NYCC 2023 Saturday Gallery 1 by Wonderllama Photo

For the first time in 5+ years, I combined two of my favorite things about conventions. For New York Comic Con, I brought two of my favorite cosplays along with my camera gear. It was also my first time getting a celebrity photo-op — three, in fact.

I spent Friday as the loveable half-drunk barbarian Grog from Legend of Vox Machina. I got fun photos with the actor who voices Grog, Travis Willingham. That afternoon, I had an epic group shot with the actor who voices Pike, Ashley Johnson, along with my bestie and Nerd Caliber contributor, Gogo Incognito, in her amazing Pike cosplay. As Blackbeard on Sunday, Gogo and I got a fantastic photo with the cast of Our Flag Means Death. Half the fun of the photo ops was queuing with fans and cosplayers of both of these beloved TV shows, comparing notes and making jokes.

In between, I spent the entire day Saturday in the tunnel making photos with the incredible, talented cosplayers. Even cold rainy weather couldn’t keep people from showing off their hard work. Cosplays ranged from anime to DC and Marvel comics, What We Do in the Shadows to Barbie mashups. Working in such a high-traffic spot all day has the benefit of making it easy for people to find me and say hello. I saw friends from around Boston and New England, along with friends I only see at NYCC. It’s a great opportunity to catch up and reconnect.

Cosplayers in this gallery include the_absinthe_rabbit, leahvoysey, dweismantrophy, abbyy.seann, lazcosplays, remtv_, elenablueskies, chwcosplay, lilystitches, makermage, nikita_83, mrgoodmuse, artemistyck, queenmabcos, silvermusicnotes, annieexmachina, toodleloucos, and many more.

We now use Smugmug to present cosplay photo galleries and will post all photos there, with a link to each gallery in its own gallery article. This will allow us to give you higher resolution images to download — still for free.

To view the entire gallery, just click on the image below. If you are pictured in any of our galleries, feel free to download the images and use them non-commercially on social media, with appropriate credit.

If you like our work and want to show your appreciation, feel free to tip us at Ko-fi or become a patron on Patreon.

Also, High-res images for sale is back!

If you are pictured in any of our galleries and want the high-resolution (3200 pixels at its widest by 300dpi) download for yourself, we can make it available via a private Smugmug link, for $10 per image. Just send an email to editor AT nerdcaliber.com. Currently limited to only photos taken by FirstPerson Shooter (aka Rodney Brown).

This was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, many of the characters being cosplayed here wouldn’t exist. Please consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund here.