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Posted May 9, 2012 by Jerald Uy in Cosplay
 
 

Three Kings of Superhero Cosplay: Kevin Mark Bautista

Admit it. It is hard to cosplay a comicbook character especially the male ones, who either have good looks or bear a superhero physique. Even superhero villains have to be aesthetically appealing like Heath Ledger. But Myke dela Paz struck this notion with optic blasts, Nidgel Bailon killed it with laughing gas as Kevin Mark Bautista took photos of it for the obituary. These guys pulled it off.

 

KEVIN MARK BAUTISTA

Kevin Mark Bautista is a 26-year old system engineer who studied Information and Communication Technology at San Beda College. He maintains a site on geekdom, geekev.com.

 

GeeKev, what pulled you into cosplay? Don’t tell me because you’re a geek?

I grew up embracing nerdy, geeky, and pop culture stuff and I love scifi, fantasy,anime/manga and comics. I always dream to be the characters I follow and love. Then I realized that the closest thing I can get to being one of my favorite characters is through cosplay.

You get to be and feel what it is like to be someone you’ve always wanted to be. I have attended different conventions since I was a young Padawan and I started just by wearing few items from there it got serious and led to cosplay.

The first time I cosplayed was in 2005, in an event in our school. I was a random Jedi Knight. It felt awesome and wearing the costume really made me think and feel that I was actually a real Jedi. I kept waving my hands to do Jedi mind tricks and to try to make them objects move. The experience was priceless.

 

Are you a fan of sewing your costumes or do you leave that to a seamstress?

I usually check different versions of the characters I would want to cosplay and pick the one that best suits me and also my budget. I also research different materials that I can use for the costumes specially for the weapons and accessories. If there are other cosplayers (from here or abroad) who already cosplayed the same character and or version, I try to talk to them and ask for suggestions and insights on for the costumes. I also check tutorials online for making props for additional information.

I can stich and patch simple adjustments, the basic things that you learn in Home Eco in high school. But I don’t have the knowledge of the actual sewing from scratch. I make the weapons, accessories, and props but I leave the sewing to the experts. But I really get involve with it. I usually pick the fabrics and materials for the costumes and I try to explain it to them (to the tailor) in detail and how I want it to come out. Sometimes I even sketch parts of the costume and bring as much reference items and pictures just to be sure.

 

What are your favorite and worst cosplayed characters?

It is hard to pick since all of the characters I cosplayed are my favorite characters. But the best ones for me would be:

1. Harry Potter (Hogwarts school uniform version)
2. Robin (Damian Wayne version)
3. Spider Man (Peter Parker/Spider Sense version)
4. Cyclops (Ultimate and First Class version)
5. Sherlock Holmes (Movie version)

My least favorite cosplayed characters are:

1. Multiple Man – because I wasn’t able to complete the costume.

2. Karate Kid (80s movie version) – because people in events keep calling me Ryu from Street Fighter (Laughs).

 

Cosplay Fail. Any crazy thing happened when you were cosplaying?

Lots of crazy things happen in conventions, but I believe that crazy is normal in cons, well at least for me haha! If you consider crazy as embarrassing situations, I can name a few. Like times when someone keeps calling you a different character, this happens all the time. Times when your costume receives the wardrobe malfunction syndrome. There was this event when I was wearing my Robin costume and one of my boots got ripped halfway, I ended up walking awkwardly funny the whole event.

 

How has cosplaying changed you?

It really helped improve my self-confidence specially when interacting with different people. It also helped me develop my social skills. On the personal side, you get to meet new friends and awesome people who have the same passion and interests. It’s really a great opportunity to share your insights and thoughts with fellow enthusiasts.

 

Have you experienced being looked down by your peers and family because you cosplay?

Not really, my friends are also con goers, even though some of them don’t do cosplay they are also otakus and geeks. For my family they are also supportive and they even suggest things that I can do or use for my cosplay projects. There was this time that there was a cosplay competition they heard about that I didn’t know and they informed me immediately when they saw it on a newspaper.

Do you intend to stop cosplaying in the future?


As of now, I don’t think so. I love cosplay and going to conventions. I may tone down a bit on the costumes and maybe try to do simple ones as I get older but I won’t completely stop.

What advice can you give other guys who aspire to cosplay?

Just go for it. You don’t need to go flashy. Just express what you like and love. It is a warm community and everybody is welcome. I can tell you a lot of things but the feeling and the rush cannot be completely expressed by mere words. I assure you that it is a great experience.

Is there anything you would like to say or promote? Some shoutout to your friends?

I would like to greet my nerdmigos, the AIT boys who’ve been sharing geekdom and countless cons with me eons ago! Shout out to my cosplay group/family Phil X-Men team and all my cosplayer friends! I would also like to share my simple blog site, geekev.com.

Live long and prosper!
May the force be with you!
So say we all!

Thanks Kevin, good luck with your next cosplay!

 

 


Jerald Uy