GUEss the Halloween costume

It would have been easy to just use this as an opportunity to draw a bunch of obscure characters I personally like, but at that point why not just draw full-on fanart? I wanted each character’s costume to be something they would actually pick, revealing a little tidbit about each of their personalities.

Will and Astrid: I think for most adults, Halloween becomes a holiday where you more or less abandon fantastical costumes in favor of using the opportunity to look nice, in a way you don’t usually have the chance to. This breaks apart, however, in the face of Will being a dopey manchild, and Astrid acting like an autismo.

Gareth: There was an idea of Gareth originally going as Rykard or Radon from Elden Ring, but he strikes me as a much more old-school nerd. He’s also someone who doesn’t take himself particularly seriously, and who probably wouldn’t know how to dress ‘cool’ if his life depended on it. He picks the goofy route.

Mary: Unashamed of her nerdier side, but still wants to look nice, and knows how to follow through. She probably reads a lot of Shojo manga.

Pecheki: Immediately went for the sluttiest option that a 30-something political figure can get away with. She has become fully adult-pilled regarding halloween, and the notion of making a cheeky reference to some piece of media is so much less important than looking hot that it basically doesn’t even register. She probably found the costume idea on a pinterest board.

Brock and Ceasar: The crux of these two’s character sorta lies in the contrast between them being extracompetent at youthful mischief and rapscallionism, while simultaneously being unusually intelligent or mature for their age (though not so much so that they aren’t, ultimately, still just kids in spirit). This manifests in slightly different ways for each. Ceasar is probably unusually well-read, while Brock could probably operate a car flawlessly. One might consider it somewhat racist to have the darker-skinned of the duo be the street-smart one, but keep in mind that Brock is half-indian, so if you think about, it’s actually a rather progressive move.

What kind of 12-year old’s favorite DBZ character is Bardock?

Calbain: I had to. One enigmatic uni-colored character dresses as another. The fact that guessing who this character is in grayscale is nigh-impossible only adds to the running joke.

Mel: I feel as if, in the process of searching for a fun costume, I transplanted myself into Mel’s brain and felt her pain. Recognizable plus size pop-culture female characters are shockingly sparse, especially if you abide by the “adults wear clothes, not costumes” rule, which Mel definitely would. Her multitude of self-conscious hangups would prevent her from dressing as anything too obscure (she lacks Astrid’s bold “actually, you’re the fucking idiot here” mindset) or from dressing up as anyone noticeably thinner than her, lest it inevitably provoke in the viewer one of two reactions: the “aww, you’re dressing up as someone prettier than you in an attempt to look pretty, but the difference in weight makes this a pitiable and jarring failure” or the “huh. You dressed up as fat Margot Tenenbaum. Nice”. And so, with so few options to pick from, one of the only options with a slick and recognizable style is selected— even if that means going as a patently unlikable murderer. Mel will play this off as the intention, of course, doing playful mock-stabbings at all the guests, but deep down she wishes she were someone else, in a way no costume could afford.