Cosplayer Of Color Profile: Knightmage

To celebrate Black History Month, we take a moment to highlight seven cosplayers of color whose contributions to geek culture and the greater cosplay community go well beyond their costumes. Second up:

Knightmage

Knightmage is a hero. He doesn’t just dress up as a hero, he is one. A Deputy Sheriff by day, by night and weekend he is tireless crusader for a host of children’s charities and hospitals. Knightmage got into cosplay through charitable work. His height, powerful physique, and experience as a professional stuntman make him a natural for cosplaying strong, muscular characters such as Batman, Spawn, Hellboy, Predator, Kratos, and more. It didn’t take long for him to start being invited to conventions as a cosplay guest. He came up with the idea of “free prints” for charity, where people can take a print and leave a donation. With every print comes an honest to goodness, awesome hug. Besides prints, and sometimes props that he’ll make and sell for charity, Knightmage is partnered with an organization called Capes4Heroes, which visits hospitals and delivers personalized superhero capes to children. Last year, he joined them for their East Coast Crusade and hit up seven cities in the span of two weeks. This year, he’ll be doing it all over again.

Knightmage tries to work with as many different charities as possible, always looking for local organizations to assist in whatever city or state he happens to be in for a con or other work. In the past three years of cosplaying, Knightmage has contributed to over 100 different charities. He frequently works in cosplay for Putting Down First, a Down’s Syndrome awareness organization, A Way with Words, which uses the arts to empower children with cancer, and Make-a-Wish foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill children. It’s no surprise that Knightmage has been awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service award for his tireless dedication and charity work.

Knightmage currently has more than 60 cosplays in his arsenal. Every year he puts together a new version of Spawn, and, for fun, he recently tried out his first genderbend cosplay — Lara Croft. Ms. Croft was a “ten minute gag closet cosplay,” but was still incredibly well-received. This year, he’s planning on 20 new cosplays. He’s an amazing costumer and cosplayer, and an incredibly inspiring human being. Keep up with this incredible man at http://facebook.com/knightmage1.

For more incredible cosplayers of color, find and follow the #29DaysofBlackCosplay hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. And find Gogo Incognito at http://Facebook.com/GogoIncognito and http://Instagram.com/geekchicsuperfreak.

Feature photo by Gwen Graham.