The illustrious creators and supporters of M:C. Please ask us anything; we’re here to help you! If you are interested in a position on M:C’s staff, please email Beverly at [email protected].
Beverly Alliss
Head Administrator/Webmaster
An ‘official’ anime/manga cosplayer for over five years now, Beverly’s first cosplay experience was at SDCC ’98, as Super Sailormoon. Since then she has settled at her ‘home’ convention, Nan Desu Kan, in Denver, Colorado. Her repertoire of costumes now ranges from Princess Serenity to Hitomi Kanzaki to Rei Ayanami. Future aspirations include Princess Zelda of Ocarina of Time, Kotori of X, and Tomoe of the Rurouni Kenshin OVA. She’s also been a part of the online anime community for about five years, four of which she has been webmistress of various anime/shrine/personal websites, these and more eventually calumniating in the faeriewings.net collective. She undertook the creation of Method: Cosplay approximately two years ago, shortly after the creation of the original eternal dreams collective (now faeriewings.net). Beverly was also very active in the amateur voice acting community of about two years ago and met many of her cosplaying friends through that community.
“I have a great appreciation for artistic and beautiful creations, but also for the cosplayer who loves his or her character simply because of who that character is and what he or she stands for.”
Besides cosplaying, Beverly is an avid web designer and owner of faeriewings.net, a student of vocal music education, an occasional fantasy/fanfiction writer, an enthusiastic SCA participator, and a happy anime fan for almost a decade. She currently resides in Colorado in a relatively well-lit basement apartment with two guy roommates, a brand spanking new Dell, and a tiger-striped cat named Morgan Riane. ^^
Kate Montgomery
Administrator/Features and Performing
Kate is yet another member of the accursed Sailor Moon Generation and has been devouring anime for about four years. Kate was a techie/theatre chick for many years in her youth at a professional theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There, she was a crew member of makeup, costuming, and lighting teams. She discovered cosplay last year and fell madly in love with it as another form of costuming. Kate is always experimenting with new concepts and patterns and likes to cosplay characters with long, flowing hair that matches her own Kate has written some extremely humorous articles for Akadot and Anime On DVD and is an (occasionally) published poet and author. The Gamma Semi-Moron team (homage to Huxley!) helps her in all her article writing escapades, although in reality, Kate does all the work while they get drunk, and subsequently gets the billing.
“Cosplay’s a weird hybrid of performing and visual art. The very nature of it is unique: but what sets it apart is the audience. No matter where you go, your audience will always identify with your character. That’s what makes it fun and comparatively rewarding — actors have to work to make each and every audience love their character, but an anime fan already knows and loves your character. There’s just something wonderful about drooling fans running up to you screaming, ‘[Insert character name here], take me now!’ Creepy, huh? And yet … strangely amusing.”
A high school senior, Kate is planning on an opera major (yes, you heard correctly: opera singer — mezzo-soprano to be exact) and works for a graphic design firm and a bookstore in the summer (when she’s not off joyriding with her friends at some anime convention). She has directed theatre productions and conducted choral ensembles as well as performed musically and dramatically on numerous occasions. She currently lives in New Jersey and uses her secret identity as “Intimidating Stare Girl” to save the world from crime.
Erika Door
Administrator/Sewing and Patterns, FAQ
Like so many little girls, Erika loved to play dress-up. However, she never grew out of it, and what started out as a brief encounter with anime and pictures of people dressed up rather funny turned into an obsession to beat obsessions. Starting with AnimeIowa99 [her first con…], Erika has been cosplaying for almost four years and has completed over 30 costumes, ranging from the extremely popular [“I’m sorry, ma’am, we’re going to have to ask you to change.”] to the incredibly obscure [“So you’re not a J-Rocker?”]. Many years of drama, dance, and sewing helped train her to be a cosplayer, but she still learns new things with every costume. Anime and manga have also opened the door to her career as a comic book creator, so if she’s not cosplaying it, she’s drawing it.
“Do you want to do it? Then do it. Have fun; don’t get lost. Would you like to borrow a costume?”
In her distinct lack of spare time, Erika works in the Children’s Dept. at the local library, sleeps, eats, and draws a lot. She runs three websites, makes costumes to sell as well as commissions, reads far too much, plays in the Sterling Symphonic Municipal Band, listens to really good music, enjoys the outdoors, spends time with friends, and still has time for cons and her Net addiction.
Sarcasm-hime
Staff/Sewing and Patterns, FAQ, Costuming Accessories
Sarcasm’s first costuming experiences were as costume head for her high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but it wasn’t until she made her first anime costume (Naga, for Anime North ’99), that the cosplay bug bit her. Like many cosplayers, she’s got a million costumes running around in her head at any one time, and almost everything she looks at gets instantly evaluated for possible cosplay use. As an artist and craftsperson, Sarcasm is most interested in the prop-making and costuming elements of cosplay rather than as a dress-up activity — seeing a movie or show with intricate and ornate costumes sends her into fits of “Must…Make…Costume!” When she’s not working on costumes, she watches copious amounts of anime with her otaku posse, maintains a massive review site with her brother, and is a reviewer for Anime News Network.
“What interests me most about cosplaying is actually the design and construction of complex elements, especially armor and jewelry. I love figuring out how to make things; that’s more than half the fun for me. Dressing up for a day or two is fun, but knowing that you figured out something tough and pulled it off really well stays with you for quite a while.”
Sarcasm is a freelance illustrator whose interests (besides cosplaying) include jewelry-making, choral singing, playing RPGs and drinking lots of tea. She somehow manages to be both antisocial and an exhibitionist (you can see her glowering — while wearing a skimpy outfit — at every Anime North). She has very little tolerance for cheese (the figurative, painful kind, not the filled-with-dairy-goodness kind) and melodrama.
Sarah-chan (Makoto Hanabi)
Staff/Costuming Accessories, FAQ
Sarah is a bit new to the world of cosplay. Her first and only time was cosplaying Achika at Otakon 2001, though many people complemented her on her Duo “costume” (she usually wears black and keeps her hair in a braid) at Katsucon 7. She had so much fun with the conceptual parts of cosplay that she’s already made Dominique the Cyclops, Saya, and Koinosuke costumes for Katsucon. She already has sketchbooks full of drawings and notes, but which doodles will turn into costumes is a different story.
“Cosplay is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to pay attention to the big picture and the small details often at the same time.”
After leading a semi-nomadic life, Sarah has settled in the Washington D.C. area where she works as a freelance graphic designer. When not working or annoying authority figures, she edits and makes photo references for friends in the small press comics industry.
Daisuke (Brandon Dobbie)
Technical Administrator/Webmaster
Email: none
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