Tolkien Elves and Cosplay at Denver Comic Con (2014)

Comic Con is essentially this: a sprawling exhibit hall filled with a gaggle of fantasy and sci-fi celebrities, cool comic book artists showing their skills, and wily merchants selling comic books and scraps of pop culture. While downstairs a bunch of nifty discussion panels are held (let's talk about zombies!). But what's best about Comic Con is watching the attendees, especially those who dress like their favorite comic book characters. Like these guys:

Hey you on the lower right: a t-shirt is not a costume!

Or how about these X-Men and Women:


I always seem to find one of my favorite Neil Gaiman characters from the Sandman series. This year I found two:

Death...


...and, uh, Death, presumably checking on the living dead.

And it wouldn't be a proper Comic Con without an appearance by the groovy Cumberbatch...

Benedict welcoming you to the PosterParty booth.

Or a visit from R2-D2...


But I was really hoping to find someone dressed as Gandalf. I mean the wondrous Weta people came all the way to Denver and set up a magical Middle-earth display. So you'd think there would have been costumed Orcs and Hobbitses everywhere.

Gandalf atop the Weta display searching for people dressed like him.

Gollum, who set off a wave of selfies -- it seems everyone wants their picture taken with Gollum.

But I didn't see a single Tolkien costume. Then, just as I was about leave, two magical elves appeared and graciously allowed me to photograph them. (As you probably know elves don't usually like having their picture taken.) And so this year's Denver Comic Con was saved.

Legolas and Thranduil

Yes, there are far too many Batmen (okay, Adam West was in the house) and not enough Hobbits. But Comic Con is still a fun way to spend some time watching people get lost in their favorite fictional characters for a weekend.

And you might as well take some pictures...

Photos by Joe Beine. Feel free to share them on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest or elsewhere with proper attribution and a link back here. Camera: Nikon D7100. Lens: Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX.