white cotton ones and dyed them instead – again not stirring the dye bath, in order to give it a textured look. I reused the sleeves of the jacket for boot covers, attaching snaps to the leggings to make sure they stayed in place. I fabricated the belt from scratch; the same with the head scarf, fraying the ends as needed. I had previous experience with gauntlets thanks to my Witchblade costume, so the prince’s glove wasn’t entirely terrifying to make. I started with a leather gardening glove, elongated it with Wonderflex, and used paper to pattern out the pieces for the claw. I made a point to cut and position the pieces so that the fingers would still articulate. From there I heated the pieces and molded them to my hand, and used puff paint to add the patterning. The last steps were distressing the gauntlet with paint, and adding accent pieces and leather to polish off the look. I had such a great time cosplaying as the Princess of Persia that I opted to debut another crossplay the very next year. Two-Face has always been one of my favorite villains. Instead of replicating the more realistic version of Two-Face from the movies, I wanted to play with the styling from Batman: The Animated Series by contrasting electric blue makeup with the crisp black and white suit. I also thought it would be interesting to try something simultaneously grotesque and glamourous.
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In reality, the costume wasn’t that difficult to pull together. It took a few weeks to find similar cut suits on eBay, but the corsets and shoes were easy enough to secure. Non-prescription contacts were slightly hard to come by, and slightly hard to wear considering I had never used them before. Even with the costume done I was nervous that the look wouldn’t come together. As such, I didn’t tell anyone about Lady Two-Face until I stepped out the hotel door at San Diego Comic Con 2011. I had nothing to worry about though, because Hydred Makabali the makeup artist I hire for SDCC every year - knocked the look out of the park. It took six hours of applying blue latex, sculpting wax, acrylic nails, and white hair spray to finish, but I’m very, very happy with the result. Lady Two-Face is one of my favorite costumes to date. CG: You recently cosplayed as Anya Stroud from Gears of War; what was the most difficult part of this costume and how did you pull it off? MM: I love Gears of War. Not only do I love the games, but I’ve read all the novels and comics so to stay caught up on cannon. My fandom landed me a spot on the Game Informer/Gears of War 3 cover story team back when I worked at the magazine, and that particular trip is when it was first hinted at that the women of the Gears universe would be taking up COG armor. Our suspicions were confirmed when the final cover art arrived at the office, showcasing Anya in full combat regalia. From the moment I saw Anya suited up, I knew I wanted to cosplay as her. Sewing the pants and corset was more time consuming rather than difficult. The armor took months to complete, and choosing the best technique was the result of much trial and error. I ended up using a hybrid of motocross armor, Wonderflex, and craft foam. I actually have no idea what the large circle pieces on the chest are, but I think they’re somehow associated with toilets, as I found them in the plumbing department of my local hardware store.
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After finishing the armor, I used a soldering iron to burn in battle damage and make it look worn and weathered. Afterwards I
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