Tony, I'm going to ignore your covers now and focus on the artwork inside. Jack probably is facepalming that he had to be drawn by a guy like you.

[kotomichi]

Someone posted this a couple days ago on FB and had an amazing fit. After reading the whole excerpt, I can't blame her.

[linlindesu]

>_> I kinda LOL'd
I mean...
I know what this guy ( I have no idea who he is ) is talking about but I disagree that is the majority of cosplaying women.

Had he just been describing that sector of cosplayers I'm sure he wouldn't offend too many people.

Haven't you guys ever run into someone that cosplays just to be eye candy?

That doesn't know a thing about the character at all?

[Dark Spellmaster]

I have but it doesn't mean that that person is there to just get into some guys pants. The girl I ran into was cosplaying a character from .hack//signs, becuase she thought it was pretty and a challenge. So I asked her if she ever looked into watching the anime, and she said, well I haven't seen much of it. So we talked more about what she used on the costume and what made her choose it, and in the end I learned something and she learned more about the character, and wanted to look up the manga for it (More of a manga fan if I recall correctly).

On the other hand I've seen guys (and girls) go to ACen here and say they were just here to get laid, cared nothing about the anime or manga or any sort of thing. Just knew that there were easy scores here. I was pretty disgusted by this.

[linlindesu]

Dark Spellmaster, on 15 November 2012 - 03:31 PM, said:

I have but it doesn't mean that that person is there to just get into some guys pants. The girl I ran into was cosplaying a character from .hack//signs, becuase she thought it was pretty and a challenge. So I asked her if she ever looked into watching the anime, and she said, well I haven't seen much of it. So we talked more about what she used on the costume and what made her choose it, and in the end I learned something and she learned more about the character, and wanted to look up the manga for it (More of a manga fan if I recall correctly).

On the other hand I've seen guys (and girls) go to ACen here and say they were just here to get laid, cared nothing about the anime or manga or any sort of thing. Just knew that there were easy scores here. I was pretty disgusted by this.

I'm not talking about girls ( or guys, hey, I'm sure there's some of those too) who actually read manga. I'm talking People who'd reply with "what's a mahngah? Is it a spell? "

[Gabichox]

The thirst in this guy is....
Seriously? "Preying on virgins?"

I'm very torn about this rant. On one hand, I get it. It's annoying to see people parade around with something you love and they don't even respect it at all. It happens with everything, not just comics. Bands, games, manga, you name it.
But on the other hand.... how do you know if a girl knows the series or doesn't? You can say all you want that "there are legit Cosplayers who know the material and love it." but... how do you know exactly? Are you going to interrogate everyone you see? No, most likely not. Especially when you're rushing somewhere or see them surrounded by a bunch of people taking pictures. If you have the mindset this guy has, you're going to assume that a revealing outfit means she's just in it for the attention. And that's disgusting.

This is going to slide off topic slightly but... The main problem I have with this rant is how angry this guy seems and how many times I've seen people with this mindset use his very same excuses to justify harassing girls in skimpy cosplay who don't fit into the obscure category he was describing. If a girl knows the series or not, it doesn't excuse you from being a decent human being. And in any case.... So what if someone doesn't know a series? What are you going to do then? Berate and scream at them? Give them unwanted, gross attention because "that's what they want anyway"? What's the point of getting all up in arms if someone isn't a "real nerd"? Who. Cares.
For God's sake it's a convention. If there's someone you think might steal away your precious V with his or her seductive ways, just run in the opposite direction. If there's someone you think may be ruining your precious, super secret club series, just ignore them.

This guy isn't helping anything at all. He's just fueling other guys[and girls] into berating anyone they don't really see fitting into the "nerd" scene as shallow people and liars. And that, in itself, is shallow.

Jeez.... It's frustrating enough wearing a shirt and having some guy say "You probably don't even know what that's from" without even a decent "hello" first. This guy's rant... physically hurts. I have a headache now.

[OtakuAngelD]

It's the whole "stay out of our clubhouse" arguement all over again. If you're not pretty and a cosplayer, you're not fit to cosplay. You're ugly, GTFO. If you're pretty/skinny and you're a cosplayer, you're a faker fakey wh@!#, GTFO. The message is this. He doesn't want us female nerds there. No matter how well versed we are in a comic/anime/manga/tvshow/game, it does not matter. Girls obviously can't be nerds. We're only here at con because we have no self-respect and want some guy we don't know in our pants. This is the message I take from this.

