My first endeavor as the official SXSW correspondent for the UPROXX Network (spoiler alert: I’m the only one who lives in Austin) was to take in the festival’s ScreenBurn Arcade, the Alienware-sponsored three day expo that has become the hip new place for video game industry announcements, product demos and game tournaments. More importantly, it’s become the number one place in central Texas to meet Jeph Loeb and stand next to Jessica Nigri as she pro-cosplays Juliet from ‘Lollipop Chainsaw’ and pretends to murder me at the neck. It’s a good time.
Jessica’s not the only person cosplaying at Screenburn — Austin loves dressing up to go to convention centers (or for no reason at all), and one of the event’s highlights was Sunday’s costume competition.
Because I’m not ashamed to walk up to people and say, “oh my God, you’re dressed like Zangief, can I take a picture?” here are some of my favorites (and a few more of Lollipop Chainsaw at the end).
Oh my God, you’re dressed like Zangief. This was probably my favorite non-“busty cheerleader who kills zombies” costume of the day.
Here comes a new challenger!
Rogue was so accurate (and popular!) that she got brought on stage before the Marvel panel, where she had to suffer through the host’s terrible improv. “Who likes X-Men? Okay, who likes Avengers? Okay, who likes Spider-Man?” Okay, who likes being prepared with better material?
She also got a few special privileges from Axel Alonso and Jeph Loeb at the autograph table.
Maybe the Zangief guy should’ve cosplayed as Colossus.
Zombies were everywhere at Screenburn.
Case in point.
The ‘Firefall’ characters coming to life (alongside their prop counterparts) at Interactive Screen Burn.
No cosplay event is complete without a Link.
My second favorite costume of the day: Jun from ‘Gatchaman’.
Arkham Asylum Harley Quinn and (I’m guessing) Cesar Romero Joker.
What, you couldn’t have been T. Hawk?
If cosplaying becomes too tiring, you can always chill in the Sumo bean bag chairs that’re everywhere.
Baby Predator alert!
The Lollipop Chainsaw zombie school bus.
Yeah, I’m not cool.