Book Review: 1000 Incredible Costume and Cosplay Ideas

2013. 1000 Incredible Costume and Cosplay Ideas. Quarry Books. ISBN: 9781592536986

 

1000 Incredible Costume and Cosplay Ideas, I thought it would have cosplay crafting ideas. Or photo tips. Something how to. But it isn't. It's a book of cosplayers from photo shoots (so there's some amazing shots but many of them are so tiny it makes their amazingness almost moot.

The photos despite being vaguely divided into chapters by Anime/Manga, Videogames, Comic Books, Custom Characters, Props, etc, don't really have a set reason for being grouped together. On most pages it seems like it's because they are all share a similar color palete and on others it is because everyone is posing a similar way or with a similar prop. If everything but grouping was kept the same and the costumes were grouped first by character (so all Yuko cosplayers in the same spread or two spreads) then by general style (like all armor or all poofy princess dresses) so then at least you could get ideas from comparing similar costumes or characters I'd be a bit more down.

As it is I can't really tell what this book is trying to do. Most of the photos are too small to make this a coffee table book for showcasing the costumes/photos, there's no tips for creation or even anything really useful for costume creation. The best I can make out of this book is some ideas on how to pose for pictures maybe. But the title of the book doesn't really give the impression that this is what the book is really for. :/

I dig the photo credits though and there's lots of cool shots but I'm really glad I got this through interlibrary loan since it doesn't even really make a good coffee table book.

4/10 (It's an awkwardly laid out photo book which doesn't seem to have a cohesive idea as to what it wants to do. Which is a shame because I'd love to see either larger pictures of the costumes in it since they're all very nice or I'd love a focus on construction/details if the pics are going to be small and numerous. Preferably more of the second option given the title.)