And what is really sad is that he is not only generalizing women geeks, but men as well. By this, all male geeks are poorly socialized neckbeard virgins that live in mom's basement and can't defend themselves against the sexual evils of us girls.

[-JUNK-]

Well the name Tony Harris is going to be stuck in my head full of negativity.
But let me tell ya hes so onto us gaiz~
Also I also have heard some people saying they just go to ACen just to get laid as well.
But thats their choice Id say not ours. With some people being on these forums for quite some time now.
But Im sure at least everyone knows something about the character they are cosplaying, or for instance like me when I went to ACen for my first year one of my friends at the time just dressed me up in her cosplays it was fun but I had no clue who I was. Which kicked off Junk into being a cosplayer. =3

Welp gaiz dont let some people get ya down, "You and you yourself, Know you Better than anyone Else."

[kuro_ketsurui]

This guy has an Eisner Award. He's not a real comic artist. Real comic artists don't get awards. They don't get any respect from critics, and have to eke out their meager existences living on Taco Bell and Frazetta posters. He's obviously just doing comic work so he can get praise from fans that don't realize his main series, "Starman" is only there to cater to award committees. He doesn't care how much you relate to Spiderman, or how you respect mangaka for sweating out 30+ pages of material. To the rest of the illustration industry, he's average. He's not going to wow anyone with the new character concepts for Halo, or design the next big MMO world. He's preying on the genre that gets the least respect from the entertainment industry. He sits with his shiny trophies and tries to take attention away from the real reason people go to cons: to stare at hot nerd girls, and drool over their favorite voice actor/comic writer/sci-fi actor. Who's even heard of %$^&ing 'Starman'?

[Shuichilove]

Shrug, I would rather be more encouraging to female cosplays rather than trying to make it a Boy's only club. He goes into the normal virgin meets attention promiscuous woman rant and honestly, you know the solution to it would be to encourage a wider scope of people. Though I really would say the problem is solving itself. Compared to the mid 90's, every convention has gotten a massive boost, lead stars now play Superheroes, Videogames now get AAA celebrity talent, etc.

So you know the next hot cosplay chick you see. Well, instead of acting like a prick to them because they don't know everything about the series. Maybe just talking to them normally would be a better approach. They may know very little about the character they are cosplaying other than it looks cool, but they maybe a pretty awesome person anyways.

[Wingypoo]

Gabichox, on 16 November 2012 - 12:01 AM, said:

The thirst in this guy is....
Seriously? "Preying on virgins?"

I'm very torn about this rant. On one hand, I get it. It's annoying to see people parade around with something you love and they don't even respect it at all. It happens with everything, not just comics. Bands, games, manga, you name it.
But on the other hand.... how do you know if a girl knows the series or doesn't? You can say all you want that "there are legit Cosplayers who know the material and love it." but... how do you know exactly? Are you going to interrogate everyone you see? No, most likely not. Especially when you're rushing somewhere or see them surrounded by a bunch of people taking pictures. If you have the mindset this guy has, you're going to assume that a revealing outfit means she's just in it for the attention. And that's disgusting.

This is going to slide off topic slightly but... The main problem I have with this rant is how angry this guy seems and how many times I've seen people with this mindset use his very same excuses to justify harassing girls in skimpy cosplay who don't fit into the obscure category he was describing. If a girl knows the series or not, it doesn't excuse you from being a decent human being. And in any case.... So what if someone doesn't know a series? What are you going to do then? Berate and scream at them? Give them unwanted, gross attention because "that's what they want anyway"? What's the point of getting all up in arms if someone isn't a "real nerd"? Who. Cares.
For God's sake it's a convention. If there's someone you think might steal away your precious V with his or her seductive ways, just run in the opposite direction. If there's someone you think may be ruining your precious, super secret club series, just ignore them.

This guy isn't helping anything at all. He's just fueling other guys[and girls] into berating anyone they don't really see fitting into the "nerd" scene as shallow people and liars. And that, in itself, is shallow.

Jeez.... It's frustrating enough wearing a shirt and having some guy say "You probably don't even know what that's from" without even a decent "hello" first. This guy's rant... physically hurts. I have a headache now.

