The coolest cosplay from New York Comic Con 2023

The Javits Center was packed all weekend with fans in amazing homemade outfits

Tens of thousands of pop culture lovers, including tons of insanely creative cosplayers dressed as their favorite characters, turned the Javits Center into a multiverse party this past weekend for the annual New York Comic Con.

It’s an unapologetic, uninhibited celebration of comics, video games, movies, anime, TV shows, manga, cartoons and just about anything out there that has earned a certain level of fandom. Or not! Characters from huge universes like Marvel, Nintendo and Pokemon remain heavily represented among cosplayers, but there were also lots of goofy mashups roaming around (for example, Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach crossed with Boba Fett) as well as hilariously niche get-ups. My favorite in the latter category: Mr. Bean with his head caught in a turkey.

Mr. Bean stuck in a turkey (Photo by Scott Lynch)

“Cosplay gives you a way to be weird, and be yourself, around a bunch of other people that feel the same way,” Nettie Caldwell of the Bronx, who was dressed as Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu, told Brooklyn Magazine. “You’re not judged by anybody. Everybody’s weird, everybody’s different and you’re accepted no matter what in the cosplay community.”

Or as Kurt Tacastacas, dressed as Toad from Super Mario Brothers, put it: “I want to challenge myself every year using a new type of material, and this year it happens to be foam. From planning to production it took about a month and a half to pull this outfit together. For me the appeal of cosplay is that it’s an artistic thing that’s not work-related. No one tells me what to do. I have 100 percent autonomy. And it’s one time a year I get to do this, to build something from scratch, and present it to the world.”

Kurt Tacastacas of Hell’s Kitchen dressed as Toad from Super Mario Brothers (Scott Lynch)

That said, commerce drives much of the action here. Basic admission to the Comic Con is $80, and the massive space is crammed full with big-name brands selling things like vinyl toys and hyping upcoming entertainments. There are dozens of celebrity photo-ops for sale (Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, commanded $260 for a single shot), and all sorts of prints and paintings are available at the expansive “Artists Alley.”

Sunset Park resident Haley Radomski told me that she usually winds up spending too much money at Comic Con, but it’s the cosplay that makes the weekend special. “This year I’m the Bright Queen from Critical Role: Campaign Two,” she said. “I made the chain mail, the scale mail, the foam armor. I braided the wig… she’s really cool! I was an art major in college, and I really like crafting and creating, and having a cosplay idea slowly come together piece by piece over many weeks is just really satisfying.”