Junk Food Nation, let me just say this about last night’s two games: WOW, I was wrong. There I said it.  Happy, Alexis? Your Cards won it. The O’s showed their grit. Divisional Series start TODAY.  My predictions: SF Giants over CIN Reds.  WAS Nationals over STL Cardinals.  NY Yankees over BAL Orioles. DET vs OAK…the closest series of them all.  I could see either winning.  I’m going with DET Tigers, only because OAK had more Ks than any team in AL history.

In celebration of Baltimore’s win, I thought I’d revisit my trip to Baltimore’s Comic Con that I took with my friend Rob last month.  When we last discussed it on this blog, I recapped my entire experience that day with the exception of one HUGE aspect of Comic Con: COSTUMES!!!!!!

And really, what is a 2012 Baltimore Comic Con WITHOUT costumes?

Even before we get to the people wearing costumes at the 2012 Baltimore Comic Con, there were plenty of opportunities for those not wearing costumes or any sort of comic or pop culture related clothing to remedy their situation.  There were T-shirts galore, including this massive wall of T’s show above.  And this was only one of four walls set up like a small studio apartment – you walked INTO the cube and you were surrounded by geeky T’s.

Truth be told, I WANTED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.  But I had to refrain…sort of wish I hadn’t.

I don’t watch Game of Thrones, but I’m told this is a hilarious T-shirt.  I think.

I did watch all the Harry Potter movies and read all the books, so this T-shirt made sense to me…although it’s not really THAT funny.  Kinda begs the question, “why did I take a picture of it?”

BTW, it must be hard to be a vendor at one of these shows selling these wacky T’s. You have to deal with hundreds of people walking up to the T-shirt, snickering and saying, “Oh, that’s funny” and then taking a picture of it and walking away.  JUST BUY IT ALREADY!  SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!  WHADDYA MEAN $15 DOLLARS IS TOO MUCH!?

Of course, if T-shirts weren’t your thing, there were felt hats that could make you look like Pikachu, Mario, or a crazy person.  Your choice!

There were bathrobes for sale that would make you look like a Jedi warrior (I’m assuming).  These were sort of cool, because despite being fluffy bathrobes, they did indeed look like the actual movie costume.  Unlike…

…these Spiderman and Batman bathrobes, which don’t look like the costumes at all.  Although it is funny to imagine Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne coming home from fighting crime, and slipping into a bathrobe that actually has the same superhero insignias on them.  “Secret identities be damned, I’m gonna be comfortable AND branded.”

Needless to say, there were plenty of people wearing costumes.  This kid just had a plain long sleeve T-shirt on and green face paint.  I’m pretty sure those words were just written on the back of the shirt in grease pencil.  I followed this kid around trying to snap a good pic, and ran away before his dad saw me. Junk Food Paparazzi!

Every once in a while, you’d see a big crowd taking pictures and you’d run up to see who was being photographed.  Here, Boba Fett and what I can only assume is a tiny Harley Quinn are getting their pictures taken. Nice crotch piece, Boba.  Ugh.

Above you see pictured the main character from the old NES game Dragon Warrior, comic book Bane, and what was later known as “Recession Iron Man.”

Dragon Warrior was one of those games you could spend HOURS just doing the same thing over and over again, just to level-up.  Man, what a waste of time that I could’ve spent ….nah, I had nothing else to do.

I had NO idea what this guy was supposed to be.  Regular dude, and TWO GIGANTIC MONSTER LEGS? I was so confused, but those were some bad ass monster legs.  Then I turned, and realized…

…this was the REST of his costume.  Ah, I see.  I kept waiting for this half of the costume to move by itself, at which point I would’ve gone screaming to the hills.

These two, dressed as Hawkeye and…er….some superhero lady, were another couple who was surrounded by photographers for like a good 15 minutes.  And they held this position for a long time.  Now ThAT’S commitment.  Especially the dude, with that left knee bend?  That hurts after a while!  The woman is basically slouched to one side.  CMON, PUT SOME GUSTO INTO IT.

This Red Ranger was all into doing karate moves.  People would snap a pic, and he’d high kick into another position, and then karate chop into yet another position.  I am pretty sure he kept doing this until he realized there was no one taking his picture anymore.

