We’ve written about cosplayers in this magazine before. They’ve all been exceptionally wonderful people with incredible talent – but, as they say, there are many more fish in the sea. Cosplay, just like any hobby, has its ups and downs, and is more complicated than any outsider can imagine. And if you don’t cosplay, you’ve probably done some form of costuming before, or come across it – especially in its incarnation of drag. Like drag, cosplay has a community where parts of it can be welcoming and inclusive one moment, and elitist and vicious the next.

We were able to speak to two cosplayers who buck the norm quite brilliantly, offering a bit more than the garden variety cosplayer you might see in a commercial for Comic-Con. In a world where the most well-known in the cosplay world tend to be thin, busty, and (especially in the West and outside of mega cosplay hot spots like Japan) overwhelmingly white and female, these two pave their own way – and help make room for others.

First off is openly trans Alexa Heart – actually, she’s open about a lot of things. She’s as tough and as salty as they can get, with additional dashes of glamour and business savvy dropped on top. She attends conventions as a vendor as well as a cosplay guest, selling her prints and glass-etched wares. At Calgary Expo last year she spoke in a panel about diversity in cosplay and current issues she’s had to face – something which hits home for many nerds who also happen to be in the LGBTQA community.

"I’m probably one of the more visible trans faces in the nerd community," Alexa admitted. "I get a lot of hate, even if it’s not towards me, even if it’s towards another trans cosplayer."

In case you spent 2016 under a rock (which actually might have been preferable to suffering through it like the rest of us did) there has been a lot of hate towards transgender individuals in America. The ridiculous and idiotic bathroom laws, for example, which Alexa has had to deal with firsthand. "I’m very outspoken about the whole bathroom thing; when I see negative threads, I make sure to comment on them," she said.

Despite all the negativity she has had to face, Alexa is a hard nut to crack. It’s been a long slog for her, but she’s come out on top, and cosplay has helped her express herself along the way. "I was super unsure of myself, coming into cosplay. Before I started to transition, I never took pictures of myself; I hated me. But being able to cosplay, it was kind of an awakening, because people saw me as I was comfortable. It’s made me be comfy. That’s the best way I know how to put it."

Geisha is a woman of style and taste, letting her creativity flow through the art of cosplay. She also isn’t white, a rare thing in cosplay that many are pushing to change. Her costumes are varied, but no matter what she does she always ends up being a showstopper.

This has a lot to do with her beauty and presence, but also partly due to her background and involvement in the American drag community. "I love drag culture and the community, I used to host in New York City," she said. "I became very familiar and almost sisters with the Drag Queens that worked at Lucky Cheng’s at its original location. And let me tell you, for cosplayers: when a drag queen who is a professional at what they do tells you they like your headdress, you accept that compliment and you go to the moon with it."

Cosplay and drag both have heavy ties when it comes to transformational and performance art, so we asked Geisha what tactics she employs in her cosplay that harken back to her love of drag. "At this point, how they put more makeup on to emphasize the eyes," Geisha says. "I’m a makeup artist, so you would think that on the regular I would add extra. I used to in the beginning, and then I got more into the beauty makeup where you have to tone down to look more natural, so I lost that extra bit on the theatrical scale. But drag makeup reinvigorated that with me. More is less when it comes to theatrical stuff."

It’s not just makeup, though; she draws inspiration from the performance art of drag itself. "I take the acting aspect into it a lot, too. It’s very enriching and educational for me to see them project their charisma onstage."

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Contributor Mars Tonic |

Locale Calgary |

Person Alexa Heart | Geisha Vi |

Topic Calgary Expo | Celebrity Interview | Celebrity Video Interview | Comic Expo | Cosplay |