Granite State Comic Con 2023 Saturday Gallery Part 1

Are conventions back to their pre-pandemic states? When it comes to attendance numbers, it sure seems so. Last month, I had the busiest Friday at Fan Expo Boston 2023 of any Fan Expo Boston I’ve ever experienced. And this past weekend I took more photos on Saturday at Granite State Comic Con than any previous Saturday. In fact, I haven’t taken enough photos to make up four galleries from a Saturday at that convention since 2018 — well before the pandemic. Even more so, I took more than 30 more photos last Saturday than I had at the busiest previous GraniteCon Saturday — again, in 2018.

I heard on Sunday from a top staffer at GraniteCon that it set an attendance record on Saturday. Based on how many cosplayers I took photos of and how I completely forgot to eat anything until the convention was over, I absolutely believe it. Kudos to GraniteCon and to its creators, Double Midnight Comics, for reaching this milestone.

Another sign that the convention scene is almost back to normal (or whatever the new normal is) is that I saw cosplay friends I haven’t seen in more than three years. But that new normal is also on display in these galleries — some people are wearing masks while many are not. I think that is going to be the future of conventions — mask use will increase or decrease based on local or CDC guidelines (for example, as I’m typing this, hospitalization and death rates from covid are climbing again and mask mandates may come back). But masks will never completely go away, and I am fine with that. Mask use, covid aside, would help reduce the transmission of cold and flu during conventions, reducing the instances of “con crud” and that alone is worth an increase mask use.

Among the cosplayers in this first of four Saturday galleries are briezerkerbrand, the__devil__you__know, Lunsum, hekabekah, ashesdaphoenix, R. W. Martin, YumeLilyy, 9realms.entertainment, trashmouse_cosplay, beepboop_cos.plays, peachie_medicine, _lady_guinevere_, rebelmomcosplay, ageoforton87, hirokichanuke, scarborough_gatekeeper, miserbilality, theillustriousq, kefkafloyd, flashfox38, sullivangalaxyforge, Magic and Pop Culture, Saurian Warrior Cosplay, emilydrouinart, lotrek_cosplay, 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 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, many of the characters being cosplayed here wouldn’t exist. Please consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund here.