And then came the actual judged Costume Contest at the 2012 Baltimore Comic Con!  My apologies for the shoddy camera work for some of these pictures – I switched seats a number of times getting closer and closer to the stage.

Here we have Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games.  A lot of these people refused to break character and insisted on answering the MC in full-blown character.  “WE ARE FROM DISTRICT 12!” No, you’re probably from the University of Maryland.

These Green Lanterns proved that you can be an intergalactic guardian while still have a beer belly.  OH SNAP.

These kids dressed up as the South Park crew, which is funny because it actually means they had to decide amongst themselves and say, “Look, you’re the fattest, so you’re definitely Eric Cartman.”  Ah, young cruelty.

Of course, one of the main attractions was to see how many scantily clad women there were, and rate them on a level of hotness.  This one woman, featured here at center, was the clear winner.  She got up on stage and said she was the superhero, “Stripperella,’ said some other words I didn’t hear, gyrated and strutted a little, hopped off stage and gave the judges some business cards.  I clapped loudly.

I turned to my friend Rob, and I told him, “Dude, I think that was an actual stripper that just came to promote her club.” Rob didn’t believe me.  I insisted that was what she just said, stating, “She gave out promo cards to her club!  Plus, there is NO WAY there’s an ACTUAL superhero named Stripperella.  Seriously?”

Well, Junk Food Nation, i was wrong.  Read about Stripperella here.

The costumes did get better, and more impressive as the day went on.  This one of War Machine, seem from the side here…

…and from the front here, was a really elaborate costume that clearly took a lot of time.  Of course, it was always great when the host would put the mic up to the mouth area of a lot of these elaborate characters, and the voice wouldn’t match the awesomeness of the costume.  “Hi, I’m Bobby, and I dressed up as War Machine because I think he’s neat.” What are you, 15?

This dude was just an old guy in a loin cloth.  I’m pretty sure he just wanted to show off his impressive…er… abs? I dunno.  He was basically naked.  He got up on stage, said his name, flexed, and exited.  Yikes.

This Mr. T lookalike had the crowd hootin’ and hollerin’….until he insisted on grabbing the mic and performing his latest rap song he wrote himself, I shit you not.  It was the kind of word spew that was unintelligible and by the end, no one was clapping.  At one point, I looked at rob and wondering out loud what the EFF was happening.  He shrugged.  Mr. T exited to polite applause.  Less is more, buddy.  Less is more.

This guy just looked creepy, and I wasn’t sure who he was supposed to be.  Internet searches led me to believe he is a character known as Slender Man.  Junk Food Nation, little help? Do you know who this is supposed to be?

This cat dressed up as Beta Ray Bill from the Thor Comics.  The MC asked him if it was hot inside his costume.  He squeezed his fist and a pool of sweat came dripping out onto the stage.  It was quite disgusting.

This guy was the last costume of the night, and I’m convinced he was stoned.  Dressed as Aquaman, he basically had an Orange T-shirt turned inside out and was wearing sneakers.  He got up on stage, giggled a lot, gave a shout-out to one of his boys, did a cartwheel and jumped off the stage.  CMON MAN.  Take this costume contest seriously… er…or something like that.

One of the winning costumes of the night was Lego Batman!  The man inside said he made this costume out of a lot of foam and 27 rolls of duct tape.  See? Even Batman uses duct tape. His costume was quite impressive though, and he definitely needed help on and off the stage.  I kept on waiting for him to eat and fall over.  No such luck.

The overall winner of the evening, however, went to a girl who dressed up…if you can call it dressing up…as a Dalek from the Dr. Who series.  Honestly, at first I thought this was a robot of some sort that was able to be controlled by remote control…but there actually WAS someone in there!  How did she use the bathroom???

The Dalek had everything – the look, the movements, and even the voice!  When interviewed by the MC, the girl inside even had a voice modulator that made her sound EXACTLY like the Daleks from the show!  Yikes. “You…will….be….exterminated!” IMPRESSIVE.

So there you have it, folks – Part 2 of the 2012 Baltimore Comic Con! These people have way to much time on their hands.  Says the person who runs a junk food blog.

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy