Calendars featuring cosplayers are generally nothing new these days with thousands of conventions happening every year, but an Arizona duo is attempting to change things up with their project calendar featuring an all-male cast of costumers.
Local artist Anabel Martinez and renowned local costume-builder Allen Amis (widely known at conventions for his Samurai Boba Fett armor), launched their ‘Men vs. Cosplay’ Kickstarter project on Wednesday in order to shine a spotlight on high quality male cosplayers.
The duo reportedly began testing the idea via Facebook and garnered largely positive response and enthusiasm from cosplayers who wanted in on the project.
“We had people shooting us messages back and forth asking us 1) how to get posted on the page and 2) what is this calendar and how they could get involved,” said Martinez in the Kickstarter project video. “People who didn’t know us at all were willing to come on board and volunteer their time to make it happen.”
The project has a goal of $4,500 and features copies of the 2014 calendar with various digital goodies for backers. Martinez confirmed with Nerdvana that there are no stretch goals as of yet, but they are being planned for later on in the projects’ campaign. The Kickstarter is set to end on September 6.
Among the cosplayers involved are names such as Cap Santiago (who showed off his epic Dragonborn costume during the 2013 Phoenix Comicon masquerade), Rick Boer (featured by Kotaku for his realistic Snake cosplay), Allen Amis himself with his NCR Ranger armor, and many more seen on the project page.
Amis and Martinez decided to focus on videogame costumers specifically for their launch calendar, with the option of pursuing different genres for potential calendars in the future.
