Costumes and collectors mean Comic Con is full of character

Batman is chatting to Wonder Woman as Death walks past, delighted with herself. She is particularly pleased by the Aliens spilling out of stomachs nearby and the terrifying zombies posing for selfies with a long line of Jokers.

Welcome to Comic Con, the most bonkers and possibly the most brilliant event likely to take place in Dublin’s Convention Centre this - or indeed any - year.

Gráinne Douglas is attracting a lot of attention at Comic Con. Certainly a lot more attention than a senior pension administrator with New Ireland Assurance might normally expect to get at such an event.

And the reason? Today Gráinne is not into pensions. Today Gráinne is into eating human flesh. Gráinne dressed as a zombie for Comic Con and as she talks blood runs down her wrinkled face into a mouth full of rotting teeth.

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“Yesterday I made four children cry,” she says happily. “Today I am aiming for six or seven.”

She is wearing prosthetics made by her friend Lynsey Martin, who is applying the finishing touches to someone almost as terrifying nearby.

"I love all this stuff. I am a big HP Lovecraft and Stephen King fan," Gráinne says.

Ciara Kavanagh is here as Poison Ivy, and not, in case you ever meet her, The Little Mermaid - you'd want to be awful stupid to think that . . .

She designed and made the outfit herself, spending more than 50 hours carefully stitching leaves onto her bodysuit.

“Yes, I AM crazy,” she says. “But I love getting dressed up and I love making costumes. I love the process of creating them.”

So does Chelsea Barry. She is a character from League of Legends - and has spent nine months making her costume, using paper mache and thermoplastic.

“I love making the costumes and I love coming to conventions to show them off. It is the one time of the year I get to meet most of my friends,” she says.

Sticky situation

Deadpool walks past. While he looks like Spider-man, he does not welcome the comparison. Deadpool, who's from Livepool and whose real name is Jay Napper, is talking about his full bodysuit when Death interrupts him.

"I'm Death, Deadpool's better half," says Emman Makin. She too is from Liverpool but lives in Limerick. Napper got her into comics.

“I was 15 when we met and it is him who got me into the more geeky stuff. For a lot of people who don’t have the attention span to read books, comics are great. You don’t have to have a whole lot of attention for them to grab you.”

Speaking of comic books, a pop-up selling the things is attracting the largest crowds.

"The Flash has been very popular and the stuff from the Irish guys is selling well," says John Hendrick, the owner of Big Bang Comics in Dundrum, who is manning the stall.

“It is not all about superheroes, there are comic books for pretty much everything. And it has a very broad appeal. We get children and adults coming into the shop and the gender split is pretty much 50/50,” he says.

“I think events like this are really important because they can bring people to comic books who may only have seen the films.”

He got into comics as a child when his mother used to buy him 2000AD.

When The Irish Times tells him that we bought the first edition of 2000AD back in 1978 he is unimpressed.

"I have at least 10 people telling me that every week," he says. "And of course the second edition is worth more. That is the one where Judge Dredd makes his first appearance."

The Irish Times had that too. No idea where it is now mind you. “I have a copy,” Hendrick says.

As we are leaving we ask him what he makes of Comic Book Guy, the Simpson’s character who has been scattering withering put-downs throughout Springfield for 30 years, despite being a 45-year-old virgin who still lives with his parents.

The real-life Comic Book Guy doesn’t miss a beat. “That’s like me asking you what you make of shill journalists?”

Worst. Response. Ever.

Widow dressing

"I'm a Black Widow," explains Roisin McGivney, from Omagh, Co Tyrone, as she looks around for somewhere she can enter the costume competition.

She has travelled down to Dublin with her good friend Daenerys Targaryen.

Daenerys expresses amazement when The Irish Times says we have no idea who she is.

"Do you not watch Game of Thrones? You have to watch Game of Thrones," Daenerys, who otherwise goes by the name Louise Sweeney, says.

“This is our first time here and we just thought it would be a bit of craic. Sure what else would you be doing on a Sunday afternoon?”

Claire Anne Maher is selling fan art T-shirts, badges and posters she has drawn and designed herself based on comic characters she likes.

The mix is nothing if not eclectic. Along with objects inspired by some dark characters with a propensity to violence, there are others celebrating Twilight Sparkle and other characters from My Little Pony.

“We have a whole lot of older people who do like to buy the My Little Pony stuff, from 16 to 18, even some 20-year-olds are buying the T-shirts and wearing them.”

Right.

Of all her creations, does she have a favourite?

“Oh not, I am like a parent, I love all my children equally.”