Geeks and proud of it

Kayla Kreizel and Josh Arlt have a healthy fantasy life. The Humphrey couple enjoys dressing up in characters, from super heroes to Games of Thrones to Disney characters, and participating in various forms of comicons, which are conventions held around the country for fans of nonfiction stories, comic books, television shows and movies. In what is called cosplay, or costume play, Kayla, 28, is the seamstress and creator of the costumes, recreating costumes for the couple they wear at the conventions, their annual Halloween party and come October, their wedding. Kayla grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons, playing video games and reading comic books and her love of cosplay grew from there. “I’ve always loved to read and get into the fantasies. I’ve always loved nerd stuff. It was always fun to escape into a fantasy world,” she said. At 17 she went to a convention in Chicago, but her first experience participating was a couple years ago at Anime NebrasKon in Omaha. “It was such a fun experience, and people said I should dress up, so the first character I dressed up as was Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter,” Kayla said. She is thinking about organizing a convention in Columbus, with the help of friends. “They don’t have anything around here, so I thought it’d be fun to run one. It takes a lot of work, setting up vendors, running panels, which are basically a learning experience, like cosplay 101. You’ll dress up like a character, and they’ll teach you how to get into your character,” she said. Josh, 32, said his interest in cosplay has grown since he met Kayla about seven years ago, but he and his friends did play Dungeons and Dragons growing up. “There are different types of nerds and geeks. Me, I played the games, but I was never into dressing up, but going to the conventions are fun because you meet people who are like-minded, and you can talk geek and they understand you,” he said. Josh said dressing up is not his norm, but enjoys it, and went to his first convention in November at NebrasKon. “She pushes and prods and gets me out of my comfort zone, but it’s worth it, it’s fun,” he said.

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