Getting their Con on

Saturday, storm troopers, princesses, wolverines, Ghostbusters and Harry Potter characters swarmed the Coeur d’Alene Library. The second Coeur d’Con was underway and hundreds of people — babies, little kids, teenagers and adults — dressed up as their favorite movie, comic, anime or video game characters.

Steampunk women wandered among Pac-Man, Deadpool and characters from Alice in Wonderland.

“It’s mostly about what’s fun and interesting and what brings out our inner child,” said Jacob Cobb, dressed as Jayne from the T.V. series “Firefly.” “Anybody can cross one cartoon with another and girls can dress as male characters and vice versa.”

The Ghostbusters were one of the favorite cosplays walking around. Everyone stopped them to complement them on their outfits and asked to take pictures.

Neil Frolich and Jason Bendixen from Spokane have been slowly adding to their costumes for the past three years. They have the jumpsuits, the proton packs with flashing lights and cords all over, goggles and more.

“If I had all the money I’d be able to put this together in a matter of months,”Frolich said. “We go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and you can find pretty much everything you need.”

Another mighty but small character walking through the library was the Ninja Turtle Princess. The 4-year-old dressed as a Ninja Turtle with a tutu and cape, Poppy Hegsted, loved looking at all the costumes. Her favorite costume… “the Minion!” But the best part, she said, was “I have powers!”

On the upper level of the library there was a gaming area where people could compete at Mario Smash Bros. Downstairs, people meandered past tables full of sketches, comics and paintings of different anime, video game and movie characters. There was a table selling stuffed animal characters and another selling fairy-dust jewelry.

Esther Mann, dressed like a steampunk Amelia Earhart, was selling her digital artwork. She works off 3D models and uses computer software to draw and paint. Her artwork is mostly of characters she made up herself — a warrior armed in silver metal holding a sword, a fire fairy flying in a swirl of red and orange.

“It’s a nice artists community here,” Mann said. “I like seeing what all my friends are selling and their new work. I like being able to hang out with a lot of people who enjoy the same genres as me.”

Another steampunk woman in the crowd was Mickey Bennet of Post Falls. She found her rust-colored ball gown at a garage sale and fashioned her own gloves to look like they are made of big metal chunks and gears.

“I like seeing all the different cosplays and I love to see the process people take building them,” she said. “The most interesting part of this is putting cosplays together.”

At the end of the day Saturday, everyone got to vote for their favorite costume in the cosplay competition. The three categories were for kids, teens and adults.

Kyle and Aubrey Craviotto won the adult contest dressed as steampunk Wonder Woman and steampunk Superman. Grace Hoppie won the teen competition dressed as Juzzou Suzuya, an anime character. Luthor Davis won the youth competition dressed as Pac-Man. The overall winner was Shawn Shay dressed as Sir Didymus Warington, the mermaid hunter.