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When just about every character known to the comic universe has been recreated at a comic-con, a cosplayer has to make sure he or she stands out in a crowd.

If you missed Michael Wong on Saturday during the NWI Comic-Con at Halls of St. George in Schererville, you were either mesmerized by a million other sights or just outright blind. Wong, of Cincinnati, adorned himself in a 9-foot Count Chocula costume, an homage to the cereal commercials of Wong’s youth.

And Count Chocula was not the first in his cereal costumes. His first, a 7-foot Frankenberry, was a big hit when he debuted it two years ago.

“I had that one for a while, so I did this one by popular demand,” Wong said, speaking through the abdomen of his creation. “It took me 300 hours to complete, and I chose them because no one I’d ever seen had done it before.”

The lines to get into the convention remained long into the afternoon, a testament to how popular cosplay events continue to be. Co-founder Kelly Grabinski, who handles logistics while her husband, Brian, handles the artists, said Halls of St. George has been a great venue since they moved to it from Villa Cesare three years ago, but they remain on the lookout for bigger places.

“We’re always scoping out places, but here works because we have everything we need,” she said. “When we do our local artist event in June, it’ll be held in a smaller venue because we won’t have the costume contests.”

Row upon row of comic memorabilia lined the giant banquet center, with plenty of artists in between. Daejuan Jacobs, of Chicago, had shirts and illustrations of his comic, “Fractals,” a dystopian tale set in a one-world government setting. The protagonists, a TSA agent and underground hacker, start doing off-the-books computer hacking jobs when they discover the world order is much bigger and more dangerous than they’d thought.

Jacobs said he and his wife, Diane, enjoy coming up with the stories and scripts, and they have an artist create the moody, atmospheric drawings. It can be a challenge to do the comic while holding down a job and going to school, especially when you’re a perfectionist with your work, Jacobs said.

“I’ll write a script and set it down for a few days, and when I go back to it a few weeks later, it’s always, ‘What was I thinking?’ and I end up rewriting,” Jacobs said.

Rae Culler, 14, of Crown Point, and a group of her friends know the feeling of creating something you love. Each of them spent weeks getting their costumes ready, they said. One of her friends, Madison, 14, made it to the final round of the costume contest with her portrayal of Natsu Dragneel.

“It’s cool when you’ve worked so hard on your costume and everyone realizes who you are,” Rae said.

The social aspect is also a huge factor for Ella, 13, Em, 14, and Thomas, 10. For them, it’s a way to let loose, they said.

“Here, I’m not my usual, awkward self,” Ella said.

“I don’t really do well in real life so it’s fun for people to recognize you,” Em added.

Applications are available for the Northwest Artist and Comic Expo on June 11 at the Patrician in Schererville. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/nwicomiccon.

Michelle Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

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