Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Morgan Patch, an amateur cosplayer that the Pullbox ran into at this year’s C2E2. He has been cosplaying since he was 11 years old and is involved in a variety of fandoms. It was really cool hearing from him and I am so excited to share!
Lily: What inspired you to get into cosplay?
Morgan: {I} Really just wanted to ‘join in’ on all the people I saw with cool costumes at the convention (C2E2) I’d go to. I would see just about every character I could imagine and I thought it’d be fun to experience that ‘Halloween’ feeling again.
Lily: What are your favorite fandoms and do your cosplays reflect them?
Morgan: A lot of my favorites fandoms/groups are about video games and some movies/TV shows. Primarily Legend of Zelda, Elder Scrolls, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Firefly, (a lot of the ‘generic picks’, I know). I haven’t done many cosplays yet, and my primary one has been more of a continuous process (viking).
Lily: What types of cosplays have you made/worn so far?
Morgan: I’ve gone as Steve from Minecraft, a viking/dragonborn/dwarf/whatever (more of an amalgamation/continuous upgrade), Wash from Firefly, and a few others.
Lily: How often do you cosplay, and how do you balance your life with cosplay?
Morgan: I generally use my viking costume a few times throughout the year at any conventions I go to, Halloween, 4th of July/Christmas Parade (for SONS; Sons of Norway heritage group). I usually only go to C2E2, but in the past few years I have gone to a few more (Anime Midwest, a semi-local horror-con, and some other more local smaller-scale cons). Generally school comes first for me because I haven’t been as serious about cosplaying as compared to others, so balancing time hasn’t been much of a problem.
Lily: Do you travel to conventions often? Where do you showcase your cosplay?
Morgan: …I don’t tend to go to many conventions, more what is available or convenient. I try and dress up whenever possible though, as it’s a lot of fun to see people’s heads turn.
Lily: In what ways are you involved in the cosplaying community?
Morgan: I’m not as active in any real cosplay communities, but among my group of friends that I have gone to a couple conventions with {which} we share ideas and tips. If I ever get more serious about cosplaying, I’ll probably try to join some Discord communities to learn more.
Lily: What is your favorite part of cosplaying? Do you have a favorite memory of your cosplaying experience?
Morgan: My favorite part of cosplaying is definitely the reactions you get when people see or recognize you. It always was fun to count the number of times people would stop me to take a picture at C2E2, or people doing a double take when they see me walking. One particular time that wasn’t really a cosplay experience but had to do with my viking costume was during midterms at my college. It was Halloween and I asked some friends if I should take a midterm with my costume on. The answer was unanimous. I took the entirety of my linear networks midterm with my full viking costume on, heavy metal helmet included. That sure got some head turns.
Lily: What is your building process for cosplaying? What types of materials do you use?
Morgan: I haven’t done much actual building of individual components for my cosplays, but I have plans for a rather large Reinhart cosplay (Overwatch). I have ideas for what materials I’d use and how to make certain aspects work (LEDs, formable cosplay foam, stilts, etc.). It would be a great undertaking, but once I have the time and the space to store it, I’d really like to work on it (or a project of similar scale).
