Calling all cosplayers

Humboldt County expresses inner nerd at Ohana Comic Con

Hosted at the Blue Lake Casino, Ohana Comic Con is the first comic convention to be hosted in Humboldt County. Locals and out of town vendors set up stands to sell, meet enthusiasts and have an overall good time.

Professional cosplayers Cammie Duvall and Ashton Taylor said they were having a great time at the con.

“It’s always fun to meet new people at conventions,” Duvall said. “Nerds coming together dressing as nerds is always fun.”

Duvall and Taylor set up a stand together to sell photo prints of their cosplay.

“For seven years I’ve been cosplaying,” Taylor said. “Seeing the cosplay community grow overtime has made continue to dress up over the years.”

Stands for local businesses was also at the convention. Danielle Jones, who founded “Cream N Things,” and sold her handmade soaps. Jones is a Humboldt State University graduate with a masters in science in Natural Resources.

“I founded my business because my skin has a bad reaction with store bought soaps.” Jones said. “Since then, I’ve been making soaps out natural material. Stuff like goat fat, I know that’s weird, but stuff seen as ‘waste’ can be used for something beneficial.”

Family and friends stopped by the comic con, dressed as their favorite comic, anime, film and video game character. Some of the costumes range from store bought to custom made.

Locals Rebecca Hayes and Richard Strobach cosplayed as their favorite video game characters. Hayes dressed as Link from the Legend of Zelda series and Strobach was dressed as Master Chief from the Halo series.

“This is my first time at a convention dressed up,” Hayes said. “This won’t be my last one either.”

“Some of the parts was store bought but I had to modify some of it,” Strobach said. “It took me about a month to make.”

Artists were taking commissions for fans and random passerby who were interested in their art. Danielle DeMartini was one of the various artists who set a stand up for her art. She busily took sketch commissions and sold her artwork prints.

“I’ve been drawing for 14 years now,” DeMartini said. “I didn’t expect so many people to stop by the stand and ask for my drawings, the turn out is great.”

Blue Lake Casino’s management was happy with the amount of attendees at the Ohana Comic Con, and they’re already planning to host another one next year.