Playing a role: Cosplayers descend on island’s first con

Kiana Davis isn’t sure if her obsession with cosplay is healthy — but it sure is fun.

The teenager from Hilo wore orange wings on her back and feathers around her neck Saturday at HawaiiCon, a three-day event that took up several ballrooms at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel and featured appearances from TV stars, scientists and comic book creators. The convention, the first of its kind on the Big Island, featured dozens of events and workshops on the themes of science, science fiction and fantasy.

Central to it all, of course, was dress-up, or costume play. Decked out as their favorite characters from comic books, video games or TV shows, cosplayers sauntered around in ornate, sometimes bizarre costumes that, in many cases, showed off hours of painstaking handiwork.

“Sometimes making the costume is so stressful and terrible, but it’s worth it,” said Davis, who was playing the character Davesprite from the web comic Homestuck.

Her sister, Denali, portrayed Aradia, from the same comic.

“Some people write stories, some people express their love of a show or game through cosplay,” said Denali Davis, who attends Hilo High School.

The ability to let the imagination and hands go wild in a creative act is a big part of the appeal of the performance art, said Holly Conrad, a professional cosplayer from the reality show “Heroes of Cosplay” on the Syfy channel. Though it has recently exploded in popularity, cosplay has been around longer than people think, Conrad said.

“I think what’s happening is people are finding out how fun it is to just have a moment of fantasy. It’s like Halloween all the time,” said Conrad, who was equipped with an oversized space gun, furry ears, armor and a bushy tail, passing herself off as Rocket Raccoon from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” comic books.

Kona resident Krystal Grow said it is empowering to portray a character she idealizes. Grow travels to anime-based cosplay conventions on Oahu and in California, where she meets and bonds with others who share the same passion.

“You get to choose a character you are not like and you get to put on that costume and that makes you feel like that person,” said Grow, 22, who dressed as Lucina from the role-playing video game Fire Emblem.

“I keep it a hobby, but it’s one I spend a lot of time on,” she added.

Jessica Hall, an East Hawaii real estate agent, is one of the five founding members of the convention. Hall said her group had been working for about a year and half to make the event happen. The idea originated with Big Island filmmaker G.B. Hajim, who traveled to various conventions promoting his 2012 animated science-fiction film “Strange Frame.”

“The stars he was meeting were saying, why isn’t there a con in Hawaii?” Hall said.

The island’s volcanoes and telescopes made the convention’s themes an obvious choice.

“A lot of the scientists who have come to talk said they got into science by watching sci-fi,” she said.

Attendees who came to hear tips from television producers, comic book authors and professional costume designers brought not just the trappings of another character but dreams of future stardom. David Limburg traveled from London to take part in the convention. Sauntering about in a smokestack hat, gloves and a cane, Limburg portrayed the Baron, a character from his own as yet unrealized book “The Power Crystal,” which he wrote in 1985.

“It will get there one day,” he sighed. “Life gets in the way.”

“I have publishers lined up who will work with me to make it a great story,” he added. “I am the one who is the cause of the delay.”

Among the lineup of stars who shared their experiences was Richard Hatch, who played Captain Apollo on the original “Battlestar Galactica” TV series; Torri Higginson, who acted in the feature film “The English Patient”; and engineer Bobak Ferdowski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which specializes in robotic planetary spacecraft.

With total attendance around 700, interest in HawaiiCon has been solid, considering the event is in its first year, Hall said.

“We want it to be an annual event,” she said. “We are already scheduled here for a four-day convention Sept. 10 to 13 next year.”