I agree with all of this ^
Was reading this rant on tumblr a couple days ago and roomate and i were having a discussion about this. Gabi's response is pretty much the conclusion we both came to. One of the things i did bring up, in regards to the cosplay end of it, was that girls (and boys too i suppose) get jealous. If i were to see some hot chick wearing some outfit she just bought getting all the attention, yea, i'd be jealous i won't lie but i'm not going to make a scene of it (unless that chick just turns out to be a wench and thinks she's gods gift to the convention). I'm pretty shy so i really don't know if i'd be so bold as to really say something in person. On the flipside, though, who am i to rustle their jimmies? I told my roomate that I'm sure someone at the convention will ask that chick(or dude) where they're from and they'll look like a fool (or they just won't care). I try to stray far, far from any sort of drama causing things at conventions. If they're having fun, that's what really counts. I apologize if i'm repeating anything here. I just think this guy took things a little too far even though i do understand that it is irritating when you run across people who don't respect the series/game/band/comics or whatever else it is. Please forgive me if what i said was rude/inappropriate. I'm not always good with typing this stuff out. I'm pretty scatterbrained. I agree with you wholeheartedly Gabi.

[Uchihacest97]

Cracked.com, my favorite comedy website ever had a quick and hilarious response to this.

The douche didn't just piss off females, guys are calling him out on his bullshit too.

Kind of an old topic I'm bumping, but I thought the article was pretty funny....

The article

:/

This post has been edited by Uchihacest97: 11 January 2013 - 05:25 AM

[Snow_Storm]

Man, I remember when I had the same views on female cosplayers that Harris has...back when I was only eight years old and still in my he-man woman hater phase.

[Agatha]

I don't know how to react to this. As a girl who's into shows, video games, etc. that tend to have a predominantly male fanbase, I've encountered this kind of attitude too many times already and it's bothersome.

On the other hand, at least when someone's so upfront about their bad attitude (see starting a conversation with, "You don't even know what ____ is from") it makes it really nicely easy to figure out who to avoid, and a lot of people will do just that when confronted with it. I kind of wonder if part of his extreme bitterness is because his sparkling personality is having the inevitable results.

Really, I think, why waste the energy getting worked up over him? As far as I can tell, all he's succeeded in with his rant is making himself look like a grade-A buttface. I'm not a comics person; I can't name you any American comic artists - but I remember his name, and if I ever do get into comics I certainly will be avoiding anything he's worked on. (Hey, I've solved his problem! He just has to be so unpopular no one wants him at a con! That way he won't have to suffer through the legions of "con-hot" fake girl predators anymore, and the rest of us won't have to put up with his crappy attitude. Win-win!)

Beyond that I'm not sparing him another thought. He's not worth it.

[Neko_master_Luna]

Oh snap, some one is a narrow minded & unprepared prima donna. There are factors ignored here in his rant. Men can be fake cosplayers too. Some people who are not very educated in their cosplay mayhave just gotten into the character & may still be learning about them. People may be supporting a group cosplay & asked kindly to fill in a gap. I have actually seen Parents fill this role for a child, in witch case I find their lack of knowledge exempted. I also think I have met 1 out 50 people at an anime con that was into a costume because it's hot & that's it. I think it's more common in a American comic con than an anime con. He should realize that his type (and there is a difference) is more main stream, despite the massive growing fan base for anime & manga. First, more & more comics are being turned into cash producing movies. That brings in fans who can be ages 4 & up. People who may have kids who are the only ones who know about their beloved characters & people who only know what they saw on the silver screen. I'm not saying there isn't some people who do this to make people pant, What I am saying is I think he is blind to the sexy cosplayers who actually love the characters they portray. Unless he grills all of them, he will never know how much they know. Even some fans make mistakes too, like the pronunciation of a name, because you only read the comic & never saw the movie. This doesn't make them a fake. It's a mistake, just as simple as it sounds. There are many different circumstances in witch some one attractive may cosplay, personally I think he is in the wrong business if he is so easily offended. He probably offended some of his actual fan base. He may be talented, but that does not make him smart. I don't think if a ran a comic con, that I would invite him as a gust just because of the controversial topic. It's just not smart in any form.