VIDEO: Oxford Draws In Cosplay

By: Chad Groening

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI)- The event was a geek oriented Comic and Toy show-Oxford Edition.

Julia Waltress of the Discordia Culture Shop was one of the sponsors.

“Well in the end we’re all geeks and nerds for something and the best way to show that off bring that out you got to come out go an event. I think there’s a lot of the secret nerdom we all have the thing we geek out to when we’re alone and it’s okay we need to bring it out. we need to show it off,” says Waltress.

Waltress, who is from Pontotoc says her shop offers unusual toys that you can’t find in normal toy stores. And if you wanted some vintage comic books Stacy Irby of Tupelo was on hand with some vintage classics like Superman and Batman. He says social media has helped spur their popularity.

“Because you’ve got so many new TV shows on and everything like that, so that kind of makes it real popular these days thanks to that. Some are valued more than others you know, it depends on what kind of condition they’re in and stuff like that. But you can usually do pretty good on them,” says Irby.

And of course what would a comic-con be without cosplay?

Monique and Kelli are mother and daughter and travel around the country decked out in Stars Wars costumes they make themselves.

“It’s a bonding experience for us. We get to craft together, spend a lot of time together. I enjoy being with my daughter. It’s bonding. It’s something we both enjoy. We all grew up with Star Wars. And it’s fabulous, fabulous movie trilogy that was put together,” says Monique.

“My mom really got me into the things that I love right now like Star Wars and Animae so she started the obsession with me. It’s just a tradition and we really love it and we’re glad that we’ve made sorta kind a career out of it. This is what we do. We travel to conventions togther and it’s a whole lot of bonding and like I would never ask for anything else,” says Kelli.

And another interesting event at today’s show was this woman doing virtual reality art. Melanie Addington with the Oxford Film Festival says the technology has come a long way.

“Well it started with video games but now filmmakers have been using it. There’s a lot of new 360 degree cameras out there today and so a lot of filmmakers are making films in virtual reality. And you basically get to experience the film all around you,” says Addington.

Addington says there is a lot more coming in virtual reality technology.

There will be another big comic con event this coming April in Tupelo.